The Manor

A terminally uninvolving documentary, The Manor follows Shawney Cohen as he returns home to assist his family during a trying time – with the twist being that the clan, which consists of patriarch Roger, matriarch Brenda, and sibling Sammy, owns and operates a strip club just outside of Toronto. First-time director Cohen admittedly does a strong job of establishing the title establishment and the various figures that reside within, although, as becomes clear soon enough, the fledgling filmmaker is simply unable (or unwilling) to explore/exploit the movie’s premise to an engaging or entertaining degree. Cohen’s close relationship to his subjects ensures that the experience of watching The Manor is, by and large, akin to viewing somebody else’s home movies, as the film has been suffused with an almost incredible number of asides that just aren’t interesting in the slightest (eg Roger’s stomach surgery and subsequent recovery). There’s little doubt, also, that Cohen’s refusal to explore the more salacious aspects of life within the Manor contributes to the movie’s less-than-engrossing atmosphere, and one can’t help but wish that the director had offered up a few tidbits related to the day-to-day operations of a strip club (ie the process for hiring new employees, the manner by which rowdy patrons are dealt with, etc). And although the film does include a small handful of intriguing sequences (eg Shawney and Sammy talk about their fractured relationship), The Manor ultimately comes off as a flat, irrelevant documentary that is, for the most part, unable to justify its very existence.

*1/2 out of ****