Collaborator—underrated movie alert

Martin Donovan's sly debut as a writer-director, Collaborator, is released on Blu-ray and DVD today (March 5). 

It's well worth your time. Like many films last year that didn't fetishize rubber suited bat-fascists or feature a Stan Lee cameo, Donovan's fetchingly strange little drama flew way under the radar.

All the same, we liked it. In his review of the film—about a playwright in a career slump (Donovan) who's taken hostage by the neighbourhood fuck-up (David Morse)—the Straight's John Leckich wrote:

"Once again, Morse proves why he’s one of the most underrated actors around. Some may find Donovan’s performance a little too low-key, under the circumstances. But, like the film as a whole, Donovan’s portrayal consistently opts for the kind of subtlety that credits us with paying attention."

As a whole the film reminds us of the smart indie cinema that Donovan helped create under Hal Hartley in the '90s.

We interviewed the Vancouver resident about Collaborator when it was released theatrically last year.