(Choir singing in Russian)
(Applause)
- What did these slave-driving, bourgeois scum bags
say to our request, eh, comrades?
Our right to unionize?
They laughed in our faces.
They laughed in the faces of the common man,
just as they have for centuries.
Now, we need these jobs to be fair and well paid!
We need these jobs to stay in our country!
We need a union and we need it now!
(Cheering and loud applause)
(Cheering stops )
(One person clapping)
- Five, six, sev-
Five, six, seven, eight.
One, two, three, four, five!
We deserve to unionize! Whoo!
- (Man): No idea... (Cheerleaders cheering)
(Police car siren)
- (Man): Why you stopping? Come on!
- That's it?
- We had 6 hours' notice, Leon.
- I know, I know. - Sarah! Leon! Lunch!
- We're not breaking the strike line, Ma!
- Who's breaking anything? Maybe you don't wanna nosh?
- It's a hunger strike, Ma! Jesus!
- I heard that. Don't swear.
- Leon.
- Yeah, it's good! - Achmed!
Dude!
- Sorry, Leon. I'm starving.
- You're killing me here.
What are you- What are you eating?
You're supposed to be my right-hand man.
- I know, bro. I- I'm sorry.
- Last chance for tuna salad!
Lots of mayo like someone likes!
- Please, stop it, Ma!
- Well, he's eating! - I know, but he's not supposed to.
- Leon! What-
- Oh, shit!
- Sorry, sir, you can't go through.
- No, that's my son. He wants to close my factory.
- Leon! Leon! What you doing?
- Negotiations with management have closed.
- Closed!
When were they ever opened?
- Hi, Daddy!
- What are you- What is- You're cheerleading?
For what?
For-for your brother becoming psychotic?
Anna! - I came straight from tennis, honey.
- What is that? What do you have there?
What is that, food?
You brought food?
- They're still growing.
They have to eat. - Very embarrassing.
- My own wife...
- Calme-toi, mon chéri.
- ... is bringing a picnic for Stalin here
who wants to destroy my business!
- I have nothing but contempt for Stalin, as you well know.
- Uh...
You have kids?
Oui? Eh bien, OK.
- Union!
Union! Union!
- Here's what we're gonna do.
- Hey! (Girls cheering)
- I know you want to start down here with the workers and all that stuff,
but in a week or so when you get bored out of your mind, don't be proud.
You come upstairs to the office and I'll show you
how the business really works, all right?
- We'll see.
- This is where your grandfather started.
Right here on the floor, just like you.
In 3 years, he bought the business.
Isn't that something? Why don't you come upstairs?
It's nicer upstairs. Come on!
- It's just- It's a bit too soon
to align myself with, uh, with management.
You do understand.
- Align yourself...
(Sighing) ... with management.
You know what? I'm not gonna even try to...
Whatever you say, Leon.
You start here, do whatever you want.
- Wait! David, where is our union-
- Don't call me David.
You know it makes me uncomfortable.
- Fine. Uh, Dad? - Thank you.
- Where's our union representative?
- You know that we have no union.
We've never had one. - I'm sorry. What?
- Why do you pretend that- - This is a travesty!
- Achmed! Listen, this is my son Leon.
He is anxious to plumb the depths of the packing department.
Why don't you show him what to do, where to start?
If you have any problems whatsoever,
you come upstairs and you talk to me.
Uh, Achmed, you have any problems with him whatsoever,
you come upstairs and you talk to me, all right?
(Sighing)
Uh, good job. You're wasting a little plastic,
but you'll get better at it.
- Fascist.
- What did you say?
- Uh, fascist.
He's a fascist.
(Whispering): What is he?
- Fascist. - Thank you.
- Achmed, I heard that.
- Remember? My God, remember when we had the unions?
- Uh, what is everybody still doing here?
Shipping deadline is at 4:00!
I don't think we're gonna make it. - We're still on lunch.
- Excuse me?
- Oh, we demand a full hour for a lunch break.
It's only been 56 minutes.
- Uh...
Uh, Leon...
I wonder if I could trouble you. I'm sorry to interrupt.
Do you mind just giving me
just a couple of minutes of your time up in the office
to discuss something? - You exploit your employees.
- How? By employing them?
- By running a business
without any standardized labour laws in place,
you, David, are acting as an agent of sabotage
against all working people across the globe.
- Sabotage? You wanna talk sabotage?
What do you call talking my guys into missing a shipping deadline!
- Progress.
- You know what? I am not responsible
for workers in the world everywhere.
I am responsible for keeping this company in profit!
- So this is how it happens.
- How what happens?
- How it ends between you and me, landowner.
- What? Land- Landowner?
I lease the land!
I don't know what you're talking about!
(Woman chuckling)
- I'm not staying. I'm just here to collect my books.
- Where you going?
- Why? So you can let the police know,
and have them arrest me again?
- Why don't we have a conversation?
- Expect a conversation with my lawyer.
- Your what? Your lawyer? Are we getting a divorce?
Who gets custody of the child?
Oh, wait! You're the child.
- So how wasjail?
- Brutal, in a word. But, uh, I'm out.
I can't go back right now.
Next year, though. Jail. Fingers crossed.
- So what are we thinking long term?
- Oh, I don't know.
Cuba or maybe... Caracas, Venezuela.
I think Hugo would take me in.
- Hugo would love you. - This is what I'm saying.
- Keep your voices down.
You're gonna wake your father. Aw!
- What are we thinking short term?
- I don't know. Crash at a youth hostel or something.
- A youth hostel? - Stay in a hotel.
- Mais voyons donc! - Stay in a hotel.
- Well, I can't afford it. Dad cut me off!
- Completely? - Yes.
- What a Nazi. - Don't call your father a Nazi.
- Well, he is a Nazi! - Don't say that word!
- Whatever, Ma. You're not even Jewish.
- Hey! Sarah!
You're Jewish enough for me.
- You're proud of yourself? Teaching your sister to talk that way?
- I didn't say anything! - You don't have to.
She doesn't talk that way when you're not around.
- Makes perfect sense. She's never said " Nazi. "
- I don't want to hear that word in my house!
- Freedom of speech is an inalienable right
that you, sir, have neither the authority
nor the wherewithal to do away with!
- Stop yelling!
- Is it gonna be every summer he comes home,
he turns my daughter against me?
- Oh, David! - Dad.
- I don't have to turn anybody against you!
- I see.
- They're free to see the face of oppression!
- The oppression that pays for school?
- I hate that boarding school. - Suddenly, you hate the school.
- Suddenly? I always hated that school.
- Words have consequences.
I hope you're prepared for that.
- Leon? - I'm leaving. I'm leaving.
- Can you just wait a minute, please?
(Sighing) He's so upset when you fight!
- Oh, don't defend him!
- Fine. OK. I want you to take this.
- I-I told you!
- It's not Daddy's! It's mine.
You're my only stepson that I love.
And it's gonna kill me if I think that you're sleeping in a shelter
with homeless people peeing on you.
- Homeless people peeing on me?
- Yeah. - Jesus. Yeah, OK, Ma.
- OK. Oh, t'es fin!T'es fin!
I want you to do me another favour.
- Mm-hmm?
- I want you to come on Friday for Shabbat.
- Oh! I...
I- I-I don't want to eat with that man.
- For me. Do it for me. Please?
(Sighing) - I'll make all your favourites.
- Shepherd's pie?
(Giggles)
- Oui. Merci, mon chou.
- I love you very much, mom.
Be careful. - Bien sûr.
- OK?
(Snare drum)
(Baby cooing)
(Violin)
(Bus passing)
(Bottles clinking)
- Hmm.
- Thank you very much for not pissing on me.
(People talking, indistinct)
- Excuse me, sir. Are you Frank McGovern?
- Yeah. - Oh, I'm so glad you're here.
- I'm not here. I'm leaving.
I'll be back this afternoon.
- Oh, no, no, no. Uh, we need to talk now.
Um, unfortunately, neither of us has any choice in the matter.
It's fate.
I mean it's...
not just that the conditions were deplorable,
which they were, believe you me.
Certain people weren't being given a full hour for lunch,
let alone any semblance of a break.
I mean, are we in the industrial revolution?
Have these people never heard of the Reform Bill of 1832?
This is all to say
that each of these ills seem to require the same cure: union.
- And so you staged a hunger strike?
- Yes, I did. A perfectly legal hunger strike.
After which I was detained illegally
at the urging of my father.
- And now you wanna- - Sue him.
- For? - I don't know.
What are my options?
I'm thinking, uh, wrongful imprisonment, false arrest?
I- I-I'm not sure.
You see, this is why I need council.
- No, I don't know how I can help you, kid.
I haven't practiced law in 20 years.
- Yeah, that's right,
not since the concentrator and pellet facility
closed down in Sept-Îles in 1982.
- Right.
But I still don't think you need a lawyer.
- Oh yes, I do. And I need it to be you.
- It's Leon, right? - Yes, sir.
- Well, Leon, you're half right. You need counselling.
But you haven't got a case against your father.
Sorry.
- This isn't over. - Yeah, it is.
- What would your colleagues of the Communist Party of Canada,
which you led from 1971 to 1982,
think of you turning me down?
- You're following me?
- Maybe. - Go home.
- In your Ph. D. dissertation,
you stated that the dialectic is only growing...
that the illusion of the middle class will die
and that a new leadership will rise
from the ashes of that dream.
- My writing isn't that flowery.
- I am that leadership!
What about your fellow Vietnam War draft dodgers?
What about taking haven in this country
and in turn becoming the chief architect and guinea pig
for our extradition laws! Don't you feel an obligation
to see our labour laws progress further?
- I'm this far away from calling the cops, Leon.
- I'm not freaked-out about finishing my Ph. D.
Maybe I don't want to go back to being a Federal prosecutor.
- Oh, for Christ's sake!
- Please take my case! - You have no case to take, Leon.
(Groaning) - How-
What the hell happened to you?
- Get up off the street!
- Ah! I see...
Have you, uh, turned into one of those people?
- Sorry, Alexandra. - You Menshevik!
- This is Leon.
- Wait, wait! Stop, stop, stop, stop.
Both of you.
You. Uh, what is your name?
- Alexandra.
- Is she making that up?
- Why would anyone do that?
- Uh, yeah, yeah. How old are you?
- How old are you?
- Uh, 17 and three quarters. Give or take.
How old are you? - I'm a whole 27.
- Oh my god! Oh my god!
Oh, my god! It's happening.
It's happening. So it's happening.
- What's happening, Leon?
- Uh, I think I'm gonna throw up.
- What are you talking about?
- OK, you see, ever since I first heard about him,
when I was a little boy,
and then as I got older,
I swear to you more and more things started making sense.
And now, this... This whole...
- Uh... - This is...
What I'm about to say to you, I've never said aloud,
aside from when I'm pretending
that Gourevitch is interviewing me for The Paris Review.
Uh... So, uh...
I'm the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.
Uh, and you and I are gonna get married.
(Chuckling)
Nice to meet you.
- Leon! Leon!
I think it might be better if you just let her go.
- Really?
Huh. Fair enough.
I mean it's, uh, it's inevitable anyways, so...
- Right. - Yeah.
(Man speaking Russian on stereo)
- (Anna): Leon? Supper.
- One minute.
- Oh, come on. You can finish your little revolution after you eat.
- Please stop reading my journal!
- Well, I figured out why you're gonna marry him.
- Did he tell you? - (Laughing): No!
I looked it up. Listen to this here.
"Long before Leon Trotsky and Lenin stormed into Russia
"and created the first communist state in 1917... "
- Hey, Tiger.
I'm not in your first year World History survey class.
I know who Trotsky was.
- Fine, then I guess you know
that Trotsky's first wife was named Alexandra, right?
- Big deal.
- And that she was 9 years older than he,
and that they were introduced by a man named Franz...
something Czech...
who hosted politically-themed garden parties in Kiev, where Trotsky-
then of course still Leon Bronstein-
went to school. - Come on...
- I'm reading it out of the biography. You can borrow it.
- No, thanks. - You should.
- It's kind of creepy. - Yeah.
- Creepy, funny, harmless.
- For now, until he starts stalking me.
And I get the vibe that's right up his alley.
(Frank laughing)
What's so funny?
- It's just that apparently Alexandra hated Leon
when she first met him. (Both chuckling)
- Hmm. It's so nice to have you back, Leon.
It's always so nice when the whole family is here for Shabbat.
- Yeah, you're always such a pleasure, Leon.
- I hate you, Eli. - Go home, Eli. Just go.
- See, this is my dad's home too,
which means it's my home.
So I can't really go home, but nice try.
- Eli. - What?
- You're unbelievable.
- She started it. I'm just- OK.
- (Anna): Sarah, can you stop? For God's sake.
(Baby cooing) - (Becca): Yeah.
(Baby cooing)
- Shh!
- How's the brisket? - It's dry.
(Both laughing)
- It's pretty good for a shiksa, Mom.
- Eli! - What?
- Dad, make him stop please! - Sarah!
- I have a question for you.
Leon, you recognize this, don't you?
My Life, by Leon Trotsky. - How-how did you-
Uh, have I been betrayed so soon? - Leon!
- You are such a dipshit. - Can you not act your age?
- I am. - (Anna): For God's sake!
- Now, circa 1860 or so...
I just can't find
where your Leon went to a boarding school in here.
- It wasn't at a boarding school.
It was a public school with a liberal arts emphasis.
- Oh, of course. I'm sorry. - (Whispering): I'm sorry.
- Of course it was a public school.
Let me get it straight. It's a little confusing.
So this Leon's father, he didn't have to pay for his son's-
What would you call it? Ingratitude? Insensitivity?
- Delusion? - How dare you?
- I am just asking a question.
- OK, wait. Ask my lawyer!
- Just calm down, Leon.
- Your what? - I'm calm!
- Will you stop? - No, he's passionate!
You believe in something. You have a hero...
- Please stop, David! It's upsetting him!
- He's a great man. Look how thick the book is.
But listen, you want to be just like him?
I'm gonna make it really easy for you.
This coming fall, you, Leon,
just like this Leon, will be going to public school.
(Snorts )
(Baby cooing)
(Knocking)
- I didn't say anything to him, I swear to-
Are you OK?
- Oh, yeah, yeah! No, I'm, uh...
It's a good idea. It's-it's gonna be good for me.
I... I love public stuff.
This is public school.
With all the public people.
- Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Just like you asked.
- Oh, great!
Thank you.
(Sighing)
- Why do you want these?
- Oh, uh, my destiny. Card 4.
- Oh.
- OK.
( Malajube singing Ton Plat Favori)
Um, hello there.
Uh, this is my first day here.
I believe I'm meant to ask you where my homeroom is.
- Name?
- Leon Bronstein.
- Leon Bronstein?
Principal Berkhoff, this is Leon Bronstein.
- Leon Bronstein. We've been waiting for you.
- Ah! Well, in that case,
I'll tell you that I don't have
a tremendous amount of experience with public schools,
but I've decided that I'm going to like it.
- Good!
I think you'll find this is not like most public schools.
I like to run a pretty tight ship.
- I respond passionately to structure, so...
- Then we should get along just fine.
- Ah!
- Your homeroom and schedule are in there.
And that's the activities board if you care about that stuff.
(Knocking)
- Oh, shit.
(Girl giggling)
(Coughing)
- Oh god. Oh my god! I'm sorry.
We thought you were a teacher.
- Yeah, man. Uh, close the door.
(Coughs clears throat)
- Ah!
Um, are you people the, uh, union representatives
that I sign in with?
- The union representatives?
Uh, sure.
- Uh, do you want to help with the dance?
- I want to join the union.
- Are you new?
- I get it.
You think this is like-
you think this is like a union, like-like the Teamsters.
- Oh! No. No. No, no, no.
That-that's not us.
- No, no. This is just like student's council.
Like, uh... Ha!
I don't know. A council?
(Both laughing)
It's not a union. That's just the name.
- All right, well, uh, what sort of legislative powers
do you guys have as a council?
- Uh, none.
- Uh, the power to organize a dance.
You want to help?
(Sniffing)
- (British accent): Skip.
How did you manage to get mud on your shoes?
It hasn't rained for days.
- Oh, um, I don't know. Sorry, Ms. Davis.
- Apologize to me in detention this afternoon.
- Actually, I have to go to the orthodontist this afternoon.
- Perhaps, you should have thought of that
before you walked into my school with muddy shoes.
Welcome back, Skip.
(Bell ringing)
- God! She's such a bitch!
I can't believe she's already started on me.
- Is it actual school policy
that you can't have muddy shoes in the hallways?
- Um.
- Yeah, I'll go to detention with you.
Solidarity. - All right, everyone!
- OK. - (Man): Class started 2 minutes ago.
- Oh, Jimmy!
- (Whispering): Fuck!
- Welcome back. How was your summer?
Tuck in your shirt. See you in detention.
Sheila!
Sheila, take that thing out of your nose.
You are not a bull.
- Sorry, Ms. Davis.
- Apologize in detention.
And don't act like a hussy!
(Scoffs) - What a cunt!
- Fascist.
- Since this is the first day of detention,
I requested to be the supervisor
so that you would all know just how bad it can be.
All which to say, you don't want to be here,
I don't want you to be here,
so shape up and don't come back.
- Um, Ms. Davis?
Since it's the first day of school
and we don't really have any homework,
can we just read?
- No.
I brought math with me.
- Hi there!
Sorry I'm late. I had trouble finding your place.
Hi, you guys. How's it going? I know you.
- What is your name?
- Oh! Uh, I don't have detention.
Uh, I'm just here in protest.
I took the liberty of reading up
on the school-board regulations vis-à-vis, uh, detention.
And, uh, mud isn't in there.
Neither are, uh, nose rings for that matter.
And between you and me, it is the first day of school,
you probably could've let the shirt thing slide.
How are you? Are you well?
- Young man!
I don't know who you think you are-
- Leon Bronstein.
I am the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.
And if you give Skip or any other student
another unjustifiable detention again,
you and I are going to have a very serious problem, Mrs...
I'm sorry. What was your name?
- So, we're celebrating tonight, and by celebrating,
I mean you actually have to leave your house.
- Oh, no, we're not. We are doing nothing tonight.
- No! I told Lucy I'd get you drunk. Don't make me a liar.
- Stop emailing my mother.
- I like your mother. - You can have her.
(Laughing) Oh shit!
- Oh my God! Is that your future husband?
- Um... - Hi, honey!
- Don't leave me. This could get ugly.
Not funny. Not funny.
What are you doing here? - Um...
Congratulations on defending your thesis!
- I don't want to see you.
- Why not?
- Uh, you frighten me. I think you're crazy.
(Chuckling) - But I love you.
- Wow! OK, uh, I think I'm gonna leave now.
- Uh, please don't.
- Call me later. - I won't.
- And, um, it was very nice to meet you.
- Thank you. I think so.
- OK.
- Oh! Say hi to Julian for me.
- Hi.
Uh, could...
(Sighing)
Could we please go, um, and have coffee together?
Um...
Please don't say anything mean to me anymore.
- Stop asking me to marry you, OK?
Seriously, it freaks me out.
- Really?
- Mm-hmm.
- Fine. Fine.
Fine.
(Siren)
- Was that a no?
No. Hey!
That was a joke! That was sort of a joke!
- Thank you. - Thank you.
So you really think
that you're the same person as Leon Trotsky?
- Yes.
- And you think that you're gonna live out his life
exactly as it happened to him, ice pick and all?
- Correct.
- Well, my limited knowledge of Trotsky involves,
um, a lot of travelling
and a lot of assassination attempts.
- Have you been reading up on him?
- What I mean is that it's a lot to live up to.
- Uh...
I actually like to look at it as a lot to look forward to.
(Chuckling)
- Well, for a Marxist, you'd make a great Hindu.
- What? Oh...
Well, Terry Eagleton encourages us
to let Marxism breathe in our new century
by allowing for things which Karl Marx, frankly,
had no opinion on,
by letting the guidelines
of the Great Dialectic, or the Grand Narrative,
guide us towards moral and not moralist thinking.
- Was that "gobbledeegook?"
- Hells no.
- I didn't think so.
- So his name is Julian?
- No, he's making it up.
- And, uh...
How heartbroken will Julian be
when you break up with him for me?
(Sighing)
- So, I'm that-a-way
and the bus stop is that-a-way.
- Yeah. I know.
- Good night.
- Night.
- This is the end of our date.
- Oh, I know.
I'm just staring at how beautiful you are.
(Giggles nervously )
I thank you for a very lovely evening.
- Uh...
- Sit down.
So, are you enjoying public school
as much as you hoped that you would?
- Uh, see, it's all very exciting.
Um, too bad about all the fascists, though.
- Excuse me?
- Oh, the fascists, like Ms. Davis over here.
Uh, if it wasn't for them, I'd be having a fantastic time.
And the kids are great, like that gentleman Skip.
Skip seems really nice.
- He says that he doesn't actually know you.
- That is correct. - But you know him?
- No. - So you were just
demonstrating solidarity with him?
- Yes, that's right.
(Sighing)
- Do you understand why you've been given detentions
for the rest of the week?
- Yes, I believe for insolence.
- You're damn right. - Ms. Davis.
Leon...
I don't think I've properly educated you
on the twin subjects of who I am and what I'm about.
- I think I've got a pretty clear idea.
- I don't think that you do.
This has been a troubled arts school
for many years now.
Pot, sex,
graffiti, piercings.
You see what I'm getting at?
I am here to discipline the students,
usher in a new era
of responsibility and obligation to this place.
Now, you can certainly make that harder for me.
Heck, you already have.
But you won't stop me.
So the choice is yours.
You can spend your final year of high school
in a war you can't win against a man who's lived far longer
and knows far more than you.
- Hmm.
- Or you can just float by and wreak havoc next year
on someone's poor, unsuspecting university.
What's it going to be?
- I think the choice is obvious.
- Why was this war so important
that people were coming from all over the world to Spain
to volunteer for it?
(Snoring) Does anyone care?
Anyone other than Leon?
Orwell, Hemingway,
famous writers, lots to lose,
coming all the way to Spain! They had nothing to do with it.
The POUM, the very first all-volunteer army.
You, in your little lives here,
would you volunteer yourselves to go to a foreign country,
somewhere that you've never been before,
somewhere where you know no one?
Can you imagine doing something so selfless?
Dan!
Can you please turn your smirking face towards the front?
Thanks. Where was I?
(Sighing) - I'm so bored.
- Well, you're a fruit. And why are we in the hallway?
Why don't we go somewhere where we could smoke?
- I'd second that motion,
but I'm afraid it might sound too fruity, twat.
- Ladies! It's a dance theme.
How hard can this be?
- Pfft!
- OK, so the next suggestion,
whatever it is, that's what we're doing, OK?
(Sighing) - Hi! Hi! Sorry.
Sorry we're late. Double time.
- Who's this?
- (Caroline): Uh, guys, this is Leon
and his friend... - Skip. His name is Skip.
- Skip!
(Giggles)
Uh, guys, this is Dwight, president of the Student Union.
- And-and-and- and who are you?
- Dwight! - What's the big deal?
What grade are you in, Skippy?
- 9.
- 9! Great! - Wow!
- All the grades should be represented in the union.
Right, Tony? - Right.
Do you guys have any ideas for the theme of a dance?
It's in 2 weeks and it's kind of crunch time.
- Social justice?
- All right! This meeting's adjourned!
- What? Uh, no, no. No, that's not our theme!
That's not our theme.
- Oh, yeah Caroline said the next one mentioned
was gonna be the theme, so that's it, right?
- Hum... I guess, so.
- OK, an elected committee member has to suggest it.
Not...
some outsider.
- Are you my Stalin, Dwight?
(Snickering)
- Ha! OK!
Um, so I suggest social justice.
Let's fucking go.
(Chuckling)
(Clears throat)
(Makes a raspberry)
- Yeah, well you-
(Caroline giggling)
- "Are you my Stalin, Dwight?"
In fact, I want that on a T-shirt.
- Heh!
- No, wait. That should be my first album name:
" My Stalin. "
Is it a better band name or album name?
- I don't know. - Can I ask you guys something?
Would you say "boredom" or "apathy"?
- Well, what's the difference?
- Boredom.
- Apathy's the condition of not caring.
Boredom... boredom is just a slumber one can be roused from.
- (Tony): Oh, then definitely boredom. - (Caroline): See, I told you.
(Scoffs) - Gang...
Do you guys want to form a real union?
- (Caroline): Why? - We have no voice.
We have no, uh, defence
in this large, impersonal establishment
that maintains it's here for our edification,
and yet seems hell-bent
on thwarting our individual and collective growth at every turn.
(Cheering)
Teachers and administration are here for us.
And yet we are the most undervalued members
of the education community.
We have lots of power, we just haven't used it yet.
- Are we gonna get in trouble for this?
- Probably. Heh!
- Principal Berkhoff claims there's a new sheriff
at Montreal West High School. Bully for him!
(Men singing in Russian)
- What is this fucking idiot talking about?
Why don't you try listening to him?
- Let's show him what the townspeople are made of.
Let's show him that we are not the generation of apathy.
- I love everything you're saying.
Oh, sing it, sister! Yeah!
- If we don't think we deserve a detention,
shouldn't we be allowed to bring that query
to a review board of sorts?
We are entitled to fight unfair rules.
(Sighing)
- High school.: a time for learning or a time for revolution.
- Oh, mon Dieu! Frank?
- For one young man, the answer is both.
- Frank, come here. You gotta see this.
- What? - My fellow students,
aren't you tired of being taught ecology by gym teachers?
- Oh, for Christ's sake!
- While school officials have yet to comment,
it seems like this semester is shaping up...
- Should I Febreeze your robes?
(Laughing)
- You know what else isn't funny anymore?
- Besides your ring tone?
(Hockey Night in Canada theme ring tone )
- Yeah, you. Hello?
- Turn on the news.
- Why? - You'll see.
- The commissioner's on vacation this week...
- Oh my god! (Beeping)
- Hold on a second. I got the other line. Hold on.
Hello? - Uh, hey. It's Leon.
- Hang on. - Yeah, OK.
- Did you give Leon my number?
- Uh... - Oh, my god! Hold on.
What is wrong with you?
- Why? Was I not supposed to call?
- No, I'm talking about the- the school thing!
Are you watching the news, Leon?
- Oh, that. That's just local coverage.
Listen, uh, what are you doing tomorrow night?
- I'm busy.
Are you really trying to unionize your high school?
- Uh, yes. Uh, what are you busy with?
- It's my Ph. D. party. Did you tip off the press?
- Uh, no. My sister did that.
What-what time does your Ph. D. party finish?
(Speaking, indistinct)
- Late. What is wrong with you?
- I'm Trotsky. Uh, how late is late?
- Um, we're not seeing each other tomorrow night, so...
- But tomorrow is our anniversary.
- Mmm, we don't have an anniversary.
- Yes, we do. It's a week tomorrow that we first met.
- OK, I'm gonna talk to you later.
And I don't want to be your one phone call from jail.
- So, I'll just pop by your place tomorrow night, then?
- You will the fuck not, seriously.
(Dial tone )
(Sighing)
(Coughing)
(Sniffing)
- Smells good in here.
- How's your boyfriend?
I forgot. I'm your boyfriend.
- Yeah, sometimes I forget too.
(Sighing)
- Congratulations, Doctor.
- Whoa! - Thank you!
- Bravo. - Merci! Oh...
- You didn't call me-
- I'm not talking to you. - Whoa, whoa, whoa!
You didn't call me back. You left me hangin' there.
What did that Leon have to say?
- You guys are terrible! Leave her alone.
(Frank laughing)
- It is not my fault that he has a crush on me, OK?
- Well, how's Julian doing with the old competition?
- Yeah, it's none of his business anymore.
- Whoa, whoa! Is there something I should know?
- Yeah, she kicked him out yesterday.
- Shit, is he here? - Let her have a drink or two.
- I can hear you.
(Laughing) - Thank you.
- Oh, merci! - Good night, girls.
- Merci, Marie. (Both laughing)
Good night. - I love her!
- I totally "effed" an 18 year old.
- Yeah, so did I, when I was 14.
- No, I mean like recently.
- Shut your "fugly" face.
(Laughing) - No, I did!
- Who?
- Remember that kid I was tutoring?
- You didn't!
Timmy?
- (Laughing): I did.
- How am I only hearing about this now, whore?
What was it like?
- Uh, well, let's put it this way.
They fuck you very quickly but a lot.
- Really?
(Inhales)
- He came so many times I lost count.
- That's disgusting.
(Giggling)
- You are so horny for that kid.
- No. - Yes, you are.
- I gotta kind of move this face back to...
(Growling) (Laughing)
(Slurring): You son of a bitch.
(Loud thudding, grunting)
Oops. (Groaning)
Oh shit!
(Thunder)
(Sniffling) - Thanks.
(Whispering): Ouch. Ouch, ouch.
- Sorry, I thought you were a burglar.
- No, you didn't.
- No, clearly I thought you were a cartoon character.
I'm sorry.
No one's ever broken into my house before.
- Congratulations on your Ph. D.
- (Laughing) You're so fucking nuts, Leon.
- Please! Nah, don't say that.
You don't actually think that, do you?
'Cause...
I don't usually care of what anybody thinks of me. Obviously.
Um, but...
I'm just very determined.
(Sighing)
(Birds chirping)
- (Whispering): Oh.
Oh please, God. No.
(Thudding and rattling)
Oh, fuck.
(Cup hits table)
(Leon sighing)
- Uh, hi there.
I- I took the liberty of making up some coffee.
I hope that's OK.
- It's fine.
- Here you go.
I love you. - I don't do sugar.
- OK.
- What time is it?
- It's 9:53. We have to leave pretty soon.
I was entertaining the idea of trying to wake you up myself.
- Where are we going?
- Uh, E Talk.
- What?
- I already told you. My E Talk Daily interview.
I'm due there in about 45 minutes.
So, uh...
Do you think you need a shower?
- I said I would go?
(Buzzing)
- Hi. - (Man): Bobby!
- Don't be nervous. - Oh, I'm not. I'm not.
I just didn't think it would actually be you
conducting the interview.
- I'm flattered. - That's not what I meant.
- Ben, we're ready in 5,
4, 3, 2...
- Today, we are talking to an extraordinary young man
named Leon Bronstein. Leon staged a massive strike
at his father's Montreal factory this summer
to try to unionize the workers there.
And now, he's doing the same thing
at his high school in Montreal West.
Welcome, Leon. - Uh, thank you, Ben.
Uh, it's an honour to be- An honour to be here.
- Let's start with a question
I think most people would want to ask you first.
Why do you think high school should be unionized?
- Uh, I think we deserve a voice.
I mean, teachers have a union
to ensure that their rights are protected.
I think we deserve the same.
Uh, just think. Had there been a student union
in, say, Newfoundland,
we never would've had the boys of St. Vincent.
- Uh, um, I'm sorry.
Are you saying that there's sexual abuse
at your high school? - Oh, no, no, no.
I'm merely being hyperbolic to prove a point.
I'd say the bulk of today's adolescents
tend to feel that they have no one to talk to.
Now imagine, if you will,
a review board of peers
to listen to set issues and assess them accordingly.
- OK.
So, so you want a union
to try to help students deal with feelings of alienation?
- Well, kind of, Ben. I think that a large part of the reason why
today's youth seems so disaffected-
are so disaffected-
is because they really have so little control...
- Are you his mother?
- ... over the major aspects of their day-to-day lives.
- I'm his lawyer.
- I-I think my last question for you is this:
Why you?
Why did Leon Bronstein take up this cause?
- Uh, well,
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Ben,
but Leon Bronstein is actually the birth name of Leon Trotsky.
- Can we cut? Cut! Couper!
Stop the tape.
Um, don't say that, Leon. Just don't.
- Wait, don't say what? Don't say what?
- Ah, come on, Alex. I have to be true to myself.
- On E Talk?
- Who are you? - She's my-
- Lawyer, Ben. I am his lawyer.
And I don't want him talking to you anymore.
Come on. - Now?
- Done.
- I'm sorry, Ben.
- I was trying to help you.
- I know.
- Listen, um, I don't think you should come back to my place.
- Why not?
- Because we can't.
I...
Last night was wrong.
I- I was drunk.
And I didn't know what I was doing.
- So, wh-what the hell are you afraid of?
Huh? Letting somebody love you?
- Oh, Jesus, you're schmaltzy.
No, Leon, I'm afraid of who will play me
in the TV movie about us.
- But it's fate. It's not up to us.
- OK, I don't live my life that way.
I can't.
And I can't do this either, so...
(Sighing)
I'm sorry if I led you on.
- Fine. Fine...
No. No. No. - I'll get out.
- I'm still in love with you, OK?
You don't get a say in that.
(Sighing)
- Kids, eh?
(The Stills singing Don't Talk Down)
Don't
Don't talk down
To me
Don't
Don't talk down
To me
Your head is moving side to side
Our temperatures rise
I hear the devil outside
You're heading north
Well I'm heading south
Well I hope the words are right
When they leave your mouth
Oh
Well I'm better off now
Oh
(Music stops )
(All talking)
- Have fun.
One second.
- Take it. Run.
Bring me back a drink.
- Uh, OK.
- It's me again. Hi.
- Come on, students, it's your future.
Face it! Join the movement.
OK, so, uh...
Who are you, guys?
- We're Animal Farm.
- He's Clover. Hello?
- OK, that is too much effort.
It's high school. And you're a pig.
- Correct. - OK.
Hey, uh... How's the count?
- It's good. It's uh, 300 signatures thus far.
- Wow! That's great.
- It's incredible.
- Leon? - Aw, great!
- A girl dressed as Ayn Rand just told me that you threw her out.
- Yeah.
And?
- Why?
- This is a fascist-free zone, Dwight.
Maybe you should leave as well.
- OK, yeah. Throw another fucking kid out, Leon,
and you are next. - OK. Easy, Dwight.
All right? Ayn snuck back in. She's in the gym.
- Yeah, Dwight, go back to the candy stand.
- What you say, Skippy?
- Oh god. - You wanna fucking die?
- OK, please, Dwight. We are trying to work.
- Well, fuck you, man!
- Awesome! Please go.
- Hi! - Hi!
- I'm not gonna stay long.
- What? Yes, yes, you are.
Yes, you are. You're going to have fun.
Skip!
This is my sister, Sarah.
Sarah, this is Skip.
Sarah doesn't know anyone here,
so why don't you ask her to dance
and talk to her and stuff like that?
- You wanna dance?
- Sure.
- Thank you.
- You're an interesting guy, Leon.
- Thank you.
(Hip hop)
- Oh!
Hello, gorgeous!
Oh, hey! Are you the girl who spiked the punch?
- Mmm! No, I just got here.
- Oh, man! I'm trying to figure out who to thank.
(Laughing) Whoo!
I totally have to date this DJ.
Anyway, you two kids have fun, OK?
Bye! I'm going this way!
- Uh-huh.
- And now all the party people are here.
- Oh, uh, please don't spoil it for me.
Let me venture a guess. You are the Ceausescus!
Oh no, wait a second.
It's-it's got to be, uh, Oliver Stone and an Asian woman?
Am I getting warmer? - Very clever, Leon.
- Uh-huh.
- So, social justice, eh?
Interesting theme.
- Mm-hmm! Whose idea was that, I wonder?
- Uh, I actually tabled the idea.
- Is there no little devil whispering in your ear, Tony?
- Caught you on E Talk the other day, Leon.
You're getting pretty famous.
- Well, as long as the cause receives
the appropriate attention.
- You watch E Talk, sir?
- That's right. I do.
Anyhoo, we need to have a meeting with you
and I guess with you, Tony,
and anyone else who wants to come along,
about your so-called movement.
Monday. After school.
- I'll be there.
- I was speaking with the school board on Friday
about your little cause.
Just so you know,
it might be getting a lot of attention from the media
but it will never happen. - Is that it?
- Wait a minute.
What do you mean it's never gonna happen?
- Yeah, we have over 450 signatures.
- Comrades, comrades by even talking to this brown shirt,
you're-you're-you're merely, uh, encouraging him.
He truthfully has very little power;
he's only trying to scare us.
- Mr. Bronstein, I actually have a lot of power
and I happen to be wearing a grey shirt.
(Giggles)