Every year, the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) brings audiences in the city some of the most innovative pieces of cinema from all around the world while also honouring the creativity of Canadian filmmakers. As part of its “Canadian Narrative Feature” category for 2026, CIFF presented The Snake, a mid-life coming-of-age comedy set in Prince Edward Island (PEI), directed by Jenna MacMillan and written by Susan Kent.
The film stars Kent as the directionless party girl Jamie, who begins the film with her life being upended after being kicked out of her recently deceased grandmother's home by her malicious mother, Anne. After a brief confrontation in front of the house, Jamie eventually leaves to find her boyfriend, Davey Danger (Dan Petronijevic), whose help she tries to enlist in order to steal the deed to her grandmother's house.
Jamie also seeks support from her friend Laura (Emma Hunter), who gives her an apartment to live in for free, encouraging her criminal behaviour while flaunting her own successful life. Laura serves as a sort of foil to Jamie, with Jamie being free-spirited, jobless and with an on-and-off boyfriend, while Laura lives a more stable suburban life, with a successful career and a subservient husband, Steve (Jonathan Torrens).
Though both women appear to be close, audiences get a sense of underlying hostility and tension between the two, with the pair discussing over dinner how Laura has a history of sleeping with the men Jamie dates or is interested in.
One of the main themes the film explores is how individuals can become stuck in destructive cycles. Jamie, having lost her grandmother, whom she dearly loves and whose only living relative is his vitriolic mother, attempts to fill an emotional void by attaching herself romantically to men. She spends the beginning of the film attempting to maintain and deepen her relationship with Davey, whose aversion to commitment and general emotional unavailability become a massive rift in their relationship. When she and Davey break up, she impulsively turns to Steve to fill the emotional void by sleeping with him.
We see during these moments Jamie's self-loathing is on full display, hitting herself and verbally reprimanding herself after each impulsive decision. Kent’s talents as an actor shine in these moments, perfectly hitting the comedic beats at just the right time, while still giving an earnestly emotional portrayal of Jamie when she has her struggles, especially when she interacts with Anne.
Robin Duke does a fantastic job at playing an extremely toxic, yet complex mother, each conversation with Jamie is fueled with such malice that the audience can’t help but flinch each time the pair are on screen together. The film strays away from having Jamie's mother be some generic villain who is inexplicably cruel to her child. Instead, dialogue is delivered to provide nuance to the mother-daughter relationship when, during a heated exchange, Anne discusses giving birth to Jamie as a teen and being physically abused by her own mother growing up, expanding upon the film's theme of the cyclical nature of abusive relationships.
Things spiral even further when Laura catches Steve and Jamie in a compromising position, and Steve, instead of admitting to the affair, accuses Jamie of unlawful detainment. Jamie is arrested and sent to prison for this incident. The audience witnesses Jamie at rock bottom; confined to a tiny cell wearing a prison uniform instead of her stylish party clothes.
It is during this low moment that Jamie decides to make steps towards transforming her life. In jail, she gains an ally, prison guard Theresa (Kim Roberts), who helps Jamie take steps towards improving herself. While serving time, she joins programs that provide her with a dog companion and helps her find a job at a laundromat when she is released.
Once her stint is over, Jamie takes up residence in a tent outside of the bar owned by her friend, Bon Bon Scott (Jimbo), a drag queen who provides Jamie with unwavering, unconditional support that she lacks in most other facets of her life. Though homeless, Jamie is the most content she has ever been, slowly building a new life for her and her pet and attempting to let go of the old attachments that have had negative impacts on her life.
This peace does not last as Anne tries to upend Jamie's work and take her dog away. The two engage in one last altercation, involving pushing, shoving and dislocating bones. The brutality of this brawl has a sense of finality to it, giving the audience a sense that Jamie could actually go through with killing her mother to end their conflict. But the fight de-escalates most surprisingly when Jamie takes her mother to a dog adoption event, providing Anne with an alternative creature to turn her attention towards.
It can only be assumed that Jamie’s strategy works and she is able to come to some sort of agreement with her mother. The last shot of the film is Jamie, with dog in hand and head held high, walking into her grandmother's house that she so longed for.
Overall, The Snake is a funny and, at times, painfully real story about the restrictive and damaging patterns one can fall into and how it takes strength and guidance to remove oneself from these cycles. The film illustrates how Canada can be the ideal backdrop to tell compelling stories.
