New Releases:
Barbie – To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.
Expectations: It’s crazy to think that this film is part of the most anticipated one-two-punch screenings of the year but “Barbieheimer” is a real phenomenon and I can’t wait to check out this new film from writer and director Greta Gerwig. This film feels tailor-made for lead actors Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and I can’t wait to see what they do with a story about falling relevancy in the toy world. This might be one of the year’s best here, who knows?
Oppenheimer – The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in developing the atomic bomb.
Expectations: Master filmmaker Christopher Nolan returns with a huge passion project of his and what is surely going to be deemed the front-runner for the Oscars in 2024. The cast is incredibly stacked here, toplined by Cillian Murphy in the title role but also featuring Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt and many, many more and I expect there to be some breakout performances from some of these supporting stars. This is most likely the top film of 2023 but at a daunting runtime of three hours, will audiences make it a box office success or will it get a knockout punch from Barbie?
They Cloned Tyrone – A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.
Review: This is the surprise hit of the week, a genre-laced comedy that has a great sense of character and a fantastic scope of cinema. I don’t want to get to any sort of spoiler talk because it’s best to go in cold but I will say that Boyega, Foxx and Parris all deliver career-best performances with each in a cleverly nuanced way and debuting writer and director Juel Taylor nails this film from the opening moments. I hope this one becomes an instant weekend hit for Netflix because this film deserves acclaim.
The Deepest Breath – Descending to remarkable depths below the sea on one single breath, Alessia Zecchini enters what she describes as the last quiet place on Earth. The Italian champion is determined to set a new world record in freediving, a dangerous extreme sport in which competitors attempt to reach the greatest depth without the use of scuba gear. Freedivers are often subject to blackouts upon ascent, necessitating the help of safety divers like Stephen Keenan, a free-spirited Irish adventurer who fell in love with the sport in Dahab, Egypt. Having formed a special bond on the freediving circuit, Alessia and Stephen train together to make an attempt on Dahab’s legendary Blue Hole and its challenging 85-foot-long tunnel 184 feet below the Red Sea, their fates inextricably bound together.
Review: Some of my favourite documentaries are the ones that get an almost physical reaction out of me and this film joins the National Geographic release Free Solo as stories that almost turned me inside out with viewer anxiety. Much like that previously mentioned film about climbing Yosemite without ropes or gear, this one left me in awe, watching Zecchini plummet to beyond fifty feet deep in the beautiful waters of the Blue Hole. The thread of ambition leading to obsession is fascinating as the limits of what these two could do as humans are pushed in the lead-up to these beautifully shot dives. I feel like this is a broad enough documentary to grab a big audience on Netflix and I know people will be talking about it next week.
Blu-Ray & DVD:
Love Again – What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number…not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns’ new work phone. A journalist, Rob is captivated by the honesty in the beautifully confessional texts. When he’s assigned to write a profile of megastar Celine Dion (playing herself in her first film role), he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person…and win her heart.
Expectations: It’s an easy assumption to make to assume that romantic comedy dramas are generally not my thing unless they are really well written, subversive or have cast members that I love and I will say that this movie has none of the above I think. What’s that, Steve? Not going to watch it for Celine? That’s right, it has no appeal for me. I will say that I am enjoying Citadel with Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and I do like her lead in this, Sam Heughan, in his series Outlander but nothing from the trailer has any effect on me.
Little Richard: I Am Everything – The film tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator — the originator — Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an Omni being who contained multitudes — he was unabashedly everything.
Review: Those who know my thoughts or follow this page know that I love a good music documentary and this is a special one because of how widely spread Little Richard’s musical influence was spread but, also, what he himself as a persona meant to the pop culture zeitgeist. Told through one and one interviews with those who were affected by one of the Kings of Rock ‘n’ Roll as well as archived interviews with the man himself and other mega-stars who have since passed, the film gives a pretty in-depth look at an icon who was cool and charismatic on the outside but conflicted from time to time on who he was a sexual being and how that would be received. Another interesting film from the combination of CNN Films and HBO Max.
The Last Of Us: Season 1 – 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed, Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Review: The video game adaptation story has been long and storied as large narrative failures with a few exceptions but this HBO series broke the mold. Featuring fantastic performances from both Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, I think it’s safe to say that this series is an easy candidate for best new series of the year and the anticipation for the second season is at a fever pitch. I don’t have a connection to the games, as I’ve never played them, but this story is so well written, the production level is so high and it feels so fresh and different from any other post-apocalyptic or zombie fare.
Your Honor: Season 2 – Bryan Cranston stars as a New Orleans judge who is forced to confront his own deepest convictions when his son is involved in a hit-and-run that embroils an organized-crime family. As a storm of vengeance, lies and deceit threatens to engulf the entire city, Michael Desiato faces a series of increasingly impossible choices and discovers just how far an honest man will go to save his son’s life.
Review: It came and it went quickly with just two seasons but Bryan Cranston’s return to television gave us an intense twenty episodes filled with unpredictable tension and another fiery performance from character actor Michael Stuhlbarg. The series comes from UK writer and creator Peter Moffat who finally got a solid hit in America after a few cancelled shows and he and Cranston created something pretty memorable here. I don’t know how popular this show was during its run but it definitely deserves some views.
Steve’s 4K Geekout:
National Lampoon’s Vacation 4K – The Griswold family–father Clark W., wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty–set out in high spirits to spend their vacation driving cross-country from Chicago to the glorious Walley World on the West Coast. The trip Clark planned down to the minute slowly loses its smoothness from the moment the first grain of sand gets in. A meeting with constantly-in-debt, simple-minded cousin Eddie results in the Griswold family giving cantankerous Aunt Edna a lift to Phoenix. Of course, the Griswolds receive one strike of bad luck after another. But Clark promised his beloved family the best vacation ever.
Review: One of the most iconic if not THE iconic vacation movie, this film doesn’t lose its lustre at all as being one of the funniest Odyssey comedies ever made, with fantastic directing from Harold Ramis and a great script from one of the greatest of all time, John Hughes. Chevy Chase stars in the most memorable role of his career, the driven and determined Clark Griswold, and everyone plays so brilliantly off of his lead, most notably Beverly D’Angelo who is a lifetime favourite from these films. It was a true pleasure to revisit this film at the higher level of 4K.
Television:
The Bear: Season 2 (Disney+) – Carmen Berzatto, a brilliant young chef from the fine-dining world is forced to return home to run his family sandwich shop – the Original Beef of Chicagoland – after a heartbreaking death in his family. A world away from what he’s used to, Carmy must balance the soul-crushing reality of trading in Michelin-star restaurants for the small business’ kitchen filled with strong-willed and recalcitrant staff and his strained familial relationships, all while grappling with the impact of his brother’s suicide.
Expectations: This is without a question the best show on television right now and the series I have been looking forward to most so a lot is riding on it’s sophomore season. Jeremy Alan White is so gifted on screen but the whole ensemble that rounds out the crew in the restaurant, like Ayo Edibri and Eban Moss Bacharach, make each episode so gripping due to a fantastic writing team as well. Everybody was talking about the first season and I expect that to resume this week. Heck, it may go down as one of the best network shows of all time in my eyes.
Minx: Season 2 (Crave) – In 1970s Los Angeles, an earnest young feminist joins forces with a low-rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women.
Expectations: This is a low-key hit from HBO that o one is seemingly taking notes of and it won’t be appreciated until it’s gone. Starring the incredibly likeable Jake Johnson from New Girl and British actress Olivia Lovlibond, the chemistry and scriptwriting for the two actors is so damn good and drives the series in such a good way. I also like that it can be a good recommendation for anyone who enjoyed the Maggie Gyllenhal and James Franco series The Deuce but it also has a great feminist angle and energy to it that I really enjoy.
Steve Stebbing 