Patch Town

Patch Town is a 2014 Canadian dark fantasy comedy holiday film written by Christopher Bond and Jessie Gabe, and directed by Craig Goodwill.

Originally an award-winning short film that inspired a much larger project, Patch Town stars actors Rob Ramsay, Julian Richings, Zoie Palmer, Suresh John, Stephanie Pitsiladis and Ken Hall in a quasi-musical about a fictional Soviet-style factory producing children's toys, run by a bitter and lonely executive officer named Yuri (Richings).

Completed in 2014 and released in 2015, Patch Town received mixed reviews, but was praised for the cast's acting and the story's satirically grim take on United States 1980s consumer culture, and Soviet communism.

Although Yuri is annoyed that Bethany was not captured, he decides to use Avery's likeness as a model for a more modern digital-age line of interactive dolls to keep Patch Enterprise up-to-date.

Back in Toronto, Jon is hired on as a Santa Claus at a local shopping mall in order to earn his own money, while Sly joins in as a Christmas elf.

Bethany is horrified upon learning that the doll-making process will kill Avery, but she feigns romantic attraction to Yuri in order to distract him so that Jon and Mary can infiltrate the factory.

Yuri is last seen singing a commercial jingle from Patch Enterprises in a slurred voice, while Kenny starts a romance with a surly career counsellor and gets a job after moving to Toronto himself.

Patch Town has a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes indicating generally favourable reviews, with Chris Knight of National Post saying of the film, "It's hard not to find something to love in a film that mixes elements of Toy Story, Bad Santa, Russian folklore, Cabbage Patch Kids and Les Miserables," and Prairie Miller of WBAI Radio saying, "factory noir rears its head, when it comes to corporations, consumerism and the destructive pursuit of objects of materialistic desire.

"[3] The Hollywood Reporter had a more critical reaction, stating of the acting, "Julian Richings is as wickedly skeletal as Jon [Ramsay] is obese... one-dimensional performances predominate, though Ken Hall breathes life into an evil henchman role.