THE LOCKPICKER

A schoolgirl’s sudden death shakes up a teenager prone to morbid dreams. For his first feature, the Calgary-based director delves into the troubled world of a teenager deeply affected by a schoolgirl’s suicide. Never resorting to overdramatization, The Lockpicker admirably captures the nuances of a paradoxical, ambivalent character. Made up of disconcerting and visually extravagant nightmare sequences, this independent production about young people trying to pull themselves out of their torpor calls to mind the films of the influential Gregg Araki (The Doom Generation, Kaboom).