THEATRE: Starbuck

An audience favourite at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (winning the runner-up prize for most popular film) Starbuck focuses on David Wozniak, a lovable, middle-aged man who's a bit of a train-wreck. A disappointment to his family and his pregnant girlfriend Valerie – he also owes a decent amount of money to some loan sharks. Yet things are about to get even worse. His life is upended when a lawyer informs him he’s fathered no less than 533 children via his regular sperm bank donations more than two decades earlier, under the nickname Starbuck. And now a hundred or so of the young-adult offspring have gotten together to take legal action to reveal the true identity of their father. 

What sounds like an outlandish premise turns into a sparkling crowd-pleaser. With an immensely likeable main character, and a poignant comedy script that goes in unexpected directions (from the writer of Seducing Doctor Lewis), Starbuck is a charming, smart, funny and tender film that speaks volumes about what it means to be a family.