A movie about Scarborough is coming to a theatre near you

The Wexford Heights shopping plaza is best known around Toronto as home to an iconic greasy spoon restaurant with really good eggs.

In Los Angeles, on the other hand, it's synonymous with one of this year's hottest indie films.

Toronto filmmaker Joyce Wong's award-winning movie, Wexford Plaza, has been raking in praise since its premiere at Slamdance earlier this year.

The Scarborough-based movie has since been showcased at major film festivals in Cannes, Torino, Atlanta, New Orleans, Vancouver and San Diego, among others – but not until next month will it finally open for public screenings in The GTA.

We're opening theatrically Dec 1st in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Whitby & Ottawa for a week long run! At the Carlton Cinema in Toronto and @LandmarkCinemas nationwide. Save the date! More details TBA http://pic.twitter.com/I0kdVYPXx0

— Wexford Plaza (@wexfordplaza) November 17, 2017

"It's our homecoming!" reads an announcement from the filmmakers. "Wexford Plaza opens theatrically in Canada on Friday Dec 1st for a week long run at Imagine Cinemas Carlton in Toronto and Landmark Cinemas in Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Whitby and Edmonton!"

The film is described as a "slice-of-life offbeat comedy" about a lonely female security guard working at a Scarborough strip mall. 

"This is Scarborough, Ontario, where nothing ever happens," wrote  programmers at the St. John's International Women's Film Festival of Wong's film. "But the people who inhabit that world have hopes and dreams, just like the rest of us."

The real-life Wexford Plaza doesn't have security guards, to the best of my knowledge, but the film wasn't actually shot at the Lawrence and Warden strip mall – just inspired by it.

How closely does it nail the Scarborough aesthetic? We'll have to find out when the film starts screening here in December.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO