“Petrie’s film works itself into a charmingly anxious mood … Genuinely [Charlie] Kaufmanesque … [A] steady stream of wit and tension.”

Rory O’Conner, The Film Stage

A rescue dog tests the sturdiness of a modern millennial couple in Toronto-based filmmaker Ben Petrie’s long-awaited debut feature, a slippery, self-reflexive relationship comedy starring the director opposite his real-life partner Grace Glowicki (Until Branches Bend, Tito). Petrie plays Eric, a neurotic filmmaker beset by creative paralysis, who agrees to adopt a whippet with his girlfriend Allie (Glowicki) on the eve of COVID lockdown. Obsessing over methods of asserting pack-leader control, he implements a steely training regime for the love-starved canine. Allie, queasy but compliant with the plan, starts questioning her compatibility with Eric when he resolves to turn the whole ordeal into a movie—not unlike the one we’ve been watching. Buoyed by Casey MQ’s carbonated romcom-esque score and the playful peculiarities of the film’s oddball couple and autofictional conceit, The Heirloom confirms Petrie as an idiosyncratic addition to the new school of Torontonian auteurs.

The January 17 screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ben Petrie.

“Part rom-com, part rescue-dog story, part autofiction, part self-indictment, part family scrapbook … [The Heirloom] displays a disquieting amount of (often hilarious) emotional authenticity.” Michelle Carey, Rotterdam IFF 2024

preceded by (January 17 only)

Her Friend Adam
Canada 2016
Ben Petrie
16 min. DCP

Petrie was named one of Filmmaker Magazine​’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film on the back of this award-winning, Sundance-premiered short, which chronicles the tail-spinning jealousy of an insecure boyfriend (Petrie) who accuses his girlfriend (Glowicki) of infidelity.

Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance (Grace Glowicki)
Sundance Film Festival 2016

“Intelligent, layered, funny, and hard to watch … If you get a chance to see it, don’t hesitate.”

Gus Spelman, A.V. Club
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