Director: Andy Hines
Writers: Andy Hines, Adam Baldwin
Stars: Stephen Amell, Sean Astin, Rhys Darby, Stephen McHattie, J Balvin
Synopsis: Little Lorraine, a North Atlantic seaside town with a population of 60, becomes embroiled in an international cocaine smuggling operation under the noses of multiple governments, distributed in coffins through a network of funeral homes.
The Nova Scotian island of Cape Breton (population: 140,000) is plenty small as it is; Little Lorraine, a seaside town on the isle, was once even tinier, boasting roughly 60 residents to its name, most of them working full-time as coal men, drinkers, or both. Yet its underground mining tunnels were historic, holding the title of the largest sub-ocean network in the world. That is, until May 1986, when the system caught fire and exploded, killing 10 men and leaving the rest jobless. In the aftermath of the tragedy, few of the survivors were left with a choice: They could either relocate to Westray, a Scottish isle with similar mining prospects despite its “death trap” nickname, or work for one of the men’s uncles, who offered a lucrative gig on a lobster boat. Too good to be true? More than likely, but money talks, even in a sub-100-person community. When it talks, however, it’s important to pay attention to what it’s saying, even – if not especially – when it’s operating as both an angel and a devil, dancing between shoulders.
That’s the story, at least, one that the Canadian indie rocker Adam Baldwin tells in his song, “Lighthouse in Little Lorraine.” His tale focuses on a man named Jimmy, his Uncle Huey, and the transformative ripples their work on said lobster rig would send through the community. “He says there’s a boat coming up from America with caskets filled with cocaine,” Baldwin ditties. “There’s a goldmine out on the ocean and a lighthouse in Little Lorraine.” At around six minutes and not a second short nor long, the singer-songwriter weaves a narrative so engrossing that the song itself feels like a film as it twists and turns its way into your ears. So it’s only natural that the tune’s video companion, directed by award-winning and Grammy-nominated filmmaker Andy Hines (who has directed videos for Logic, Big Sean, Alicia Keys, Lizzo, Coldplay, and many others) plays like a short film audiences would kill to see stretched out into a feature presentation.
If you can’t see where this is going by now, you might have a bit of trouble following Little Lorraine, Hines’ debut feature, though that’s a serious you problem, as Hines and Baldwin – the film’s co-writers, fittingly – have no problem turning what was already a gripping lyrical thriller into one fit for the big screen. Sure to please multiplex frequenters and true crime junkies alike, the film is no less faithful to its source material(s) than it is stylish and compelling by its own merits, a page-turner of a movie that is often too convenient to fool but far too entertaining to ultimately give two lobster claws. If you can’t find some shred of delight in watching a bunch of handsome Canadians in deck boots grapple with the consequence of their drug-smuggling circumstances as Interpol tracks their every move and their spouses grow increasingly restless, you probably lack a pulse.
That, or you’ve seen this story told once or 814 times before and have grown tired with every passing iteration, a reasonable criticism that Little Lorraine falls victim to on occasion, though Hines’ flashy (and attentive) directorial flair more than makes up for what you’ll see coming in terms of the story he and Baldwin telling. The film centers on Jimmy (Stephen Amell, shedding his green arrows for bait hooks) and his two mining pals, Tommy (Joshua Close) and Jake (Steve Lund), who Uncle Huey (Stephen McHattie) hires to man his crustacean caper, and shovels them more money after each passing shift. It’s only after they’ve been suckered in by the cash and prizes of this life altering deal that its raw (bar) truth is revealed, and their collective too-little-too-late reality begins to set in, causing anxiety aplenty and legal concerns galore. The Colombian music superstar J. Balvin co-stars as Lozano, the Interpol agent that investigates the crew, and makes a deserving bid for a Bad Bunny-type acting career in the slightly-more dramatic space.)
World premiering at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival – a homecoming of sorts for the filmmaking team and the real crimes by which the movie is inspired – it’s less the fault of Little Lorraine than the genre in which it exists that most self-described film connoisseurs will feel as though they’ve already clocked its plotting as a whole just by taking in its brief summary. That Hines and Baldwin manage to twist their gritty, properly convulsing Hollywood arrival in less predictable ways than other familiar rides tend to bother in showier attempts is the principal triumph here.
“Good writers borrow, great writers steal” is simply too dismissive a phrase to apply to something as antic and exhilarating as this miners-turned-unwitting smugglers story – especially considering Auden Thorton’s prominence in the typically-unforgiving wife role as Jimmy’s partner, Emma. And, as the village’s “Proud in Spirit, Strong of Heart” motto goes, Little Lorraine is nothing if not a fervent, confident work that foretells a future in the industry for its chief authors. An even better distinction might be what Jimmy tells his pals before they find their heads too far below sea level to ever properly resurface: Fuck it. Why not have a little stupid fun once and a while?
Little Lorraine premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
