In his third film, director Reg Harkema transplants Jean-Luc Godard's La Chinoise to a ramshackle house in Toronto, where bohemians Dan (Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright) eke out an existence scavenging in garbage dumps and rummaging through yard sales for undervalued objects. Their evenings are spent getting listlessly baked and staring silently into space.

But as the film opens, tragedy strikes: their dealer has been busted.

Enter the enigmatic young Susan (Nadia Litz), a winsome hipster who rescues Dan from the perils of sobriety by offering him organically-grown BC bud. Her arrival re-invigorates Dan, and he clumsily tries to seduce her with counterculture memorabilia. Still, there's an air of mystery about her. As the couple grows accustomed to their newfound guest, the relationships among the three change. Dan and Linda function - sometimes simultaneously - as parents, confidantes and mentors, while Susan acts as both temptress and conscience. And she's not the only one with secrets.

Equal parts political comedy, elegy and domestic drama, Monkey Warfare exudes considerable scruffy charm, much of it due to the performers' evident glee. Outfitted with a ludicrous Fu Manchu moustache, McKellar delivers an inspired comic performance, most notably when his encounters with Susan lead to his sexual re-awakening. Wright plays Linda as a ruefully wised-up woman, at once tired and proud of the way she and Dan have managed to exist on the margins for so long, while Litz exudes a keenly observed mix of youthful arrogance and innocence.

Harkema directs with a pop-art brio, loading the film with visual references to seventies exploitation movies, and the film is driven by a sly comic take on bohemia, counterculture politics and disillusionment. So crank up your old MC5 records, pass the dutchie on the left hand side and ask yourself whether complacency is the logical end of opposing the mainstream, or just a minor lull along the way.