Starbuck

A middle-aged screw-up learns he’s fathered more than 500 children — via sperm donation — in writer-director Ken Scott’s hilarious, heart-felt Starbuck, a major audience favourite at last fall’s Toronto and Vancouver fests (it won the Most Popular Canadian Film Award at the latter). Irresponsible David (Québécois star Patrick Huard, from Bon Cop, Bad Cop) is a disappointment to his family and in danger of being ditched by girlfriend Valérie (Julie le Breton), who’s pregnant and doesn’t want him to have anything to do with the baby. When David discovers, to his shock, that he’s already a father, hundreds of times over — and that 140 or so his offspring wish to meet him! — it offers him an opportunity to maybe turn his life around. “Funny and endearing ... With a plot as outlandish as this, Starbuck could easily be remade as a broader Hollywood comedy, but duplicating its rich and unique appeal won’t come easy” (Toronto I.F.F.). Colour, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 109 mins.