#Only the brave cast michael mcnulty movie#
#Only the brave cast michael mcnulty tv#

It’s an open-concept plan that features a concrete island bisecting the kitchen, wire-grate banisters, and an interior garage door near the foot of the basement stairs so the sound from the TV can’t overwhelm adult conversations on the first floor. The result is a well-thought-out three-level dwelling that is an appealing combination of traditional – gabled roof, fireplace, library, sitting room – and modern. An English grad who worked as a carpenter, journalist and children’s book author ( Newton and the Giant won the prestigious Silver Birch Award) on his way to becoming a filmmaker, McGowan designed his home with his architect brother-in-law Mark Franklin, and did much of the finish carpentry.įilmmaker Michael McGowan with his wife Shelagh McNulty and kids Henry, 13, Frances, 9, and Wiley, 11, in the vegetable garden outside the Mulmur house McGowan helped design and build. With McGowan’s children – Henry, 13, Wiley, 11, and Frances, 9 – out with Shelagh, there’s an opportunity to quietly inspect the house.

#Only the brave cast michael mcnulty movie#

The genre-crosser had some critics scratching their heads and reviews were mixed, though the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell declared “McGowan scores” with a film that “slams doubters into the boards with an amusing, tuneful and even thoughtful tale.” Noting the movie “couldn’t be more Canuck” with its “men in jerseys, women in woolies, references to Kraft Dinner and Zambonis, and cameo appearances by notable hosers, including a certain père to a player beyond compare…” Howell reckoned, “ Score is as deep as a Don Cherry rant, but it’s also a crowd-pleaser.” Mixing the sheer fantasy of old fashioned Hollywood musicals, a countercultural plot and a lot of hockey footage, Score was a decidedly unique. But McGowan also brought in a ringer in seventies Australian pop diva Olivia Newton-John as Farley’s hippie mom. The songs, most of them co-written by McGowan, are performed by such Canadian musicians as Nellie Furtado, who makes a cameo, and Hawksley Workman, who plays a small role. It seemed like a good fit that hadn’t been done before.” Asked about the creative origins of the joyfully weird Score, he says, “I love music though I don’t play it. “I played a lot of hockey growing up,” he admits. In Score, peaceful, artistic adolescent Farley Gordon is seduced into embracing the violence of Canada’s winter sport because he’s so skillful it would seem a waste if he didn’t play.Īs a youth, McGowan played centre for the Leaside Kings and assiduously followed the Leafs until recent years. It’s a road movie set against iconic Canadian landmarks and featuring not only an all-Canadian score, but cameo roles by several of the musicians, including Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip. In One Week (2008), an elementary school teacher diagnosed with cancer abandons everything and takes off across Canada on a motorcycle. His Writers Guild and Directors Guild of Canada’s award-winning film Saint Ralph (2004) dramatizes a teenage boy’s epic run in the Boston Marathon, a feat he believes will miraculously awaken his mother from a coma. involve athletics, the outdoors, and most recently, home building. The films he has written, directed and produced through his company Mulmur Feed Co. They say artists should make what they know, and it’s clear McGowan subscribes to that philosophy. He and his wife Shelagh McNulty still run at least five kilometres several mornings a week. We’re close enough to the city, but definitely in the country.”Ī former marathon runner, the lanky McGowan won the Detroit Marathon in 1995, and made the down payment on the Mulmur land with his winnings. “We think it’s the perfect location,” he says of his home. Waiting on the wrap-around verandah of the home he helped design and build is McGowan, dressed casually in shirt and jeans, enjoying a summer’s day. The driveway ends at a brilliant blue house. The long driveway winds through fields and trees, a small flock of birds – blue jays, cardinals and finches – flies up into the bright afternoon sky. True, McGowan, 46, has been to his fair share of parties at TIFF – his film Score: A Hockey Musical opened the Festival two years ago – but the award-winning writer-director-producer is far more comfortable building an outdoor bread oven than hanging out with celebrities at a swishy gala.Īs I pull into McGowan’s 32-acre property in the Mulmur hills, it’s easy to guess why the filmmaker chose to leave Toronto, the city where he grew up. You won’t see him grabbing a cab from a Lakeshore condo to arrive on time for a glamorous party at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival). Filmmaker Michael McGowan is not part of Toronto’s über-urban cultural elite.