Brownstein: Another Pacino is set to make a mark in Montreal, this time as a director

Montreal Gazette

23-07-2025

Just as her Oscar-winning dad Al has, Julie Pacino is set to leave her mark on Montreal — but from the other side of the camera.
It was in June 2015 that then-Montreal mayor Denis Coderre made the senior Pacino an honorary citizen and gave him a symbolic key to the city.
Ten years later, Julie Pacino's debut directorial feature film, the haunting yet darkly humorous psycho-thriller I Live Here Now, makes its world première in Montreal, Thursday night at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
She will be on hand for a Q-and-A after the 7:05 p.m. screening Thursday at Salle J.A. DeSève, as well as after Friday's 2:15 showing at the same venue.
I Live Here Now is one wild ride, a sort of postmodern Rosemary's Baby à la Polanksi set at a sort of postmodern Bates Motel à la Hitchcock. Like the works of David Lynch and Ryan Coogler, the film's effects-laden, surreal eeriness is broken up by some deadly dark wit.
Fantasia is a perfect fit for this flick.
At its core, this is a tale about a struggling actress (Lucy Fry) whose world takes a turbulent turn when she learns she is pregnant and somehow finds her way to the creepy aforementioned motel where there is no refuge to be had. Instead, long-seated trauma from her childhood surfaces. The would-be father (comedy star Matt Rife) and his overbearing mother (Sheryl 'Twin Peaks' Lee) only exacerbate her anguish.
'I showed my mom (Jan Tarrant), also my best friend, the film and she went: 'What the heck?' I went: 'No, no … that part of it is fictional!'' a smiling Pacino recounts in an interview.
It has been quite the journey for Pacino — also the film's writer — to get to this point in her career.
'A lot of life experience and working on a bunch of different short films, to kind of figure out what exactly it is I wanted to say as a director, is what took this long. I was never in a rush,' explains Pacino, director of the acclaimed short Nowhere to Go.
While following in his career footsteps on one level, it's abundantly clear that she has taken a genre route far removed from that of her father.
But her dad did one film, the Devil's Advocate (1997), which just may have been a precursor to the path his daughter has taken three decades later. He was cast as Satan, and Julie, five at the time, happened be on the set during filming.
'I think that might (have shaped me) … I have vivid memories of that set and the flames and that burned-up corpse the art department had created, and my dad going 'it's not real.' Yeah, but it feels real. And then he goes: 'Yeah, that's the movies.' And I was like: 'OK.'
'That piqued by interest. So I would say that it had an impact on the art that I like to make and the movies that I like to watch.'
One thing is certain: I Live Here Now didn't benefit from a Serpico/Godfather-like budget. Yet the film's production values have the feel of a well-endowed feature.
'This is an indie film and we had limited resources. And I was just grateful to have any resources to make a feature. We did the best that we could with what we had. I think a lot of times that limited resources can help sort of rein in the vision and the creative in a really healthy way.
'So I enjoyed the parameters that I was working with. My producers, who were incredible, even enabled us to shoot on film, which is a rarity now, and my collaborators went above and beyond. I don't know how they did it … It was a challenge.'
Pacino has little pretence. She won't describe herself as an auteur, simply stating: 'I just enjoy making art with creative geniuses.
'I'm really like a little girl who wants to play with her friends. I just like to be transported to a different reality. So when it was my turn to take a stab at a feature, I figured why not stick to what I like, and let that passion drive the story.'
She isn't sure if a career in film was necessarily predetermined because of her dad.
'I was raised with a lot of emphasis on just chasing my desire, whatever it would be. So I tried a lot of things growing up. I took ballet classes. I was actually a very serious softball athlete, playing competitively in college. That skill really translates well in running film sets. It's a very team-oriented thing.'
Well, she has knocked it out of the park in her first feature outing.
She is now back crafting another psychodrama, 'more external than internal like this one was.'
'Even though the material is really dark, I love to lean into the camp of the horror genre. I love humour to the point where you forget you're watching a horror film.'
Her dad has seen rough cuts of I Live Here Now, but not the final version yet.
'He definitely gave me super insightful, helpful feedback along the way, as he always does. I just admire his artistry and have learned so much (from him). So it was a natural thing for me to trust that in myself. I'm definitely grateful to him and my mom for always giving me permission to dream in this way.'