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Brownstein: Another Pacino is set to make a mark in Montreal, this time as a director

4 3
25.07.2025

Just as her Oscar-winning dad Al has, Julie Pacino is set to leave her mark on Montreal — but from the other side of the camera.

It was in June 2015 that then-Montreal mayor Denis Coderre made the senior Pacino an honorary citizen and gave him a symbolic key to the city.

Ten years later, Julie Pacino’s debut directorial feature film, the haunting yet darkly humorous psycho-thriller I Live Here Now, makes its world première in Montreal Thursday night at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

She will be on hand for a Q&A after the 7:05 p.m. screening at Salle J.A. DeSève, as well as after Friday’s 2:15 p.m. showing at the same venue.

I Live Here Now is one wild ride, a sort of postmodern Rosemary’s Baby à la Polanski set at a sort of postmodern Bates Motel à la Hitchcock. Like the works of David Lynch and Ryan Coogler, the film’s effects-laden, surreal eeriness is broken up by some deadly dark wit.

Fantasia is a perfect fit for this flick.

At its core, this is a tale about a struggling actress (Lucy Fry) whose world takes a turbulent turn when she learns she is pregnant and somehow finds her way to the creepy aforementioned motel, where there is no refuge to be had. Instead, long-seated trauma from her childhood surfaces. The would-be father (comedy star Matt Rife) and his........

© Montreal Gazette