In the Belly of the Dragon

Simoneau's commendable shot at a sci-fi fantasy with teeth is better than most contemporary Canadian movies, but that isn't saying much. A butch young man drops out of his dead-end job (delivering shop brochures to strife-torn tenements) and sells his body to a mysterious research institute, whose crazed woman diretcor is bent on maximising brain power without regard for the physical cost to her subjects. The movie wants to be a cross between Brazil and Subway, but it's crippled by unimaginitive designs and weak scripting; it comes closest to working in its elements of black comedy, which peter out around the half-way mark.