Morningside kicks off with a brilliant Steadicam shot introducing an ensemble of characters. The camerawork and direction has flare without gloating, and the actors – nearly all fresh faces – have genuine chemistry with each other. This sets a high watermark for Ron Dias’ Scarborough-set drama about a community centre facing an inevitable closure; while its residents prepare for holiday festivities and vent about the city’s gentrification. Unfortunately, Dias’ Morningside peaks early and this terrific opener, actually, sums up what’s wrong with the rest of the film.

Morningside doesn’t feel like it has time to breathe. These locals, young and old, always feel the need to fill the silence in their lives; most likely to distract themselves from the dire conditions around them. But while Dias may have been hoping to tap into sincere and natural overlapping reactions with this approach (possibly allowing his cast to ad-lib here and there), the viewer feels hounded by simple exchanges. Scenes that are supposed to develop relationships between family and friends feel streamlined to convey the most basic motivations or characterizations. These depictions may also be broadly demonstrated to find a relatable wavelength between the audience and the characters, or to identify with inspired scenarios from the GTA. If so, this tactic may work initially to hook the viewer, but the material sits stagnantly as a series of two-dimensional portraits.

When compared to other movies about similar small communities facing big changes such as Minhal Baig’s bittersweet We Grown Now or the Torontonian doc Unarmed Verses by the late Charles Officer, Ron Dias’ melodramatic Morningside seems as though it merely skims the surface of its scope.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie