Growing up can be difficult to varying degrees, though not many of us turn to a life of crime in the process. That’s the knife-edge upon which writer-director Rémi St-Michel balances his film Toy Gun Bandit. How its protagonist is drawn into a criminal enterprise, thanks to his perceived outsider status, is clear. Why remains somewhat out of reach.
Felix (Felix Munger) is a loser teen. His home life is fine, but he’s too manic to fit in with the “cool” kids. In St-Michel’s construction of Toy Gun Bandit, this boundless, inchoate desire puts him on the same path as other losers, Dave (David Beaudoin) and Sara (Sara Montpetit), in Quebec City. This random “team”, as Felix calls them, somehow manages to rob a few banks before (stupidly) drawing the eye of real criminals. While the film’s plot turns are a bit of a stretch, its effectiveness lies in moments of verisimilitude; the choices these characters make feel accurate. As their situation escalates, Munger and the other actors keep things grounded enough to feel true to their time and place. In cinematic terms, meanwhile, there’s an aspirational Safdie Brothers-esque energy to St-Michel’s choices, with his raucous hand-held camera and neo-realist touches weighing against the film’s more obvious narrative moves. By the time the crew is involved in an armoured truck heist, it’s clear everyone (St-Michel included) and everything has gone too far, which is ultimately part of the point.
There’s another knife-edge in Toy Gun Bandit: do we care about Felix? He’s on a destructive journey, but he’s not quite self-destructive. He’s merely too naive to realize how out of control his situation is, and unable to consider consequences until it’s (almost) too late. We’re not exactly rooting for him, but we do want to see how—or if—he’ll save himself. St-Michel cops out in the end. But then again: growing up isn’t a crime.
