Fast X – Over many missions and against impossible odds, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family have outsmarted, out-nerved and outdriven every foe in their path. Now, they confront the most lethal opponent they’ve ever faced: A terrifying threat emerging from the shadows of the past who’s fueled by blood revenge, and who is determined to shatter this family and destroy everything–and everyone–that Dom loves, forever.
Expectations: It looks like we might be nearing the end of the road when it comes to this Vin Diesel-led franchise as this film and the eleventh and twelfth installments will be the finale trilogy to end this series that started with stolen DVD players. It has now become an almost parody of itself as Dom and his family have survived the most ridiculous of scenarios repeatedly. I will say that I wish the egos of Diesel and The Rock hadn’t clashed so badly because I miss the invigoration his character gave the franchise.
Master Gardener – Deep within the lush grounds of Gracewood Gardens, horticulturist Narvel Roth tends to more than just plants. With a meticulous hand and unwavering devotion, he’s created an idyllic sanctuary for his demanding employer, Mrs. Haverhill. But when troubled great-niece Maya arrives seeking an apprenticeship, Narvel’s perfectly cultivated life begins to unravel, unearthing secrets from a violent past that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.
Review: Paul Schrader returns with another complex character drama that gives Joel Edgerton a career-best performance in a filmography full of them. Schrader’s gift of getting the audience to care so deeply for conflicted and tortured men is fully on display here again and supporting work from the great Sigourney Weaver and Black Adam actress Quintessa Swindell strengthens it all that much more. Like the usual outcome of the Taxi Driver writer’s films, I doubt it will be spoken about around Oscar time but at this point, it’s one that I’d have at the top of the best actor and original screenplay conversation.
White Men Can’t Jump – From 20th Century Studios, the all-new comedy “White Men Can’t Jump” is a modern remix of the iconic 1992 film that celebrates the streetball hustling culture of Los Angeles. Multi-platinum rap superstar Jack Harlow makes his movie debut as Jeremy, a former star of the game whose injuries stalled his career, and Sinqua Walls stars as Kamal, once a promising player who derailed his own future in the sport. Juggling tenuous relationships, financial pressures and serious internal struggles, the two ballers–opposites who are seemingly miles apart–find they might have more in common than they imagined possible.
Review: As a fan of the original film, starring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson and Rosie Perez, I didn’t feel there was a need to revisit this one but apparently Hulu did and wanted to use it as an acting springboard for rapper Jack Harlow. They did manage to make a bland and toothless reimaging of it complete with another awful screenplay by Kenya Barris to follow up his terrible Netflix film You People. Harlow couldn’t emote his way out of a death sentence if he wanted to and most of the film was painful to get through.
Blu-Ray:
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania – Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought possible.
Review: While I will say that this wasn’t the trilogy finisher that you wanted, given the quality and fun feel of the first two, this film manages to service the overarching Marvel Cinematic Universe more than it is a send-off for Avenger Scott Lang who I assume is probably done or at least for now. For a Paul Rudd starring film, the levity is a bit lacking here and there but when it takes broad sweeps at it, they generally connect. It may be a mess from time to time but it is still enjoyable and I liked a few of the Marvel character cameos hidden within.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – In the film, super spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) must track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology wielded by billionaire arms broker Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant). Reluctantly teamed with some of the world’s best operatives (Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone), Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood’s biggest movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to help them on their globe-trotting undercover mission to save the world.
Review: This being the reunion of actor Jason Statham and director Guy Ritchie, I was immediately excited to check this film out although I had to wait a while as it wasn’t released in Canada. The film plays as a slick spy thriller with great dialogue and great characters but it doesn’t for a single moment feel like a Ritchie film. This leads to the belief that the guy who made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch is a person of the past and now very much resembles a studio filmmaker but he still shows a little flair here and there. This will be a word-of-mouth type of film but those who pick up on it will love it.
Moving On – Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin star as estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower (Malcolm McDowell) of their recently deceased best friend. Along the way, Fonda’s character reunites with her great love (Richard Roundtree) as each woman learns to make peace with the past and each other.
Expectations: The career move for these two legends is definitely to work with each other for as long as they can and with the success of 80 For Brady, a surprising one, it seems to be working out. Tomlin reteams with writer and director Paul Weitz for the third time after Admission and Grandma, both great movies, and the film also having McDowell in the cast leans on my love of the actor from all the way back to A Clockwork Orange. The reviews are not too bad so this might be a sleeper home video hit of this week.
One Day As A Lion – Jackie Powers (Scott Caan) is a nice guy but a lousy hitman, and when he’s sent to take out a crafty debtor (J.K. Simmons), Jackie only pisses him off. Fleeing the scene, Jackie takes bored waitress Lola hostage. When Jackie reveals he needs money to get his son out of jail, Lola cooks up a scheme for them to get cash from her dying mother (Virginia Madsen). Meanwhile, a thug sent to kill him is sleeping with Jackie’s ex. Also starring Frank Grillo, this crime-comedy is a witty homage to Tarantino and the Coen brothers.
Review: Caan writes and stars in this small-town noir that feels a little too uneven to be satisfying in the end. Every actor plays well into their strengths but that can only float so far as it gets a bit lost in finding its edge and trying to be too much like what inspired it. Director John Swab and Caan are a promising pairing though and I didn’t feel like this was a wasted watch.
Max Fleisher’s Superman – A series of 17 animated short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.
Review: This little collection is honestly for the super fans of the character, pun only sort of intended. It definitely shows its age and leans into the big blue boy scout side of the Superman lore but it is kind of cool to see the first animated representation of one of the original worldwide known superheroes. It’s safe to say that animation has only improved in the time since.
Steve’s Blu-Ray & 4K Geekouts:
The GeneralandThree Ages – After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.
In his first independently produced feature film Buster tells of love and romance through three historical ages: the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Modern Age.
Review: My journey to own all of the Kino Lorber classic releases starts with this double feature Blu-ray, featuring two huge films in the career of the legendary Buster Keaton. As a film lover who is playing catch up with a lot of pre-1965 cinema, I know how important Keaton is and how inspiring his work is and to own a restored version of his work is very cool.
Aftersun – Reflecting on the brief summer holiday she spent with her father at a budget seaside resort when she was 11 years old, Sophie replays the same nostalgic, sun-kissed memories of happy times in her mind. And two decades later, a now adult Sophie tries to process the fading remembrance of her father by filling in the blanks through bitter-sweet recorded recollections. But memory is unreliable, and Sophie needs to make sense of the parent she loved but thought she knew.
Review: Easily one of my favourite movies of last year, Paul Mescal earned his Academy Award nomination with so much heart and soul brimming behind a guarded performance as a father who does his best to hide his conflicted psyche. This one is exceptionally geeky for me as the only way to purchase this Blu-ray was through the A24 studio store. I’m giddy that I could give directly to my favourite studio.
Rebel Without A Cause4K – Jim Stark is a troubled youth who constantly seems to get into trouble. He’s new in town – they moved because Jim had gotten himself into some kind of trouble – and he seems to be starting off where he left off when the police pick him up for being drunk on the street. At school, he meets a group of young toughs who challenge him to a game of chicken. When that leads to an accident and a death, Jim wants to go to the police but his parents refuse to let him do so. When some of the teenagers go after Jim thinking he might go to the police, tragedy ensues.
Review: It’s crazy that a single film out of the tragically short career of James Dean can still exude so much cool but even now, almost seventy years later, this is definitely the case. Beyond Dean, Natalie Wood has become an absolute favourite of mine as I go through all of these classic films, and this is a beautiful performance alongside the lead’s tortured soul. Nominated for three Academy Awards, for Wood, co-star Sal Mineo and the screenplay by director Nicholas Ray, this is still a crown jewel in the one hundred years of Warner Bros.
Television:
High Desert (AppleTV+) – Peggy Newman, a woman with a checkered past, makes the life-changing decision to become a private investigator following the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California.
Review: As soon as I saw Patricia Arquette’s name attached to this comedy-drama, I knew I had to watch it as I’m a huge fan of the Oscar-winning actress and this is a really great role for her. There’s something about a complete anti-hero private detective story that grabs me and the fish-out-of-water nature to it makes it even better. With a cast that includes Brad Garrett, Christine Taylor, Kier O’Donnell and a quick visit by Matt Dillon as her ex-husband, I’m really enjoying the show so far and hope to see more.
BlackBerry – A company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveal the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.
Review: A friend of mine called this film The Wolf Of Wall Street of Canadian cinema and I love that term. Writer and director Matt Johnson was the perfect person to tell this story, also taking on the role of Research In Motion co-founder Doug, and the grainy look of the film and the fly-on-the-wall feel of it is directly attributed to him Glenn Howerton’s Jim Ballsilie is the big star of the film but Jay Baruchel’s understated then ferocious performance as founder Mike Lazaridis is so compelling to watch. Definitely one of my favourite films of the year and a champion for Canadian movies.
Book Club: The Next Chapter – The highly anticipated sequel follows our four best friends as they take their book club to Italy for the fun girls’ trip they never had. When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their relaxing vacation turns into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.
Expectations: After the “what the hell am I watching?” experience of 80 For Brady, I think I need a cooling off period before I jump into another Jane Fonda vehicle, especially this film that had a loathsome first film. I’m very aware that these films are written for a very specific age group but the construction of the first film felt so clunky that no one could elevate it. I do like that cast though as I adore Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. All of this aside, this movie is definitely digging for that Mother’s Day market this weekend and will surely make some money.
Fool’s Paradise – The film is a satirical comedy following a down-on-his-luck publicist (Ken Jeong), who gets his lucky break when he discovers a man recently released from a mental health facility (Day) looks just like a method actor who refuses to leave his trailer. With the help of a powerful producer (the late Ray Liotta), Ken helps the man become a huge star, even marrying his beautiful leading lady (Kate Beckinsale). Their adventures lead them to cross paths with drunken costars (Adrien Brody), irreverent unhoused action heroes (Common), unpredictable directors (Jason Sudeikis), a super-agent (Edie Falco), and power-mad moguls (John Malkovich). Fame and fortune are not all they are cracked up to be, and the two men must fight their way back to the things that matter the most.
Expectations: This feature directorial debut for actor Charlie Day has actually been fully filmed and in the can for years as I heard him talk about it on Dax Shepard’s podcast so I’m not sure why it took so long to see its release but it is now here. I love the dynamic here as Day is doing a fully silent and pantomimed performance, working against type, and the cast here is fantastic including Kate Beckinsale, Jasons Bateman and Sudekis, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and one of the final performances from the legendary Ray Liotta. I really like the trailer for this and fully believe it will meet up with my expectations.
Hypnotic – Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin detective Danny Rourke finds himself spiralling down a rabbit hole investigating a series of reality-bending crimes where he will ultimately call into question his most basic assumptions about everything and everyone in his world. Aided by Diana Cruz, a gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal spectre — the one man he believes holds the key to finding the missing girl — only to discover more than he ever bargained for.
Expectations: Being a Ben Affleck guy for a long time now, I’m rooting for this movie to be a great action ride and that’s not just because of the leading Boston-born actor but because it is directed by badass filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who I’ve loved ever since his debut with El Mariachi. I have to say that the film doesn’t loo like any Rodriguez film I’ve ever seen but the man has always been super inventive with his style and I’m interested to see what he’s doing with this very studio-looking production.
The Mother – While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life.
Review: I can not glaze over the fact that both Ben Affleck and his wife JLo have vacation movies coming out this week but Jenny From The Block’s flick is on Netflix but also from a pretty solid director as well. Niki Caro follows up Mulan with a pretty standard action film and Lopez manages to do her best Mark Wahlberg impression to keep it all afloat. This won’t blow any minds but I thought it was a pretty solid one-woman army type of genre movie.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie – The film, which will incorporate documentary, archival and scripted elements, will recount Fox’s extraordinary story in his own words — the improbable tale of an undersized kid from a Canadian army base who rose to the heights of stardom in 1980s Hollywood. The account of Fox’s public life, full of nostalgic thrills and cinematic gloss, will unspool alongside his never-before-seen private journey, including the years that followed his diagnosis, at 29, with Parkinson’s disease. Intimate and honest, and produced with unprecedented access to Fox and his family, the film will chronicle Fox’s personal and professional triumphs and travails. It will explore what happens when an incurable optimist confronts an incurable disease. With a mix of adventure and romance, comedy and drama, watching the film will feel like… well, like a Michael J. Fox movie.
Review: This is the most inventive biopic documentary I have ever seen, something that uses every possible footage of Michael to allow him to tell his own story from the beginning. With his endearing humour on his sleeve, he tells the story of his childhood in Burnaby, his move to Hollywood to pursue his dreams and the struggle until Family Ties, superstardom launched by Back To The Future and, of course, his battle with Parkinson’s. As someone who has the very real possibility of getting the disease myself, I was deeply rooted in Michael’s story and hung on to every word of his journey. An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim did a fantastic job in realizing it to a film form and I think it may well be one of the best this year.
Crater – This film is the coming-of-age adventure story of Caleb Channing (Isaiah Russell-Bailey), who was raised on a lunar mining colony and is about to be permanently relocated to an idyllic faraway planet following the death of his father (Scott Mescudi). But before leaving, to fulfill his dad’s last wish, he and his three best friends, Dylan (Billy Barratt), Borney (Orson Hong) and Marcus (Thomas Boyce), and a new arrival from Earth, Addison (Mckenna Grace), hijack a rover for one final adventure on a journey to explore a mysterious crater.
Review: With The Stanford Prison Experiment director Kyle Patrick Alvarez helming the film and rising young star Mckenna Grace in a starring role, I was definitely keen on checking this film out, something I compared a bit to Holes upon first impression, a rare Disney genre film. The execution I wasn’t so keen on as I found the film painfully dull with a plot that had faint stakes and no real peril to it. The script is dull and filled with cliches and the effects come off goofy from time to time, which is a glaring problem being Disney produced. I was pretty disappointed by this one.
Blu-Ray:
Knock At The Cabin – Wen, only seven years old, is vacationing with her two dads, Eric and Andrew, at a remote cabin. While catching grasshoppers, she is approached by a stranger named Leonard. Initially friendly, he explains that he needs Wen and her parents’ help to save the world. However, Wen becomes suspicious when three other people appear with makeshift weapons. Wen flees to warn Eric and Andrew, but the visitors break into the cabin and tie them up, with Eric sustaining a concussion. Leonard and his companions claim that they have never met before this day and have no intention of harming the family. However, in the past week, they have been driven by visions and an unknown force to find the family as they are predicting an impending apocalypse. Vision or illusion?
Review: I will fully admit that after the disappointments of M. Night Shyamalan’s trilogy finisher Glass and the thriller Old, my bar for this film was considerably low. The thing keeping me going on it was the inclusion of Dave Bautista in the cast, a wrestler turned-actor who keeps getting better and better in every role. Needless to say that the man rules in this film, giving a complex and nuanced performance that is the mysterious heartbeat of the thriller. The ideas are complex and surprisingly straightforward for a Shyamalan film which is actually quite refreshing. The film actually resonated with me for a couple of days and I hope this is another good patch in the uneven filmmaker’s career.
Children Of The Corn – Possessed by a spirit in a dying cornfield, twelve-year-old Eden recruits the other children in her small town to rise up and take control. Tired of having to pay the price for their parent’s mistakes, Eden leads the kids on a bloody rampage, killing the adults and anyone who opposes her. With all the adults jailed or dead, it comes down to one high schooler who won’t go along with the plan and becomes the town’s only hope of survival.
Review: Being an adaptation of one of my all-time favourite authors and written and directed by the man who brought us the sci-fi epic, Equilibrium, I thought that this might be a fun watch at best. The twist on the original story should have been the first red flag as Kurt Wimmer’s take on the story is completely toothless and wastes creepy imagery on not being scary whatsoever. The film was done in lockdown with a start and stop schedule so maybe that led to the problems in it. Or maybe it’s another bad Children Of The Corn movie. Besides the original, they just can’t get it right.
Unwelcome – Maya and Jamie escape their urban nightmare of London to the tranquillity of rural Ireland only to discover malevolent, murderous goblins lurking in the gnarled, ancient wood at the foot of their new garden. Heavily pregnant, Maya is soon targeted by the goblins and the family she befriended after forgetting to make sure the creatures are fed. Who – or what – will come to her rescue and what extremes will she go to to protect her unborn child?
Review: This movie taps into one of my favourite horror tropes, the secluded cabin chillers, much like The Evil Dead, so it all tracks with my personality. This one is an absolute blast that also plays with an underused horror and fantasy monster, the goblin, which I feel like hasn’t been used since Ghoulies. The cast is game, with Ant-Man & The Wasp’s Hannah John-Kamen and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies actor Douglas Booth leading the way well. I hope this one gets some word of mouth because it is worth checking out.
Yellowstone: Season 5 Part 1 – Oscar and Emmy winner Kevin Costner is the marquee attraction of the ensemble cast in this drama series, starring as the patriarch of a powerful, complicated family of ranchers. A sixth-generation homesteader and devoted father, John Dutton controls the largest contiguous ranch in the United States. He operates in a corrupt world where politicians are compromised by influential oil and lumber corporations and land grabs make developers billions. Amid shifting alliances, unsolved murders, open wounds, and hard-earned respect, Dutton’s property is in constant conflict with those it borders — an expanding town, an Indian reservation, and America’s first national park.
Review: When I started watching this current season on Paramount+, I never thought for a second that we were entering the final season of this fantastic and addictive show but after a conflict between creator Taylor Sheridan and Kevin Costner, this is exactly where we are. Now it’s completely unpredictable where this show will go but where we are right now is with a John Dutton who is now the Governor of Montana and a jaded son in Jamie Dutton looking to take him down and usurp his power. This show is brilliant and if you haven’t started it, there’s no better time than right now.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
The Maltese Falcon4K – Spade and Archer is the name of a San Francisco detective agency. That’s for Sam Spade and Miles Archer. The two men are partners, but Sam doesn’t like Miles much. A knockout, who goes by the name of Miss Wonderly, walks into their office; and by that night everything’s changed. Miles is dead. And so is a man named Floyd Thursby. It seems Miss Wonderly is surrounded by dangerous men. There’s Joel Cairo, who uses gardenia-scented calling cards. There’s Kasper Gutman, with his enormous girth and feigned civility. Her only hope of protection comes from Sam, who is suspected by the police of one or the other murder. More murders are yet to come, and it will all be because of these dangerous men — and their lust for a statuette of a bird: the Maltese Falcon.
Review: While it doesn’t have the stature of a film like Casablanca, this detective noir still holds a place on the list of cinema greats that star Humprey Bogart and to get this 4K film during the one-hundredth year of Warner Bros. existence is a movie lover’s gift for sure. Listed as one of the top one hundred films of all time according to the American Film Institute, the film was actually nominated for three Academy Awards but won none of them. Watching it now, I’m still struck by the fantastic writing, Bogart’s transfixing performance as well as Peter Lorre’s stand-out supporting work. This is a classic and no tarnish has touched its legacy in my opinion.
Cool Hand Luke4K – Lucas Jackson, natural born world shaker, someone with more guts than brains, a man who refuses to conform to the rules he has been given. Sent to a prison camp for a misdemeanor Luke soon gains respect and becomes an idol. He has some fun in jail doing things for the hell of it, after his mother dies the Bosses put him in the box afraid he might want to attend the funeral. When he gets out he runs and gets caught and runs and gets caught, the bosses try to break him but he just won’t break.
Review: An iconic character piece, this is easily one of my favourite Paul Newman performances and I know I’m not alone in that opinion. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards but only walked away with one, for Best Supporting Actor George Kennedy and his role as Dragline, but the resonance it has had on filmmaking can still be felt today. You simply can not even make a prison movie without thinking of this film and you definitely can’t eat a hard-boiled egg without bringing it to mind either. This is a special flicka and it looks glorious on 4K, an easy purchase decision to make.
All-Star Superman4K – Grant Morrison’s epic swan song to the Man of Steel, is wonderfully brought to the screen. Soaring to the rescue of a scientific explorer team near the Sun Superman’s cells become overexposed to the solar radiation. As a result, his abilities have increased exponentially, but at the same time destroying him on a cellular level. Yet this is just a part of Lex Luthor’s ultimate plan to destroy his nemesis. With his time nearing its end can the Man of Tomorrow rise to his greatest challenge and save humanity one last time?
Review: As a comic fan, I am a huge fan of the comic that this DC Comics animated adaptation is based on, probably one of my favourite stories about the Man Of Tomorrow from one of the greatest creative minds in the industry, Grant Morrison. The voice cast also has some favourites for me as well as Christina Hendricks, Alexis Denisoff, John Dimaggio, Matthew Gray Gubler, Linda Cardellini and more feature in some classic supporting Superman roles. I already had this one on DVD so it’s very cool to get the fully updated version of it on 4K.
Television:
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+) – The Electric Mayhem Band as they go on an epic musical journey to finally record their first studio album. Lilly Singh plays the (human) lead role of Nora, a driven junior A&R executive tasked with managing and wrangling the mayhem that is The Electric Mayhem Band. With the help of Nora, the old-school Muppet band comes face to face with the current-day music scene as they try to finally go platinum.
Review: It’s like someone read my fever dream journal and made a series just for me, following Dr. Teeth and his band featuring the drummer of all drummers, Animal. I am a total nerd for these Jim Henson creations and I will watch anything they put out it’s pretty refreshing to see that they have something not featuring the main cast.
Class Of ’09 (Disney+) – A suspense thriller limited series, the story follows a class of FBI agents set in three distinct points in time who grapple with immense changes as the U.S. criminal justice system is altered by artificial intelligence. Spanning multiple decades and told across interweaving timelines, the series examines the nature of justice, humanity and the choices people make that ultimately define their lives and legacy. The series stars Bryan Tyree Henry as Tayo, one of the most unorthodox agents to ever join the bureau, and Kate Mara as Poet, one of the most successful undercover agents of all time.
Review: I was initially pretty uninterested in this show, which I perceived to be a police procedural at first glance but the complexity of the character over the span of decades was really enticing. The cast is solid as I think Henry is one of the fast-rising lead stars, especially after his work in Causeway with Jennifer Lawrence recently and Mara has been a dependable actress for years. The story has a deeper subplot than the general premise would lead you to believe so I think I’m in it for at least the first five episodes.
Mulligan (Netflix) – After Earth is destroyed by an alien attack, a rag-tag band of survivors has to start society over from scratch. It’s an opportunity to learn from humanity’s past mistakes and get things right this time. Or make the same mistakes all over again. Probably the second one.
Review: Coming from the mind of 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt co-creator Robert Carlock, this is the opportunity to move his madness to the animated landscape. Featuring a solid cast with Nat Faxon, Chrissy Tegen, Tina Fey, Daniel Radcliffe and Sam Richardson, the show has failed to catch fire with me so far like Carlock’s previous work has. The Boston doofus who has to act the hero is a bit Family Guy-leaning, even given the different premises, and it doesn’t seem to have the same sort of writing to have a sustainable drive for a whole series. I smell an early cancellation on this one.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 – In the final part of their story, our beloved band of misfits is looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Expectations: This is the end of many things as it brings to a close the story of a lovable bunch of a-holes and the completion of writer and director James Gunn’s involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he moves to course correct the DC Comics movie franchises. I expect Gunn to play everyone’s heartstrings like a well-trained classical musician and see the fitting finale of a trilogy that exceeded all of my wants and desires for it. What will it set up for the future of the MCU? That is unclear to me but I know that our main cast probably sees their swan song here.
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, 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.
Carmen – To escape a murderous cartel, the captivating young Carmen (Melissa Barrera) is northbound, her route traversing an area patrolled by the US government and fanatical Americans who hunt people for sport. Mixed into the horde is local veteran Aidan (Paul Mescal), dragged into the ignoble mission as a means of earning money for his impoverished family. Soon, the star-crossed sweethearts intersect and, with hearts leading the way, take the wheel with Los Angeles on the horizon. Carmen’s goal is to seek refuge in a nightclub run by an infamous family friend named Masilda (Rossy de Palma) and bartender Gabrielle (Elsa Pataky). But as the song goes, l’amour est un oiseau rebelle — and perhaps love may not be enough when the laws of physics and men aren’t far behind.
Review: Based on the famous French novel by the creator of one of the creators of romanticism, Prosper Mérimée, world-renowned choreographer and dancer Benjamin Millepied makes an ambitious and striking feature film debut. After her horror breakout performances in Scream and Scream VI, actress Melissa Barrera is electric in this film and Paul Mescal follows his brilliant Oscar-nominated performance in Aftersun with another stellar outing here. This movie is unlike any in the literary adaptation catalogue and it benefits from that.
Acidman – Maggie tracks down her estranged father Lloyd, now living in the Oregon wilderness and obsessed with UFOs; together they attempt to make first contact.
Review: When I started this movie, I have to admit that I was expecting something that was more sci-fi driven but the heart of this story is the reconciliation of the estranged relationship of a father and daughter. More to the point, the film is a character study of a man who may be silently brilliant or mentally ill and the effect that has had on a woman who just wanted to know her dad. While I do wish that the film leaned harder into the sci-fi elements, you quickly realize that this was never going to be the focus.
Blu-Ray:
80 For Brady – The movie is inspired by the true story of 4 best friends and New England Patriots fans who take a life-changing trip to Super Bowl LI to see their hero Tom Brady play, and the chaos that ensues as they navigate the wilds of the biggest sporting event in the country.
Review: This film is exactly what you expect it to be, funny in fits and starts and cringy throughout but it is a winning backdrop for four absolute legends. I will watch Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin do anything together, especially after the complete series of Grace & Frankie, but adding the adorable Sally Field and the iconic Rita Moreno just makes it that much better. I won’t say this is a good movie by any means but still thoroughly enjoyable.
Play Dead – Criminology student Chloe fakes her own death to break into a morgue, in order to retrieve a piece of evidence that ties her younger brother to a crime gone wrong. Once inside, she quickly learns that the fearsome Coroner uses the morgue as a front for a sick and twisted business. As a frightening game of cat and mouse ensues, Isabel will discover that the scariest thing about the morgue is not the dead, but the living.
Expectations: As a horror thriller fan, I have learned over the years that, whether as a writer or as a director, I generally have a fun time with Patrick Lussier’s movies. The guy has given us the cinematic rides of Drive Angry and the remake of My Bloody Valentine and now he’s making Jerry O’Connell super creepy and I’m totally here for it. The reviews are pretty favourable and it apparently leans into the dark humour which is Lussier’s wheelhouse, which only adds to my intrigue for the film.
Steve’s Blu-Ray & DVD Geekouts:
Deathtrap – When once-successful playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) sees his latest Broadway effort bomb on its opening night, he tumbles into despair — until he receives a package from his former student Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve). Inside is an unproduced script that’s better than anything Sidney has written in years. At the urging of his wife, Myra (Dyan Cannon), Sidney undertakes a plan to lure Clifford to his country home, murder him and then announce the script as his own work.
Review: Going through legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet’s work has been a true pleasure as I get older as a movie fan so, in picking up all of the Warner Archive collection chronologically, I was really excited to see another one of his mysteries for the first time. Featuring stellar work from the always incomparable Michael Caine, it really is Reeves who shines in this film, coupled with a really great script from the same mind behind Rosemary’s Baby. Sadly, it was the only time that Lumet and Caine worked together.
Chloe – Balancing family with a successful career, Catherine Stewart, a gynecologist, after years of being happily married to David, a college professor, starts to believe that the reason for her stagnant marriage is her husband’s infidelity, a suspicion fuelled after finding a compromising photo of him with one of his students on his cellphone. Insecure but curious to find out whether David is prone to adultery, Catherine while looking down from the window in her office, will spot Chloe, a young and elegant escort girl and she will hire her as a honey trap to flirt, seduce and report back. Without a doubt, Chloe is intelligent and quite proficient in her job, so before long, Catherine will be the recipient of the explicitly vivid descriptions of their passionate encounters that will ignite an unprecedented and inexplicable urge to hear more. However, as the appointments multiply, Catherine inadvertently loses control while putting her entire family at risk.
Review: Atom Egoyan is in that special category of Canadian filmmakers with a European-like directing eye, much like David Cronenberg and, to a degree, Xavier Dolan. This film has the feel of a steamy French erotic thriller and is very much played like that as well, with Amanda Seyfriend giving a hell of an underrated performance. If you look it up on Rotten Tomatoes, you will see it as rotten but I think the film was panned for its B-movie sex-hungry prowess, which I believe to be its strong suit. It feels like a restrained De Palma flick.
The Brak Show: Volume One – An network original, this is a story of a neighbourhood. It’s the story of a family. It’s the story of what happens when adults have children and those children go to school. And Brak is in it. He lives in a house. A house on a quiet street not unlike yours or mine. A house in a neighbourhood. That’s The Brak Show.” So goes Cartoon Network’s description of the new sitcom starring Brak, the absent-minded space pirate from the Space Ghost cartoons. He goes through all the typical sitcom situations with his friend Zorak. Also along for the ride are Brak’s parents, his brother Sisto, and his next-door neighbour Thundercleese.
Review: This is a blast from my television-watching past, circa the 2000s, that I had a burst of inspiration to watch so I went onto the net to find that it had been discontinued years ago. Luckily, a wholesaler warehouse I frequent had a dusty copy in stock and I was able to secure the first volume of an inanely hilarious little animated film that paved the way for Adult Swim to rise for us fans with a more mature sense of humour that is also completely immature. Now to find the second set.
Television:
White House Plumbers (Crave) – This series goes behind the scenes of the Watergate scandal as Nixon’s political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, accidentally topple the presidency they were zealously trying to protect. Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, formerly of the CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the committee to reelect the president, plotting several unbelievable covert ops, including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex.
Expectations: Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson toplining a new HBO limited series about Hunt and Liddy being the downfall of the Nixon government? And it’s by the producers behind Succession and Veep? Sign me the heck up for all five episodes! The show looks like a slam dunk no matter how you look at it because both of these actors are so consistent in delivering great performances and with Lena Headey, Kim Coates, Ike Barinholtz and more in the supporting cast, it just gets better and better.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix) – The young queen’s marriage to King George of England ushers in an epic love story and transforms high society.
Expectations: With the massive success that the original series Bridgerton has become, it was only a matter of time til we saw other shows based in the same universe. Now we get a prequel following the young exploits of Golda Rosheuvel’s character, who is my favourite character on the show, so at least they’re starting at a high point. I do say this without having watched all two seasons of Bridgerton but I appreciate a good formidable actress.
A Small Light (Disney+) – Follows twentysomething Miep Gies who, when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II, didn’t hesitate. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls (Otto Frank, his wife Edith and daughters Anne and Margot as well as four others) in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.
Expectations: National Geographic and Disney+ combine for this historical drama that features one of my favourite British actresses, Bel Powley in the lead role, someone that has hooked me in movies since The Diary Of A Teenage Girl. I also find it fascinating to base this long-known story of Anne Frank around the woman who put it all on the line to save her and her family’s lives.I won’t let the fact that the showrunners come from a Grey’s Anatomy background bug me that much although I do wonder which seasons in particular.
Silo (AppleTV+) – In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant underground silo that plunges hundreds of stories deep; there, people live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.
Expectations: I’m a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic story of survival and the trailer for this one has been plastered everywhere and I’m loving what I’m seeing of it. The cast is stellar, with Mission Impossible and Dune actress Rebecca Ferguson in the lead and Tim Robbins, Common, David Oyelowo, Iain Glen and more to help round out the cast. The show has the potential to be the next big hit for this streaming service if the substance within is as good as its players. Either way, I’ll be watching everything I can of it right away.
The Other Two: Season 3 (Crave) – Former “Saturday Night Live” head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider are the creative forces behind this show, a scripted series centred around two siblings desperately seeking their lot in life. Aspiring actor Cary is struggling to land better auditions than “Man at Party Who Smells Fart,” while his sister Brooke is simply struggling in general. As they work toward self-improvement, their lives are turned upside-down when their teenage brother Chase becomes an internet sensation overnight.
Expectations: Only recently being clued into this show’s existence, I am now playing catch up with a brilliantly written series that takes precocious parody and interjects a couple of tragically comedic losers into the equation. I’m new to both lead actors Heléne Yorke and Drew Trver, but I have long loved Molly Shannon who plays the mom in the series. I also love how to offset their self destructive ways are from the pure goodness of their little superstar brother. It’s a great dynamic.
Star Wars Visions: Season 2 (Disney+) – Seven Japanese animation studios bring their unique perspectives to the “Star Wars” universe through a series of short films.
Expectations: This is one of the coolest things to come out of the Star Wars Disney+ releases as it explores the universe of Star Wars in incredible new ways, and gives us unknown Jedi tales in unique ways. Regular listeners and readers also know exactly how much I love an anthology and this one has so much added nerd cred to it.
Fatal Attraction (Paramount+) – An affair threatens the lives of Dan Gallagher and his wife, Beth, in this reimagining of the 1987 movie, exploring marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders and coercive control.
Expectations: I have to be transparent here and say that I had some doubts about Paramount+ doing a series redo of this classic thriller that featured some iconic performances but the casting of Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan gave me more incentive to watch it. I’m glad I did because I think it’s well written with great dialogue, Joshua is settling into what I’m thinking is a Clooney era, Lizzy is a formidable presence every time she is on screen and it features a plum role for Toby Huss to stretch his wings, always a treat. I have to say that Paramount really surprised me with this one.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – Margaret Simon is just 11 going on 12 when her family moves from New York City to Farbrook, New Jersey. Margaret’s mother is Christian and her father is Jewish. Margaret has been raised without an affiliation to either faith and does not practice an organized religion, although she frequently prays to God in her own words, beginning by saying, “Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.” She is beginning to feel uncomfortable with her lack of religious affiliation. For a school assignment, she chooses to study people’s religious beliefs, hoping to resolve the question of her own religion in the process. Part of her study involves attending different places of worship to better understand the religious practice and see if one might be right for her. She enjoys spending time with her Jewish paternal grandmother, Sylvia Simon, who loves her as she is. She hopes Margaret will embrace Judaism after taking her to her synagogue for Rosh Hashanah services.
Expectations: One of the most celebrated coming-of-age stories of all time gets a feature film adaptation and it’s crazy to think that in the fifty years of the book’s existence, this is the first time it’s been put on screen. The cast really is winning here with young lead actress Abby Ryder Fortson being surrounded by some top talent including Canadian actress Rachel McAdams, Oscar winner Kathy Bates and Uncut Gems writer and director Benny Safdie. The film comes from director Kelly Fremon Craig who also did the Hailee Steinfeld comedy Edge Of Seventeen which I absolutely loved. I think this film is the big winner this week in theatres.
Peter Pan & Wendy – Based on J. M. Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy and inspired by the 1953 animated classic, Peter Pan and Wendy is the timeless tale of a young girl who, defying her parents’ wishes to attend boarding school, travels with her two younger brothers to the magical Neverland. There, she meets a boy who refuses to grow up, a tiny fairy and an evil pirate captain, and they soon find themselves on a thrilling and dangerous adventure far, far away from their family and the comforts of home.
Review: Following up on the masterpiece that is The Green Knight, director David Lowery heads back into the world of adapting animated Disney. Yes, we’ve seen live-action Peter Pan before but not one so rooted in the origin of the character for many of us now, the 1953 iconic piece of history. The film is a mix of that same family-friendly tone and action we all remember, recreated to a meticulous level, and broad sweeps of Lowery’s focused filmmaking with his bold uses of light and texture as well as imaginative camera angles and movement to keep it interesting. Even with a film like Peter Pan, a large commercial venture for Disney+, Lowery will always retain his soul of cinema and he makes Jude Law look like an incredible Captain Hook.
Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story Of The Once And Future Heavyweight Champion Of The World – The film is based on the remarkable true story of one of the greatest comebacks of all time and the transformational power of second chances. Fueled by an impoverished childhood, Foreman channelled his anger into becoming an Olympic Gold medalist and World Heavyweight Champion, followed by a near-death experience that took him from the boxing ring to the pulpit. But when he sees his community struggling spiritually and financially, Foreman returns to the ring and makes history by reclaiming his title, becoming the oldest and most improbable World Heavyweight Boxing Champion ever.
Expectations: You would think this is a straightforward biopic about the boxer and grill entrepreneur but the trailer for the film suggests that it will focus more on the man’s faith. This kind of disinterests me as the faith-based stories have had such a hard time connecting with me at all and the storytelling within always seems to take a back seat to the message. The American Underdog film with Zachary Levi playing Kurt Warner managed to skirt this trope a little bit but it still wasn’t that great. I kind of expect the same from this biopic.
Sisu – During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector (Jorma Tommila) crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover they have just tangled with no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word “sisu”, this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back — even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path.
Expectations: I fully expect this to be the knockout of the week, a film that will delight any action fan that wants a bit more John Wick-style action in their lives crossed with a Finnish Rambo. The trailers for this film are an action nut’s glory dream with insane action and a one-man army taking down droves of Nazi soldiers with a satisfying visceral nature. It’s safe to say that this is my kind of movie and I really hoped we got it here in Penticton but, you know, small-town problems.
My Happy Ending – Andie MacDowell stars as a famous actor who goes incognito to seek treatment for a medical issue. While at the hospital, she meets three unique and remarkable women — an aging rocker, a young mother, and a forever single retired schoolteacher. Together, they help her face adversity with humour and camaraderie while coaching her for the most challenging role she has ever played…herself.
Review: I went into this film believing, if anything, Andie would be great because I’ve always loved her work and I’m happy to see her back in movies again. Unfortunately, this movie plumbs the depths of obvious emotional manipulation and cliched melodrama in a film that could have tightened the whole experience with better writing. It was great to see Miriam Margolyes and Tamsin Greig in this, as I really love their work as well and Tamsin plays the uptight and standoffish person like no one else.
Blu-Ray & DVD:
Triangle Of Sadness – This is a special one to me as this film was celebrated by the Oscars in even being nominated and now it makes its first Blu-ray debut in the Criterion Collection. When you sit down for a movie by writer and director Ruben Ostlund you have to know that you are in for something unpredictable and sometimes as scathing as having a bucket of cold water thrown in your face. He’s taken on marriage dynamics in Force Majeure, and the volatility of the art world in The Square, but this time he has the 1% and influencers in his crosshairs, which is very “shoot to kill”. The initial story follows a celebrity model couple named Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), who are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared “Instagrammable” ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival. Ostlund is going for the throat in an even spicier version of his firebrand and as soon as the story starts to slide down the slope of chaos it is unrelenting into a totally unpredictable third act. Not everyone is loving this movie as much as I am but it hit me in all the right spots even if it is massively stomach-churning in certain places.
Marlowe – I know I’ve been ragging on Liam Neeson every time one of his new geriatric action thrillers is released but I will obtain from it his week because his new film is directed by the legendary Neil Jordan, the man behind films like Interview With The Vampire, The Crying Game and Mona Lisa among others. I’m also digging into the fact that this is an old-school film noir following one of the iconic characters of the genre, Philip Marlowe, which Neeson is pretty perfect for. The story is set in a late 1930s Bay City, with the brooding, down-on-his-luck detective being hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress, setting up all the delicious cliches of a damsel in distress or a femme fatale. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm started to wane when I found that it was all talk and no bluster as Jordan’s Marlowe knows how to construct the dialogue but has a hollow quality underneath as it starts to parrot much better detective stories. Neeson also can’t seem to get out of that gruff Taken gear and it becomes distracting more and more as the film goes on. I thought this was a break out of the slog he’s put himself into for more than a decade now, but we are still in the rut.
Alice, Darling – Anna Kendrick is generally known for comedic roles or ones that lean into comedy from the drama side as she was a mainstay in the three Pitch Perfect movies, the protege foil to George Clooney in Up In The Air and many more projects but this new film heads into some dark territory. Domestic abuse is at the forefront of her new drama and the word of mouth on it has been stellar. In the film, Kendrick plays a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship who becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. Kendrick This is really Anna’s movie and she nails it with a phenomenal performance that makes up for any mistakes in the storytelling. What is crafted is a story about friends creating a support network to try and save a friend who hasn’t gotten the courage to make the exit of a toxic and dangerous relationship. Bill Nighy’s daughter Mary makes her directorial debut with this film it is a bright first feature and I can’t wait for what’s next from her.
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg, Green Lantern and Vixen are transported to the strange world of Remnant and find themselves turned into teenagers. Meanwhile, Remnant heroes Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang must combine forces with the Justice League to uncover why their planet has been mysteriously altered before a superpowered Grimm destroys everything.
Review: I honestly don’t know what to make of this one as it leans heavily into the world of the Warner Bros.-produced anime RWBY more than the Justice League side and, although both sides are in a neutral world between the two worlds, it curtails more to that style. With o prior knowledge of RWBY and the characters, who have seven volumes of adventures, it was hard to get into their story as it has been established for a while and I think you need the back stories to see their connections to each member of the Justice League. That said, I did like Batman’s look for this world, one of the best out of the group.
Star Trek Lower Decks: Season 3 – The third season of the animated and comedic version of Star Trek has now landed on DVD this week after beaming onto Paramount’s streaming service near the end of last summer at the perfect time as lead voice actor Jack Quaid had been riding the tidal wave of the third season of the Prime Video series The Boys and anything he touches seems to be gold at the moment. I’m looking directly at my copy of Scream from last year as I say that. For those uninitiated into the “Final Space” -ing of Star Trek that this show is, the series is about the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, following them as they keep up with their duties, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The supporting cast with Quaidis great, including Jerry O’Connell, Space Force’s Tawny Newsome, Loki’s Eugene Cordero and fellow podcaster Paul Scheer, and I’ve really enjoyed my dive through the series and I’m looking forward to the forthcoming season three. It lacks a little of the consistency of the heavyweights like South Park but it is still a solid show with some great Trek references.
Primal: Season 2 – One of the greatest creators in the game, Genndy Tartokovsky is back with the second season of another incredible epic that he can put alongside Samurai Jack and beam with pride. A decidedly violent tale, this series follows a caveman at the dawn of evolution as he forms an unlikely friendship with an almost extinct dinosaur. Again, without a single word of dialogue, the series is a painting come to life, relying solely on music and graphic imagery to tell the story of two unlikely allies as they navigate through a treacherous world and, after bonding over unfortunate tragedies, they seem to become each other’s only hope of survival against a common enemy. The show is mind-meltingly beautiful in a way that Tartokovsky has the utmost command over and The emotional resonance of even the first episode had me bursting into tears with how heavily it was handled and the fact that it relies on just visuals without any dialogue. I think he has released yet another masterpiece that will be celebrated for years to come, just like the legend of Samurai Jack and each episode resonates with me so much. This show is incredible and hits me on an emotional level consistently.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Gypsy – Rose Hovick (Rosalind Russell) pushes her two young daughters into the entertainment industry, travelling and promoting them with minimal success. After years in the business, younger daughter June quits and elopes, leaving Rose searching for work for her other, less talented daughter, Louise (Natalie Wood). The only offer is at a burlesque house, but Louise takes to it and transforms herself into the popular Gypsy Rose Lee. As Louise gains notoriety, she grows tired of her mother’s influence.
Review: This was an important one for me to seek out for my collection as it is the first entry into the Warner Archive collection, the first acquisition in my start at the beginning of their many releases. The film was an adaptation of a famed Broadway production and, after the HBO documentary from 2020, I’ve been fascinated by the performances of Natalie Wood, an actress taken during her prime, and this is one of the big ones in her career. I’m not big on stage musicals but her performance is full of energy and she outshines Russell from time to time.
When You’re Strange – A chronological look at The Doors, focusing on the lead singer, Jim Morrison (1943-1971), from the formation of the band in 1965, its first gigs, and first album, to Morrison’s death, after years of alcohol and drug use. Along the journey, we see archival footage of rehearsals, performances, and private moments including a Miami concert resulting in Morrison’s arrest and trial for indecency. His love of the spotlight, his desire to be a poet, and his alcohol-fueled mood swings lead to a back and forth between public and private desires, successes, and failures. The band’s music plays throughout.
Review: Admittedly, I can’t call myself a Doors fan as I never really connected with the music that much and always thought that the shadow of Jim Morrison’s star status blocked out the real talent within the actual musicians in the band themselves. Even so, I’m a sucker for a music documentary, especially one made by the legendary Tom DiCillo, and I do completely acknowledge this band’s mark on rock music. The film itself does more to affirm that Morrison’s superstar status was the cause of the band’s lightning-rod success than the actual music which may hit a divisive line for a lot of music lovers out there. Then again, the Oliver Stone biopic with Val Kilmer also divided people as well. I dig the Stone movie myself.
Steve Byrne: The Byrne Identity – Steve Byrne has established himself as one of the premier stand-up comedians of his generation. In his second one-hour special, Steve asks the universal question “Who are you?” The result is a poignant, inventive, and immensely funny look at how we identify ourselves in America.
Review: This is a fantastic stand-up comedy special from a comedian who I found on a mid-2000s special The Kims Of Comedy with Bobby Lee and Ken Jeong and really loved his work. Keep in mind, this special is from thirteen years ago so the America he’s trying to identify with is a very different one. I won’t say better or worse, I’ll just say that 2010 was very different, quaint almost by comparison.
Television:
Sweet Tooth: Season 2 (Netflix) – Ten years ago “The Great Crumble” wreaked havoc on the world and led to the mysterious emergence of hybrids babies born part human, part animal. Unsure if hybrids are the cause or result of the virus, many humans fear and hunt them. After a decade of living safely in his secluded forest home, a sheltered hybrid deer boy named Gus (Christian Convery) unexpectedly befriends a wandering loner named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). Together they set out on an extraordinary adventure across what’s left of America in search of answers about Gus’ origins, Jepperd’s past, and the true meaning of home. But their story is full of unexpected allies and enemies, and Gus quickly learns the lush, dangerous world outside the forest is more complex than he ever could have imagined.
Review: As a guy who has read all of Jeff Lemire’s brilliant comics that this is based on, Sweet Tooth is easily one of my favourite Netflix shows ever made, a story brimming with heart and imagination. Produced by Robert Downey and his wife Susan, this series is like the comic has leapt onto the screen and the second season has lost no momentum from that great finale in season one. I feel like anything I write next is going to head into spoiler territory so I better end it here.
Love & Death (Crave) – Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the north Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires.
Expectations: There is something consistently enticing about stories of church crazies and this show has it written all over it plus it has the added charm of starring the fantastic Elizabeth Olsen in a main role as well as the always great Jesse Plemons. The show is actually the second adaptation of Montgomery’s story in a short couple of years as Jessica Biel took on the role in the Peacock series Candy almost a year ago exactly. This show also has some veteran television experience behind it, giving the show some buzz, as it’s the latest in the David E. Kelley HBO partnership after The Undoing and Nicole Kidman co-produces as well.
Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens: Season 3 (MuchMusic) – Nora Lum and her cousin struggle with young adulthood in Flushing, N.Y., with a little help from her father and grandmother.
Expectations: Another hilarious outing with Awkwafina and her hysterically funny family played by B.D. Wong, Bowen Yang and the scene-stealing Lori Tan Chin. This was an immediate watch for me when it premiered and I haven’t seen a bad episode from it yet. People are surprisingly quiet on this show in my opinion and I lump it in with some of the great crop of single comedian-led shows in recent years like the FX show Dave. Underrated but some of the best comedy on television today.
Saint X (Disney+) – A young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth.
Expectations: This is a mystery of a show that should be right up my alley but I’m not really gripped by it after the first episode. I will say that, s an X-Files and Californication fan, it was cool to see that David Duchovny’s daughter West has a prominent role in this show and it also features the 100 and Fear The Walking Dead’s Alycia Debnam Carey but I need a bit more non-wooden depth of character to get really on board. I feel like shows like Lost spoiled us in the beginning and sometimes it needs a bit more to pull me into a grand arching mystery.
The Afterparty: Season 2 (AppleTV+) – When a high school reunion’s afterparty ends in death, everyone is a suspect. A detective grills the former classmates one by one, uncovering potential motives as each tells their version of the story – culminating in the shocking truth.
Expectations: The first season of this show hit all of my expectations as it comes from one-half of the showrunners of Clone High, the writers and directors of the 21 Jump Street movies and so much more, Christopher Miller. It also has an incredible cast of hilarious people like Be Schwartz, Sam Richardson, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz and so many more. I really thought, after watching the first series, that it would just be a limited one-off series and am so happy to see that we get more. I wonder if there is a story beyond this one as well.
Citadel (Prime Video) – Eight years ago, Citadel fell. The independent global spy agency – tasked to uphold the safety and security of all people – was destroyed by operatives of Manticore, a powerful syndicate manipulating the world from the shadows. With Citadel’s fall, elite agents Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh had their memories wiped as they narrowly escaped with their lives. They’ve remained hidden ever since, building new lives under new identities, unaware of their pasts. One night, when Mason is tracked down by his former Citadel colleague, Bernard Orlick, who desperately needs his help to prevent Manticore from establishing a new world order. Mason seeks out his former partner, Nadia, and the two spies embark on a mission that takes them around the world in an effort to stop Manticore, all while contending with a relationship built on secrets, lies, and a dangerous-yet-undying love.
Review: The opening scene of this show was so corny that I thought I was trapped in a Mr. Ad Mrs. Smith wannabe starring Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and Richard Madden that leaned into cheese and cliche a little too hard. Thankfully, this was only the prologue to our main story and the series itself played a bit more interesting and features Stanley Tucci and the eye in the sky tech guy and I was sold with whatever it wanted to do. The show is a flashy spy thriller featuring an amnesiac who must relearn his reflexes to guard his new family but, being on Prime, it has more room rating-wise to do it. This would be so bad on network television.
Evil Dead Rise – In the fifth Evil Dead film, a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids alone in a cramped L.A. apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.
Expectations: With a Twitter handle like Stevil Dead, it is no surprise that these movies are the tops of the genre for me and I love them deeply. That said, none of the films have disappointed me and from what I’m hearing, director Lee Cronin has gifted us with a glorious and gory entry that will keep us on the edge of our seats and give us nightmares for weeks. I can not friggin’ wait.
Beau Is Afraid – Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.
Expectations: It really looks like this week is a cinematic gift to me as I get not one but two of my most anticipated movies of the year but I doubt my small town of Penticton will receive it unfortunately. This puts the words most anticipated in bold though as it is the follow-up for Ari Aster after his masterpiece Midsommar and pairs him with one of the best actors on the planet right now, Joaquin Phoenix. The reviews are praising Phoenix but I will say there are a lot of detractors saying that Ari is wasting studio money but that just makes me want to see it more.
To Catch A Killer – A modern-day Clarice Starling, Eleanor (Shailene Woodley) is a young police investigator wrestling with the demons of her past when she is recruited by the FBI’s chief investigator (Ben Mendelsohn) to help profile and track the work of a disturbed individual. As the police and FBI launch a nationwide manhunt, they are thwarted at every turn by the individual’s unprecedented behaviour. Given her tortured psyche, Eleanor may be the only person who can understand the mind of their assailant and bring him to justice.
Expectations: The buzz for this film is damn near non-existent as it seems studios are unwilling to even try selling Shailene Woodley films now or something, maybe a residual effect of her Divergent franchise tanking at the box office repeatedly over a five-year span. This film does look interesting, a cat-and-mouse FBI agent versus a serial killer but the Silence Of The Lambs reference in the synopsis will do only harm to the end result I think. Even still, it has Mendelsohn in a main role as well as The VVitch’s Ralph Ineson, some character actor studs in my opinion.
Chevalier – It looks like the big-budget, big studio period films are back or at least for this week as we head to Marie Antoinette’s France for a music-focused drama spearheaded by a fantastic performance from Waves actor Kelvin Harrison. The film is definitely ambitious in scope with costuming, lavish sets and gorgeous art direction and is the first feature film from veteran television director Stephen Williams. It is based on the true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, who rises to heights in French society as a composer before an ill-fated love affair with the wife of a Marquis destroys everything he has built. Co-starring Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton and Minnie Driver, the film manages to circumvent the stuffiness usually exhibited by this dramatic genre with a script and story that is interesting from the start and characters that don’t feel like biopic stereotypes. Harrison keeps getting better and better in every film as well, an actor on a fast track to awards glory.
Ghosted – Salt-of-the-earth Cole (Chris Evans) falls head over heels for enigmatic Sadie (Ana de Armas)–but then makes the shocking discovery that she’s a secret agent. Before they can decide on a second date, Cole and Sadie are swept away on an international adventure to save the world.
Expectations: Years ago when a film went straight to video, pay per view or streaming it was usually the nail in the coffin of a bad film but since the pandemic in a big way some blockbuster-sized films have been getting the streaming release treatment and action is a regular candidate with studios that are unsure what to do with them. This film looks like exactly one of those types of films, an action romantic comedy, sort of like the recent JLo flick Shotgun Wedding on Prime Video, This one has the very gorgeous and likable Chris Evans and Ana De Armas starring in it, making it the third time they’re been in a film together. The trailer is enjoyable enough but I don’t think this is going to do huge streaming numbers for AppleTV+.
Judy Blume Forever – The radical honesty of the books by trailblazing author Judy Blume changed the way millions of adolescent readers understood themselves, their sexuality, and what it meant to grow up, but also led to critical battles against book banning and censorship.
Expectations: One week before one of this author’s greatest works, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret?, hits the big screen, this documentary arrives on Prime Video to give her some very deserved flowers. Featuring Judy and some of the women she inspired, like Molly Ringwald, Samantha Bee, Lena Dunham and many more, I love a good biopic doc and this looks like a solid one that is already getting stellar reviews.
Blu-Ray:
Magic Mike’s Last Dance – “Magic” Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) takes to the stage again after a lengthy hiatus, following a business deal that went bust, leaving him broke and taking bartender gigs in Florida. For what he hopes will be one last hurrah, Mike heads to London with a wealthy socialite (Salma Hayek Pinault) who lures him with an offer he can’t refuse… and an agenda all her own. With everything on the line, once Mike discovers what she truly has in mind, will he–and the roster of hot new dancers he’ll have to whip into shape–be able to pull it off?
Expectations: I know these movies are a big reason for a good amount of Channing Tatum’s fame and I thought the first movie was great but my enthusiasm stalls with XXL and this third film, even with a returning Steven Soderbergh behind the camera, feels forced. As the title implies, this is Mike’s last time on stage so it makes it all that much worse to fizzle at the end of your trilogy.
Emily – The film imagines Emily Brontë’s own Gothic story that inspired her seminal novel, ‘Wuthering Heights.’ Haunted by her mother’s death, Emily struggles within the confines of her family life and yearns for artistic and personal freedom, and so begins a journey to channel her creative potential into one of the greatest novels of all time.
Review: A gorgeously filmed period piece from the first moment, the bold first feature from actress turned filmmaker Frances O’Connor who also wrote the screenplay as well. Emma Mackey has a bubbling intensity to her that is fascinating to watch as Emily, the gifted black sheep in the mix with two equally gifted sisters and Fionn Whitehead and Oliver Cohen-Jackson are two character actors who keep getting better and better. This film was a total win that took chances and escaped being a dry romantic drama biopic.
Kids Vs Aliens – All Gary wants is to make awesome home movies with his best buds. All his older sister Samantha wants is to hang with the cool kids. When their parents head out of town one Halloween weekend, an all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night.
Expectations: Jason Eisener, the brilliant mind behind Canadian Grindhouse actioner Hobo With A Shotgun has returned with something a little bit different for Shudder but guaranteed to have the same charm. What has me more excited about this film in particular as it is the fully realized version of the short film which appears in the anthology horror flick, V/H/S/2. If you are a genre fan, I think you owe it to play Canadian this weekend with this film.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Neptune’s Daughter – Aquatic dancer Eve Barrett (Esther Williams), now partnered with Joe Backett (Keenan Wynn) in a swimsuit design company, tries to prevent her sister, Betty (Betty Garrett), from falling in love with Jose O’Rourke (Ricardo Montalban), a suave South American polo player. Unbeknownst to Eve, Betty has actually fallen for Jack Spratt (Red Skelton), a masseuse who is posing as Jose. To protect her sister, Eve finds the real Jose, agrees to a date, and falls in love.
Review: An Oscar winner for Best Original Song, this is the film we have to credit for bringing the Christmas song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” which would ignite debate seventy years later. The film itself is the definition of easy and breezy fun with an early English-speaking performance from playboy Ricardo Montalban. The film also features a rare on-camera appearance by legendary Looney Tunes voice actor Mel Blanc doing a sort of Mexican accented performance, reminiscent o Speedy Gonzalaz, who wouldn’t debut in animated form until four years later.
The Prince And The Showgirl – A travelling party of royals from central Europe arrives in England in 1911, as the host country prepares to celebrate the coronation of a new king. But when the visiting Regent (Laurence Olivier) goes to a musical theatre, his attraction to American performer Elsie (Marilyn Monroe) makes it hard to stay focused. Soon, Elsie learns of a potential coup in the Regent’s home country, and it’s up to her to smooth things out — or watch as the nation hurtles toward instability.
Review: This is an interesting one as it was directed by Olivier as well and the only one of the few to not be Shakespeare or Chekov. The first movie from Marilyn’s own production company, she and Olivier had trouble filming together. He would often get angry at her for forgetting lines or being late to the set. Monroe was furious one day while filming when Laurence told her to “just be sexy.” The odd thing is, in the final product, I thought she upstaged him in a lot of their scenes together as the movie star quality wins out over his polished deliveries. Late to seeing her actual product on screen, I’ve found her performances really likable but this one might be her best.
Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes! – After a wave of reports of mysterious attacks involving people and pets being eaten by the traditionally docile fruit, a special government task force is set up to investigate the violent fruit and put a stop to their murderous spree. Included in this crack team are a lieutenant who never goes anywhere without his parachute, an underwater expert who’s never out of his scuba gear, and a master of disguise who conceals his appearance by dressing as a black Adolf Hitler.
Review: This was a many-time rental for me when I was a kid and after getting a refresher with this MVD Rewind Collection Blu-Ray I can’t tell you why I was so obsessed. The campy cult status of the movie bleeds off the screen with its ridiculous premise and it is very cool to see this spoof classic restored for home release. One of my favourite pieces of trivia from this film is that the big helicopter crash in it was unintentional and totally spun for story in the aftermath. All this length to make a horror film about man-eating tomatoes made out of sponge.
Television:
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always (Netflix) – Thirty years after the wise and powerful Zordon formed the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the team comes face to face with a familiar threat from the past. In the midst of a global crisis, they are called on once again to be the heroes the world needs. This 30th Anniversary Special is inspired by the legendary mantra from the franchise “Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger,” meaning once you become part of the Ranger family, you are always welcome back.
Expectations: This one is bittersweet for obvious reasons with the recent passing of Green/White Ranger Jason David Frank and the return of the old cast here but the film was actually made when he was still alive. The reality is that Frank and famed Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson had actually declined to return which makes the extra-long episode more of a partially transparent cash grab for Netflix. That said, I’ll most likely still watch it, being an old-school Power Rangers fan.
The Diplomat (Netflix) – In the midst of an international crisis, Kate Wyler a career diplomat lands in a high-profile job for which she was not suited, with tectonic implications for her marriage and her political future.
Thoughts on the show: On the outside, the show looks really formulaic, like a series ripped off of a CBS drama like Madam Secretary but that feeling is dispelled a few scenes into the pilot episode. The show then starts to rise in interest with great character work from the lead star Keri Russell, still riding that high from The Americans, and Rufus Sewell as her former ambassador husband. The show manages to set up a great political drama in the first hour and then pull the rug from under you in the last thirty seconds before the credits and that is how you hook an audience. It got me on an immediate binge so I think it will be pretty effective.
Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head: Season 2 (Paramount+) – The iconic animated duo are back and dumber than ever. The ’90s pop-culture phenomenons return, voiced by creator Mike Judge, to confound common sense, torment each other, and showcase some of the dumbest comedy imaginable.
What to expect this season: Really what can I say about this one? If you are into it, you will love it. If you hated this show the first time around, well, expect more of the same.I will say that the original film that got us here to a new Paramount+ series is entertaining as hell and I really liked season one so hopefully the well hasn’t run dry yet.
Dead Ringers (Prime Video) – A modern take on David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller starring Jeremy Irons, Dead Ringers will feature Rachel Weisz playing the double-lead roles of Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes–including pushing the boundaries of medical ethics–in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s health care to the forefront.
Expectations: The track record for remaking the works of the amazing David Cronenberg hasn’t been great but the casting of Rachel Weisz as our lead twin characters causes me to be so intrigued that I will likely finish every episode by the end of the weekend. The story always was fascinating and I’m really looking forward to the modern take as well as the new avenues the gender swap could lead to as two brilliant women surgeons.
Barry: Season 4 (Crave) – Disillusioned at the thought of taking down another “mark,” depressed, low-level hitman Barry Berkman seeks a way out. When the Midwesterner reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to execute a hit on an actor who is bedding a mobster’s wife, little does Barry know that the City of Angels may be his sanctuary. He follows his target into acting class and ends up instantly drawn to the community of eager hopefuls, especially dedicated student Sally, who becomes the object of his affection. While Barry wants to start a new life as an actor, his handler, Fuches, has other ideas, and the hitman’s criminal past won’t let him walk away so easily.
What to expect this season: The end, that’s what to expect. The end of Barry himself? Probably. Most likely. I really don’t think it could happen any other way by this point but the one thing that this show and creator Bill Hader has managed to do is always keep us on our toes, always keep us laughing and guess at what will happen next and constantly blurring the lines between true comedy and the darkest of souls. The final season of Barry has arrived so buckle up, I think we’re going to get pummeled.
Renfield – R.M. Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) decides to leave his centuries-long line of work as a henchman and familiar to Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and finds a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans when he falls in love with a feisty but perennially aggressive traffic cop named Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina).
Expectations: Cage, not even a year after the self-lampooning comedy The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, returns to carve a bit of 2023 out for himself. Bloody fun with a hilarious script and more self-awareness make this an easy crowd-pleaser.
The Pope’s Exorcist – Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.
Expectations: Russell Crowe leads this possession horror flick that looks pretty formulaic in its trailer. The film’s bright spot comes from director Julius Avery who delivered the insane World War II action horror Overlord, an experience way better than expected. He also needs a win after the letdown of Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan and a Crowe-led horror could deliver a box office surprise.
Mafia Mamma – An American mom (Toni Collette) inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm’s consigliere (Monica Bellucci), she hilariously defies everyone’s expectations as the new head of the family business.
Review: The terrible trailers for this movie nearly scared me off completely but the mere fact that it stars Toni Collette, who I would watch in anything, and directed by Thirteen and Lords Of Dogtown director Catherine Hardwicke kept me on board. That said, Collette is the saving grace in a film that is cartoonish and slapstick but oddly charming in the end. If you read elsewhere bout this movie you will see many low scores for this one but I kind of had fun with the movie.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline – A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline, in Daniel Goldhaber’s taut and timely thriller that is part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of the climate crisis. Based on the controversial book by Andreas Malm.
Review: A low-fi thriller that bubbles with intensity from the get-go and doesn’t let up until its very unpredictable end. I haven’t seen writer and director Daniel Goldhaber’s previous work, Cam, but this film is so well thought out and so driven in its goal. Lead actress and co-writer Ariela Barer is magnetic in her performance as an actress and storyteller to look out for.
Showing Up – A sculptor (Michelle Williams) preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.
Review: Consistently one of the best pairings in modern independent cinema, Reichardt and Williams always deliver poignant character stories that are believable to the core. It also has the MVP of 2022, Hong Chau in a main role and we get another Judd Hirsch movie after his appearance in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. I love Kelly’s very quiet approach to all of her films and the cinematography from usual collaborator Christopher Blauvelt is exquisite.
Kids Vs Aliens – All Gary wants is to make awesome home movies with his best buds. All his older sister Samantha wants is to hang with the cool kids. When their parents head out of town on Halloween weekend, an all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night.
Expectations: Jason Eisener, the brilliant mind behind Canadian Grindhouse actioner Hobo With A Shotgun has returned with something a little bit different for Shudder but guaranteed to have the same charm. What has me more excited about this film in particular as it is the fully realized version of the short film which appears in the anthology horror flick, V/H/S/2. If you are a genre fan, I think you owe it to play Canadian this weekend with this film.
Blu-Ray:
Living – Bill Nighy is an incredible actor with a plethora of fantastic performances on his resume but he may have just put a new and bright gem in the crown of his career with this new drama and it also happens to be inspired by one of the greatest creative minds in cinema history. This new character-driven film driven by Nighy’s stellar outing is based on Ikiru, a drama written and directed by the legendary Akira Kurosawa in 1952, a film he considered his greatest work. The story follows Nighy as a humourless civil servant who decides to take time off work to experience life after receiving a terminal diagnosis from his doctor. Realizing that he has no legacy, he strives to make his life mean something for the community he’s served all of his life. I cannot stress enough how beautiful Nighy’s portrayal is in this film and the direction from Moffie director Oliver Hermanus is on a whole new level with intimate and gorgeous cinematography from Jamie Ramsey who also shot the unfortunate fanfare silent See How They Run. Presented in a fascinating 4:3 screen ratio, it added so much to the experience.
Infinity Pool – After six slow years of inactivity, unsuccessful novelist James Foster now questions his talent. And at this point in life, James is willing to try everything to overcome the chronic writer’s block–perhaps the sandy beaches and the picturesque serenity of a tropical paradise would do the trick. Instead, as the blocked author and his supportive publishing heiress wife, Em, look for inspiration in an exclusive resort overlooking the sea, a millisecond of inattention destroys the couple’s tomorrows. Now, isolated from reality and bound by the draconian laws of a strange land, James and Em have some tough, life-altering decisions to make. But money buys everything. As things get out of hand, can those who can afford sin find a loophole to save their skin?
Review: Brando Cronenberg is back and coming for the 1% just months removed from Ruben Ostlund coming for their skins in Triangle Of Sadness. Skarsgard is a great conduit in this nightmare ride of a hedonistic vacation that doubles down on debauchery, body horror and mind-bending visuals but Mia Goth is where this film excels in another gonzo performance. Not for the weak of heart but a highly recommended thriller.
The Fisher King – A former radio shock-jock (Jeff Bridges) sinks into a boozy depression when his flip comment on the air is blamed for a shooting spree in an upscale cafe. Living off the kindness of his long-suffering girlfriend Anne (Mercedes Ruehl, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), Jack has an epiphany when he is rescued from street punks by Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless former professor who has created a world of his own invention to insulate himself from the pain of witnessing his wife’s death in the cafe shooting spree.
New Criterion edition: Landing on Criterion Collection 4K this week, Terry Gilliam’s presence in this prestigious group of films is a clear indicator of his profound effect on cinema, a visionary who is definitely an all-time favourite for me. This movie is a masterpiece with career-best performances from the top-billed three and another showcase of Robin’s incredible range.
Juniper – Veteran actors usually are a good selling point for me in any character study drama and Charlotte Rampling has had a handful of these types of films that I have loved like Swimming Pool and 45 Years. This film is also deeply rooted in the country where it takes place, New Zealand and, like Aussie films, I have a certain affinity for their cinema as well. The film follows a self-destructive teenager spiralling into suicidal thoughts that is asked to look after his ailing grandmother when he is suspended from school. Obtuse to each other at first the two start to bond over each other’s strong will and battle for control over their situations, hers as it dwindles to a close and his as he searches for meaning and a purpose in it. The film is well-acted and beautifully shot but I feel like it doesn’t do enough to secure its own singular voice and kind of gets lost in the shuffle of other films like it and dwarfed by ones that are better. I still love the mauri culture that is represented, an indigenous voice that has such a great presence in all New Zealand productions.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
B’Twixt Now And Sunrise – When struggling supernatural fiction writer Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) arrives in an isolated small town as part of his book tour, he hears about the local lore of vampires and an infamous mass murder. Eager for inspiration, Baltimore is swept into a surreal fever dream of eccentric characters, from the oddball sheriff (Bruce Dern) to the ghost of a young girl (Elle Fanning) to visions of Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin), that force him to confront his own troubled past.
Review: As film fans, we all have to gather around the great Francis Ford Coppola when he releases something because of the gifts he has given us in his past. This film, first released in 2011, was decidedly not good but, like another misstep of his, The Godfather Part III, he has gone back into the editing room to create a new definitive cut of this horror film. The outcome? A marginally better ghost story that reminds us from time to time that this man did Apocalypse Now but that was over forty-five years ago.
Confessions Of A Nazi Spy – FBI agent Ed Renard (Edward G. Robinson) goes on the hunt for a Nazi spy ring bent on subverting the citizenry of America. Beginning with Nazi rabble-rouser Kurt Schneider (Francis Lederer), Renard uses his well-honed instincts to find his way to the ring leader of the espionage campaign, Dr. Karl Kassell (Paul Lukas). With the Nazi secret police rounding up any security leaks and passing them back to Germany, Renard races to extract the information that will bring down the conspiracy.
Review: One of the rare pre-World War II anti-propaganda films, it’s very cool to see Warner Archive celebrating this, at the time, big studio gamble and giving it a high-def treatment. The reception of it got very personal too as Adolf Hitler reportedly planned to execute the makers of this film upon winning the war. As for the film itself, Edward G. Robinson was a definite star of his era and had the balls to take on this film when other stars like Marlene Dietrich feared what repercussions would happen to their families in Europe.
Flamingo Road – Dancer Lane Bellamy (Joan Crawford) tours as part of a carnival, but is deserted in Boldon City when they flee to avoid their debts. Deputy Fielding Carlisle (Zachary Scott) arrives and, secretly smitten with her, helps Lane find employment as a waitress. However, scheming Sheriff Titus Semple’s (Sydney Greenstreet) ambitious plans for Fielding to become a rep in the state legislature does not include his dating an itinerant woman, so he runs her out of town. Lane seeks revenge, but at what cost?
Review: A favourite American film from German new wave master director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this underappreciated film noir drama gets another chance at modern relevance with this Blu-ray edition and I think it deserves its flowers now. Joan Crawford is great and I love the tough-talking script for it. It’s a forgotten Michael Curlitz gem that gets overshadowed by giants in his career like Casablanca.
Television:
Blindspotting: Season 2 (Crave) – As Miles, Ashley’s partner of 12 years and father of their son, is suddenly incarcerated, she is left to navigate a chaotic and humorous existential crisis when she’s forced to move in with Miles’ mother and half-sister.
What to expect from this season: A brilliant follow-up to a film I consider required watching from 2018, the first season of the series picked up so nicely, this time following Ashley’s struggles in her Oakland neighbourhood as a newly temporary single mom. The snappy writing is still so present in the story and Jasmine Cephas Jones is so likable in the lead role. This is one of my current favourite shows right now so I’m so excited to see it return.
The Marvelous Ms. Maisel: Season 5 (Prime Video) – It’s the late 1950s and Miriam “Midge” Maisel has everything she has ever wanted — the perfect husband, two kids and an elegant apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. Her seemingly idyllic life takes a surprising turn when she discovers a hidden talent she didn’t previously know she had — stand-up comedy. This revelation changes her life forever as she begins a journey that takes her from her comfortable life on the Upper West Side through the cafes and nightclubs of Greenwich Village as she makes her way through the city’s comedy industry on a path that could ultimately lead her to a spot on the “Tonight Show” couch.
What to expect this season: The end, that’s what we should all e expecting because that’s what this season is, the final story for Midge, her insane family, her ex-husband Joel and her manager Suzie. I will say one thing is for certain, I will miss everything about this phenomenal series and will possibly watch it over again in the near future. There is something special about this show and it shined from the get-go with the snappiest scripts I’ve ever heard and character building on a whole new level. We were spoiled by this show and it will have a lasting legacy for it I think.
Rennervations (Disney+) – Jeremy Renner teams up with expert builders to acquire large, decommissioned government vehicles and reimagine them as “mind-blowing creations” that serve kids in communities worldwide.
Expectations: I honestly have no idea as Disney didn’t even supply me with a pre-screener for this show but I’m in it just for the charm of Jeremy himself, an actor I have enjoyed for decades now. Does the world need another celebrity-hosted renovation show? No, probably not but with the name Rennervations such a slam dunk-sounding title, you have to give it a small chance I think.
Florida Man (Netflix) – When a struggling ex-cop (Edgar Ramírez) is forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend, what should be a quick gig becomes a spiraling journey into buried family secrets and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing in a place where so much is wrong. The series is described as a wild odyssey into a sunny place for shady people in the spirit of Body Heat and Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight.
Expectations: I can’t believe it’s taken this long for the internet what the fuckery of The Florida Man to get any sort of series mention and now here we are with a Netflix show starring Edgar Ramirez, an actor I really like. Costarring Mad Max: Fury Road’s Abbey Lee and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Clark Gregg, the series was created by Donald Todd, a mega-producer and writer on giant shows like This Is Us and Ugly Betty but it doesn’t give me much foothold in his ability to deliver a story like this. When you throw a name around like Elmore Leonard, certain expectations arise.
The Last Thing He Told Me (AppleTV+) – Based on the novel The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave. Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity–and why he really disappeared. Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future. One neither Hannah nor Bailey could have anticipated.
Expectations: I feel like this show has been kind of done before, most recently with the Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman HBO show The Undoing, but a lead actor can make a seemingly formulaic show a bit more interesting. The star of this series is Jennifer Garner and as a huge fan of her early 2000s series Alias I’ll give anything she does in the episodic form a chance and this has her with Jamie Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The show is the showrunner debut for Academy Award-winning writer Josh Singer, known for Spotlight, First Man and The Post, all great films, so I’m looking forward to what he produces here.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie – For a nineties kid like myself, I am owed an accurate adaptation of possibly the most widely recognized video games of all time because the one we got in 1993 feels like a fever dream. Nintendo partnering with the Despicable Me studio Illumination Entertainment might be the gift we never knew would deliver as the trailers for this new animated version look like a love letter to all of our starts in gaming. The story follows a Brooklyn plumber named Mario who travels through the Mushroom Kingdom with a princess named Peach and an anthropomorphic mushroom called Toad to find Mario’s brother, Luigi, and to save the world from a ruthless fire-breathing Koopa named Bowser. Pretty standard and I’m almost guaranteeing a massive win for Illumination and a greenlit sequel as both Mario and Sonic see successful franchises, as they should be, being the heavyweights. I would even say that this is an early Oscar contender in the Best Animated department for next year.
Air – It’s been thirteen years since Ben Affleck was behind the camera, the last being his Dennis Lehane adaptation Live By Night, so knowing he had, not only just a new movie but one starring Matt Damon alongside himself, I was very interested. It also happens to be based around the greatest basketball player of all time and one of the most iconic pieces of footwear as well. The film follows the story of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, played by Damon, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball who hadn’t even set foot on an NBA court yet, Michael Jordan. Affleck stars in a supporting role as the founder of the company Phil Knight and a huge cast backs them including Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina and Academy Award winner Viola Dais. The early reviews for the film are stellar and it’s great to see Affleck return to the acclaim that he was receiving over a decade ago with Argo, The Town and Gone, Baby, Gone.
Chupa – Shy 13-year-old Alex (Evan Whitten) flies from Kansas City to Mexico to meet his extended family for the first time. There he meets his grandfather and former lucha libre champion Chava (Demián Bichir), energetic, wrestling-obsessed cousin Memo (Nickolas Verdugo), and fearless, hip cousin Luna (Ashley Ciarra). But just as Alex begins to get his bearings, he discovers a mythical creature living under his grandfather’s shed: a young chupacabra cub, which he recognizes from stories of the feared, full-grown chupacabra, fabled to feed on farmers’ livestock. Alex soon learns that his new friend “Chupa” has a secret history with his family, and that dogged, dangerous scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater) is hunting the misunderstood creature to try and harness his powers. To protect Chupa from impending danger, Alex sets off on the adventure of a lifetime, one that will push the bonds of his newfound family to the brink, and remind him that life’s burdens are lighter when you don’t have to carry them alone.
Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now – Admittedly, Lewis Capaldi’s music isn’t something I would just put on during the weekend but I will acknowledge how powerful his voice is and his songwriting is really solid. That said, his music is just so sad at its core, with such heartbreak and loss in the lyrics, which is so crazy because Lewis himself feels like such a silly and funny guy at his core. This documentary, produced through Netflix, follows Lewis from his beginnings as a teen singer-songwriter who earned his fame after a performance went viral, leading to a big following on social media and the massive success of his first record. The follow-through of the film is in Capaldi’s journey in creating his follow-up record as well as dealing with personal issues in his anxiety and mental health. At points, the film feels pretty standard in the music dc department, a fly-on-the-wall look at this artist’s life but through Lewis, there is his personality that sets his story apart from everyone else. That said, I don’t see myself picking up his vinyl anytime soon but I walked away with more appreciation for his art.
Blu-Ray:
M3GAN – Cult horror got off to a jump start this year as the first release weekend of 2023 had this sci-fi horror from the genre audience’s favourite studio Blumhouse landing in theatres and it was an unexpected little piece of self-aware brilliance. Much like Barbarian took hold of moviegoers in September last year, this new film has all of the makings of earning that soft spot in horror lovers’ hearts and the fact that it has a full-on dance scene punctuated with murderous mayhem is just a cherry on the chilling sundae. The film follows a robotics engineer who builds a life-like android doll and decides to activate it to be a companion for her niece that has recently lost both of her parents. The friendship between the two is fast and the attachment between the two grows until our titular robotic doll starts to take it too far and begins to off anyone she deems a threat to her new friend. Based on a story by one of the greatest minds in modern horror, James Wan, the man behind Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring and Malignant, this feels like another facet of his creative prowess, this one being a sort of Chucky renewal for the modern age in a small way. Wan leaves the directing duties to Gerard Johnstone, a creator who astounded with his movie Housebound in 2014 and with this being his big North American break I think his introduction went very well as we have a sequel greenlit already.
Confess, Fletch – In this delightful comedy romp, Jon Hamm stars as the roguishly charming and endlessly troublesome Fletch, who becomes the prime suspect in a murder case while searching for a stolen art collection. The only way to prove his innocence? Find out which of the long list of suspects is the culprit–from the eccentric art dealer and a missing playboy to a crazy neighbour and Fletch’s Italian girlfriend. Crime, in fact, has never been this disorganized.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Movie Franchise – Now that the original cast has had the entire series and their movies moved up to the next echelon of physical media, it’s now time for the Next Generation movie to do the same. Whether you find yourself as a Wars or Trek fan, we can still agree that at least one of these four movies is awesome and I think we might even agree on which one it is. Now on Blu-Ray and 4K, you have the first foray into feature films with Generations, which had Picard meeting Captain Kirk, First Contact, the epic fight against the Borg, Insurrection, the discovery of a conspiracy with the Federation and Nemesis, Picard doing battle against his own younger clone. First Contact is my obvious favourite but all of these movies are awesome in their own right. You also have to give it up for a young Tom Hardy as the villain in the last film.
South Park: Season 25 – Let’s all take a trip back to the world created by demented Colorado native Trey Parker and Matt Stone as there is a brand new season of one of the greatest animated shows of all time. I will also say that it makes a good play to be the actual best of all time with the simple fact that it never had a bad season and continues to be subversive and edgy. Season 25 has the continued saga of Randy Marsh and his cannabis farm Tegrity Farms but now is facing off with his new neighbour, Tolkien’s dad who has successful dreams of his own farm. This season is also the set up to all of the streaming movies that were released on Paramount+ so it is worth catching up on to binge all of those.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – The initial adaptation of the bestselling Stieg Larsson novel, this was a landmark film for me beyond that as it put star Noomi Repace on my radar and I’ve been a fan ever since. This is also a decidedly messed up story that had my jaw on the floor and as much as I love the David Fincher remake with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, this original has the edge. For those who have never had the sick pleasure of this revenge series, the story follows a journalist who is aided by a young female hacker with a hellbent path of her own in his search for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years. This movie is so rich with character and intrigue, one of my favourite thrillers in the last twenty years and it’s really sad that Larsson didn’t live to see the mark that his stories made and the effect that they would have on cinema. This film helped deliver an awakening to the R-rated thriller at the box office that is still felt today.
I’ll Cry Tomorrow – Deprived of a normal childhood by her ambitious mother, Katie, Lillian Roth becomes a star of Broadway and Hollywood before she is twenty. Shortly before her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, David Tredman, he dies and Lillian takes her first drink of many down the road of becoming an alcoholic. She enters into a short-lived marriage to an immature aviation cadet, Wallie, followed by a divorce and then marriage to a sadistic brute and abuser Tony Bardeman. After a failed suicide attempt, Burt McGuire comes to her aid and helps her find the road back to happiness after sixteen years in a nightmare world, not counting the first twenty with her mother.
Camille – An attractive woman going by the name of Marguerite lives in Paris and is a courtesan, kept by the rich aristocrat Baron de Varville. When the handsome young Armand sees her for the first time, he immediately falls in love. Camille is not so easy as to fall for his charms immediately. She lives a comfortable life, after all. As she comes to have feelings for him, Armand’s father intervenes asking her not to cast a shadow on his son’s future prospects and she agrees. In her greatest time of need, however, the loving Armand returns to her.
Television:
Beef (Netflix) – Two people let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their every thought and action. The show is the first A24-produced series and stars comedian Ali Wong and Academy Award nominee Steven Yuen.
Dave: Season 3 (Disney+) – The show centers on a neurotic man in his late 20s who has convinced himself that he’s destined to be one of the best rappers of all time. Now he must convince his closest friends because, with their help, he actually might convince the world. Simultaneously exasperating and inspiring to his friends, he vows to leave no stone unturned on his quest to become the next superstar. The half-hour comedy is based on the life of rapper and comedian Dave Burd, better known by his stage name Lil Dicky.
Schmigadoon!: Season 2 (AppleTV+) – In a parody of 1940s musicals, backpacking couple Melissa and Josh get trapped in Schmigadoon, a magical town filled with singing and dancing townspeople; they learn they can’t leave without finding true love, which they thought they already had.
Tiny Beautiful Things (Disney+) – Kathryn Hahn has been a favorite comedic actress of mine for years, ever since her supporting roles in Step Brothers and the wholly underrated The Goods: Live Fast Sell Hard so when she is given the lead role in a new Hulu original, you now I’m paying attention. Another thing that has me excited is that most of the series is directed by Desiree Akhavan, a gifted indie filmmaker who did a couple of great features with The Miseducation Of Cameron Post and Appropriate Behavior as well as episodes of Hacks, Ramy and more. This series has Hahn playing a woman who reluctantly takes on an anonymous, unpaid position with an advice column called Sugar. Unsure of herself at first, she finds a way to weave her life experiences together to help those seeking guidance even as she is in a rock bottom position in her own life. Seeing Hahn take on this dramatic role with a darkly comedic edge, she slips into it so brilliantly and, even though the character starts off as pretty sour and unlikable, you still want to root for her. As the series progresses, it becomes even more unpredictable and I think it will pick up an audience sheerly through word of mouth. It is a damn well-written series and I’m loving it.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – When I first saw that this movie was being made, I audibly groaned as I was suckered into buying a ticket for the 2000s version of the popular role-playing game that was put into theatres by New Line, an absolutely terrible fantasy adventure. The more and more I see of this new adaptation, done by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the guys behind Game Night, I get more and more on board with it and now that it premiered at South By Southwest to great reviews, well, I’m excited now. The story follows a charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers who embark on an epic quest to retrieve a lost relic for the wrong person, unleashing a dark and malevolent force on the world that threatens to conquer and destroy everything. There is a deep charm to this cast, led by Chris Pine, as it has depth in so many categories with action stalwart Michelle Rodriguez and rising stars like Detective Pikachu’s Justice Smith, It’s Sophia Lillis and Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page taking on a comedically villainous Hugh Grant and Ted Lasso and Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Anthony Stewart Head’s daughter Daisy is a killer evil role. This movie is going to be awesome and I feel pretty confident in saying that.
A Good Person – This movie hits me in two weak spots as it is the new film from Zach Braff, a guy I’ve loved and supported since Scrubs, and his ex-girlfriend Florence Pugh who has never turned in a bad performance in her entire career. Being a huge fan of Braff’s darker films like Garde State and Wish I Was Here, I was looking for more of a return to the focused character story after his remake of Going In Style and this looks to satiate that need. The story follows Pugh as Allison, a once-thriving young woman with a bright future who was involved in an unimaginable tragedy that took the life of the daughter of Morgan Freeman’s character Daniel. Grief-stricken, he navigates raising his teenage granddaughter and opens his heart to helping Allison achieve some sort of redemption for what she has caused. The reviews aren’t stellar but I feel the crowdpleaser lurking within this film and feel like I could be on the side of celebrating this film, surely another fantastic performance from a future Academy Award winner. Bet on that.
Rye Lane – Romantic comedies with a little edge of drama seem to be a dime a dozen over the last fifty years so going outside of the circle to achieve something new seems to be harder and harder as the years go by. Well, it seems like director Raine Allen-Miller has navigated that landscape well and taken influence from one of my favourites with Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy but infused a young and fully self-aware love story with it. The story follows Yas and Dom, two twenty-somethings dealing with bad breakups in very different ways. With Yas, her heartbreak comes across as anger and Dom wallows in the depression of loss but the two find common ground quickly with their respective losses as they walk the streets of their neighbourhood and slowly restore their faith in love, possibly with each other. The film is small and contained but features big performances from newcomers David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah who are endearing from the get-go and solidify their star status by the film’s end. It takes a lot for me to get fully engaged with a from com and this film seems to do it effortlessly which is so massively impressive in my mind. Such a great film.
Tetris – This may be a rarity here but this is a video game film that can’t be lumped into the video games adaptation category but rather the video game biography story because this is a true story comedy drama surrounding the releasing rights of one of the most iconic games of all time. That may sound a little dull in comparison of that type of film but the story behind the release of Tetris and the ripple effects the sale of it had across the Soviet Union is fascinating and Taron Egerton always makes a film more palatable with his energy. The film follows Taron as Henk Rogers, an American businessman who has the ambition of selling the convention discovery and acquisition he made to the biggest video game company in the world, Nintendo. The catch is he must get full permission from the Soviet Union, causing him to team with the game’s creator Alexey Pajitnov. Director Jon S. Baird, the flashy filmmaker behind the James McAvoyled Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth, gives the film a flashy and fast-paced delivery that always keeps you strung along with the story and Egerton excels as always with some great character work. The film definitely tries to be a crowd-pleaser, which it pulls off and I feel like it could have played well in theatres instead of a direct-to-streaming route on AppleTV+.
Blu-Ray:
Missing – The John Cho-led thriller Searching introduced a new kind of thriller to movie audiences and that is the storytelling through a computer interface and I have to say it was pretty effective. Presented through Facetime videos, Skype or Zoom calls and internet searches, it was truly intriguing in ramping up the intensity and writers and directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, who were editors on that film, made their feature film debuts by going back to that well. The film follows June, played by A Wrinkle In Time’s Storm Reid, who has free reign of her house when her mom goes on vacation overseas with her new boyfriend. The terror sets in when June’s mom doesn’t return and she is sent on a tech-driven search, fearing the worst with all signs pointing towards the new man in her life. The unpredictability of the story method had me pinned to my theatre seat with anticipation of what would be revealed next. Reid has transitioned very well to more adult roles and we are rooting for June as a result of her command in that role. With the sheer quality of this film and Searching, I hope this becomes a new subgenre in the thriller department as it has me in the palm of its hand every time.
Plane – It looked like Gerard Butler’s action movies were getting lazier in being named because this had to be the most ridiculously bland titling I have seen, so much so that the initial need to see it was as low as it could possibly be. The good news is the film is helmed by French director Jean-François Richet whose main mark on North American cinema was remaking the John Carpenter classic Assault On Precinct 13 which he did a decent job of. The plot has Butler as the pilot of a commercial airline with one passenger being a convicted felon being transported to a new prison. Lightening strikes the craft, forcing a risky landing on land occupied by a dangerous rebel force that takes the entire flight hostage leaving Butler and the prisoner to team up and dispatch all of the bad guys in a violent fashion. This film is, on the surface, completely formulaic in its setup and kind of the perfect fit for anyone that has loved all of the “Has Fallen” movies that Butler churns out but this thriller plays it a little differently in its execution. Butler and co-star Mike Colter from Paramount+’s excellent series Evil have solid action chemistry and playing with a lightly R-rated tether it manages some great fight sequences throughout. I’m hearing that a franchise has been born out of the characters and while I didn’t feel like I’d need more of these two, I’m game to watch more if they keep up this quality.
Chilly Scenes Of Winter – I always get excited when a new Criterion Collection edition lands on my doorstep and doubly so when it’s something I’ve never seen before. Well, I had neither seen nor heard of this month’s film, alternately titled Head Over Heels, which opened to bad reviews but found a cult following soon after when screenwriter and director Joan Micklin Silver re-edited the film, changing it’s ending to a more realistic and melancholy one. The story has John Heard playing Charles, a bored civil servant struggling through a harsh Utah winter. He spends most of his time reflecting on his romance with Laura, a coworker who left him to return to her husband, an A-Frame salesman. This is one of those winter blues films that speaks to a truth I think we all have when the season rolls around and it may now be my favourite John Heard performance. Criterion always seems to make some deep pulls and this is a seventies classic that I would never have stumbled on to.
Rick And Morty: Season 6 – It’s been a crash course in a cartoon that I was way late to the game for but I will say that I was on board so quickly because the writing is so good I get euphoric with its brilliant complexities. Admittedly, the show has gone through the wringer of controversy in the last year or so with co-creator Justin Roiland being let go from Adult Swim amid a sexual assault accusation but, really, the show has been speculated about ending for a few seasons now and still seems to keep rolling. Even more than that, the show is thriving just as popular as ever with no horizon of slowing down as they have to have more than twenty-five episodes in the tank from that last batch of contracted episodes. We also should be grateful that WB Discovery didn’t shut the show down entirely in those massive restructurings.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Detective Knight: Independence – With Bruce Willis having to end his career so tragically, I felt I owed it to the action movie legend to take in his last trilogy of films, a former dirty cop versus bad guy saga that hit the direct-to-Blu-ray market over the last eight months. That said, they definitely reflect their quality, a sad affirmation of where the majority of his career had been, most likely to get as much money as he could with his now public diagnosis. The finale of the series has Bruce’s Detective Knight being given a last-minute assignment of covering the July 4th shift when an EMT has a mental break and masquerades as a cop, enacting a deadly barrage of vigilante revenge. Even with a young up-and-comer like Jack Kilmer and genre stars like Dina Meyer, this movie adds up only to vapid thrills in a formulaic action thriller but I couldn’t miss out on seeing the man who brought me so much tough guy joy’s swan song.
Inland Empire – There should just be a general rule that any film in the filmography of David Lynch should automatically be a Criterion Collection release. I mean, they do it for Wes Anderson, so this isn’t really a stretch. Well, I can at least take solace in another title in the catalogue of one of my all-time favourite filmmakers has seen a new blu-ray release and it’s one of his most divisive films additionally. The film stars Laura Dern as actress Nikki Grace who starts to lose the connection between reality and her new project as the line between her and the character Susan begins to fade. I will admit that this movie really lost me when I first watched it at the time of its release in 2006 but time and a re-watch has definitely turned me around on it. This Blu-ray also has the added awesomeness of containing two fantastic documentaries on the creator himself, released in 2007.
Brooklyn’s Finest – I’m doubling up on the Fuqua for the past two weeks in this section but I feel like this one was an underrated one in his filmography and picked it up for under ten dollars. The cast is definitely here as Don Cheadle stars and Training Day actor Ethan Hawke reunites with his 2001 director. The story follows three unconnected Brooklyn law enforcement, an undercover narcotics, a corrupt cop and an imminently retiring beat cop who all end up at the wrong place at the wrong time and are forced to make a life-altering decision. Co-starring Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes and so many more, I really liked the gritty and unpredictable feel Fuqua was going for and his eye from Training Day was still there, just not with the David Ayer written nuance. For a great price, this one was a no-brainer and well worth checking out.
Television:
Succession: Season 4 (Crave) – This was a series I was certainly very late to the game on but after the audience and critic buzz as well as the awards acclaim that it was evident that I needed to change that and I crash coursed it before the third season was released. Now entering its final season, the basic story follows the Roy family who controls one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world and their lives as they start to make power moves in the hopes that their ageing father begins to step back from the company. The series stars Brian Cox as the patriarch of the Roys as well as Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun and Jeremy Strong but the standout for me is Hiam Abass as Cox’s wife who constantly delivers knockout performance after performance and Sarah Snook as the lone daughter, Shiv. This is a winner for sure and the more people talk about it the more “watercooler talk” that it will be and those who aren’t on board will relive the things they went through when they didn’t watch Lost, Game Of Thrones or Breaking Bad. You snooze, you lose and this show is going, going but not yet gone.
Rabbit Hole (Paramount+) – Being an original fan of Keifer Sutherland’s first foray into television, the landmark series 24, I have followed every series that he did afterwards like Touch and Designated survivor. What got me even more excited about this new project was that it was on Paramount+ and escapes the boundaries that network television presents. Keifer goes spy mode sort of for this show, playing John Weir, a private espionage operative who heads his own firm that is framed for the murder of an American diplomat and finds himself on the run from an enemy that seems to be outsmarting him at every turn. The pilot for the show is fantastic and sets up a charming Keifer mixed with the action chops we’ve come to crave from the former Jack Bauer. I think this might be another sizeable hit for the Canadian legend.
John Wick: Chapter 4 – The anticipation of the most incredible action film of 2023 is so big in my mind right now and seeing the advance reviews from critics I respect online and friends who have gotten the privilege of seeing it last week has me over the moon with excitement. I really can’t be surprised as every film in this series has been awesome but to be reassured of this is very satisfying. Picking up after the events of the last film, John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table but before he can earn his freedom, he must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. This one will now be admittedly bittersweet after the death of franchise mainstay Lance Reddick but it should serve as a finale to an amazing character actor. The trailer for this film leaves me absolutely jazzed every time I see it and, at almost three hours long, I know we are in for an epic ride in every moment. Buck up, people, this one’s going to get wild.
Blu-Ray:
Babylon – Damien Chazelle has been one of those must-see filmmakers for me ever since I saw his Academy Award-winning drama Whiplash and it’s been about four years since his last film, the awards snubbed Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, so I was eagerly anticipating this one. A sort of old-fashioned filmmaker in a lot of ways, it’s interesting that the La La Land writer and director has done a classic Hollywood film and has one of my favourites in the cast as well with the great Brad Pitt. The main story is a mosaic of three characters, Manny, played by newcomer Diego Calva, a dreamer doing odd jobs to get into the movie industry, Nellie LeRoy, played by Margot Robbie, a seductive bombshell willing to do anything to get in from of a camera and Jack Conrad, Pitt’s character, a legend of the silent era on his way out but clawing tooth and nail. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood, I thought this movie was a completely unpredictable riot from the go-go and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. The film’s reception landed on the negative side of mixed reviews but I found myself loving ti, almost like it was Damien Chazelle’s sort of Clockwork Orange in his filmography. It pushes boundaries and succeeds with great satire and a biting sense of humour.
The Whale – This is a big one to talk about in the last we, no pun intended, as lead actor Brendan Fraser has completed the full comeback by winning the best actor Academy Award for this character-driven film from one of my favourite filmmakers, Darren Aronofsky. Honestly, it’s a long time coming as Fraser has been giving incredible performances since films like Gods And Monsters but the general public only recognizes things like The Mummy or George Of The Jungle. The film follows Fraser as a reclusive English teacher who is massively obese and descending into dangerous levels of mortality. Feeling like he needs to make amends in his life before his situation kills him, he reaches out to his estranged daughter, played by Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink. When I saw this film at my local theatre I was glad that I was the only person attending it because, no lie, I was bawling my eyes out for possibly the entire film. Fraser is riveting as a man seeking some sort of redemptive closure in his life, trying to rectify the mistakes his lifestyle has presented to his loved ones. This film is special and will be remembered as one of the great performances of this decade, especially that ending. No spoilers here though.
Dragonslayer – Another one of my childhood favourite films has now been immortalized in a special edition restoration from Paramount Pictures. The amount of times I made my mom rent this movie alongside Conan The Barbarian, Conan The Destroyer and more is uncountable but she should be grateful that it led to me appreciating this one today. See, it was all for SOMETHING, Mom! Future Ghostbusters II actor Peter MacNichol stars as a wizard’s young apprentice who volunteers with his master to kill a dragon that has been preying on the girls from a nearby kingdom which the king has made a blood pact with. The film was made by filmmaker Matthew Robbins who only directed a small handful of films but they were memorable, like the Mark Hamill movie Corvette Summer and the underrated Helen Slater action film The Legend Of Billie Jean. The film also has the distinction of being called the greatest dragon on camera by the creator of Game Of Thrones, George R.R. Martin himself. That is a hell of an accolade I think.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Season 1 – Well, I have made it a habit to check out everything Star Trek the streaming service of Paramount+ has done, ever since it started as CBS All Access, launching with what would set the flagship assail, Star Trek: Discovery. It was the second season that brought in Anson Mount as Captain Kirk’s processor, Captain Christopher Pike, along with his number two, played by Rebeccas Romijn and this universe’s version of Spock, which served to set up this brand new spin-off that might be the best that the new shows have done. Effectively, this is exactly a prequel to that original series and how close we snug up to the Willaim Shatner and Leanard Nimoy landmark series is really unknown but I do know that what we’ve gotten so far is exciting and colourful stories punctuated by great character work and deep digs in the Star Trek lore. I suggest that viewers get fully emersed in this show as season two is just around the corner and it’s going to get much better, which is a crazy thing to say about an already awesome show.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Training Day4K – One of the best crime dramas of the past twenty years gets the full 4K treatment from Warner Brothers and I am absolutely elated. An Academy Award winner for lead actor Denzel Washington, I really don’t have to explain how iconic this damn near-perfect thriller is. For those who need a refresher, the film follows a rookie cop’s first day with his new partner, a Los Angeles narcotics detective who has a lot more ties into the system he is supposed to be investigating than is legal. The tension in this film, the sophomore film from action-heavy director Antoine Fuqua, makes it an undeniable rewatch perfect for the upgrade of format. This is easily one of my favourite films of all time and I’m so psyched that I have it in the collection.
Rocky: The Knockout Collection4K – It feels like a late after-effect to be bringing this one to the geek outs as Creed III has been out for a while now but the upgrade in picture and sound to 4K for the first four Rocky fans can’t be denied. Why didn’t they include the fifth movie? I guess street fighting Rocky wasn’t something they wanted to get into in the restoration department. That said, all the best Rocky films are here including all of his best opponents like Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed, Mr. T’s Clubber Lang or Dolph Lundren’s Ivan Drago and there is no better time to relive this thoroughly entertaining franchise than now. Then you can proceed with V at your own discretion then one to the fantastic remaining four films. A hell of a group of films in my opinion.
D.O.A. A Right Of Passage – On my continued path to being an ultimate film nerd in the collector’s department, I came across the MVD Rewind Collection which a few titles were sent to me by the distributor and as soon as I saw it was a numbered collection of cult hits, well, I was hooked in. The first title in this collection happens to be this High Times-produced documentary. The film chronicles the rise and fall of the punk movement with rare interview footage of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen and also concert footage of the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, The Clash, X-Ray Specs and anymore as well as newsreel stories. I had never seen the film before and after watching Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols series Pistol, I feel like I was in exactly the right frame of mind to watch it. As a kid who grew up with a lot of this music in my headphones, thanks to a mother with some eclectic rock tastes, it combines things I already knew with the context I never had. If I knew about this movie during my video store days I would have been all over it.
Television:
Up Here (Disney+) – The biggest reason I wanted to get my eyes on this new series produced by Hulu was that Mae Whitman is the star, an actress I’ve loved for a long time, back to her child star days, and one that has just gotten better and better as her career progressed. The biggest turn off heading into it was that, unknown to me, it is a musical and I’m sometimes allergic to those. The story is set in the late 90s and follows Mae as Lindsay, a woman who decides to give up her boyfriend and home life for New York City for a fresh new start and the same old neurosis of the voices in her head, flesh out as imaginary versions of her parents and the school bully who gave her some obvious lifelong trauma. She eventually comes across Miguel at a party and the possibility of a new romance is high but the quality of the music is low and as soon as the second song rolled around I was pretty much out. Just not for me. The show also has a difficulty finding it’s tone between a sugary sweet musical and a horny bridge from the teen to twenties mind and an adult. If it opted for the second option and leaned away from the Disney Channel feel I definitely would have stuck around for episode two.
The Night Agent (Netflix) – I will admit that this series, on the surface, looks totally bland and something we’ve seen before, a thriller that focuses on the search for a man or woman on the inside of a government organization that must be sought out to save America. Well, this one happens to be written by executive produced by Shawn Ryan, the creator of The Shield starring Michael Chiklis and Walton Goggins, one of my favourite shows of all time. For that reason, I gave this series a chance which follows Gabriel Basso as a low-level FBI agent named Peter Sutherland who works in the basement of the White House manning a phone that never rings. Things are just filling reports and fending off boredom until the night the phone finally does ring, propelling him into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the Oval Office. I was surprised about how much I felt myself getting into the series over the first few episodes and was happy to see 2022’s MVP Hong Chau show up in a supporting and very important role. This isn’t anything insanely awesome but it is entertaining enough to keep me following it.
Yellowjackets: Season 2 (Crave) – Okay, this one is embarrassing because I usually pay close attention to Showtime releases and this one totally slipped my radar. Mere episodes in, it was called one of the best shows of last year and hit Twitter like fandom wildfire. I was already a huge fan of actresses Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey and Juliette Lewis and now Jasmine Savoy Brown from Scream and Scream VI but I was unprepared for the awesomeness of this show. The series is set in the nineties and in modern times and follows the lead-up to and fallout of a high school girls soccer team whose plane crashes in the mountains, forcing them to fight for their survival. The show definitely has a Lord Of The Flies angle to it but the originality and depth of character blew me away. Both the young and older cast are fantastic and the intrigue of the storyline gives me a Lost level feel. This is the must-see series right now in my opinion and with a second season now here, it could possibly cement that to an even bigger audience.
Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods – After a few delays, what appears to be the final part of the DC Cinematic Universe as we know it is ready to debut. It is unknown, in the future, if Zachary Levi will continue to be the super version of young Billy Batson but I really hope he does because the first film was a lot of fun and I expect the same from this one. The film picks up right after the first film where, spoilers, Billy’s entire group home got the same mystical powers of Shazam and became superpowered. This angers two of the fallen gods, Hespera and Kalypso, played by Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu, who decide to do anything to strip them of their newfound abilities and mould the planet into their personal thrones. As I said before, this movie looks like so much fun and the teenage sensibilities of Billy in the adult body of Levi add so much charisma and charm to a different style of superhero films. Director David Sandberg, a guy that started out in the horror genre with Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, has adjusted so well to this superhero genre and I hope that James Gunn and Peter Safran keep him in mind for the new DC rebirth that’s to come in the next few years.
Boston Strangler – I have a weakness for a good serial killer investigation film and this has to be one of the most notorious in the unsolved murders section of mass murders. At the top, the leads of the film got me immediately invested as it stars two personal favourites with Keira Knightley and the always underrated Carrie Coon, an actress on her way to a definite Oscar win in the near future. Knightley plays Loretta McLaughlin, a reporter who always is relegated to the fluff pieces of her newspaper until she starts independently linking murders in the Boston area, creating the narrative of the Boston Strangler. When the case picks up steam, she is paired with undercover reporter Jean Cole to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer and challenge the sexism of the early 1960s in doing so. Written and directed by Matt Ruskin in his big studio debut after a few indie features, and he brings grit and intrigue to this story that had me very enthralled. I also love seeing Academy Award winner Chris Cooper in anything and he is pretty solid as McLaughlin and Cole’s editor who is at the forefront of the public’s outcry against the two’s reporting. I also thought the implications of the investigation were fascinating but that conversation gets into spoiler territory.
Moving On – I think that legendary actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin have found a way to constantly and consistently work together for the rest of their movie and television careers after the end of their hugely popular Netflix series Grace & Frankie. It has already proved lucrative with the unexpected success of 80 For Brady so, just a handful of weeks later, they’re going to try it all over again with another comedy. This film has them as estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower of their recently deceased best friend, played by a personal all-time favourite, Malcolm McDowell. Along the way, Fonda’s character reunites with her great love, the original Shaft, Richard Roundtree, and each woman learns to make peace with the past and each other so they can start “moving on”. This is sure to clean up with the same audience that made the Tom Brady film a hit and the fact that both films have received favourable reviews, better than I was ever expecting, with solidify these two stars as the base for successful films going forward. I expect many more films like this to come, starting with the Book Club sequel on Mother’s Day.
Brother – So happy to include some Canadian content this week, especially coming after the big win for Sarah Polley at the Academy Awards so there is hotness in the air for our home and native land in the film department. This one comes from acclaimed filmmaker Clement Virgo, a major television director but also one who brought us the steamy Lie With Me over fifteen years ago. His new film is set in the early nineties and follows two brothers with Caribbean immigrant parents who are growing up and influenced by Toronto’s early hip-hop scene. Exploring themes of masculinity, identity and family, a mystery unfolds during a sweltering summer and escalating tensions set off a series of events that change the course of the brothers’ lives forever. This is a deeply interesting character drama featuring two very strong performances from lead actors Lamar Johnson and Aaron Pierre, two actors I’m only a little familiar with, but Pierre was unforgettable in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Old and Johnson is having a strong 2023 too with a feature role in HBO’s The Last Of Us. It is also shot gorgeously by Guy Godfree, the cinematographer of Slash/Back, Wildhood and so many other stunning-looking films.
Blu-Ray:
A Man Called Otto – 2023 kicked off in theatres with a trope that Hollywood studio filmmakers love to do, remake a fantastic foreign film that probably didn’t need to be done. This new film is a remake of a 2015 Swedish film, A Man Called Ove, but it has the added bonus of starring Tom Hanks which is, at most times, a win. The film has Hanks playing against type as Otto, a grump who’s given up on life following the loss of his wife and wants to end it all. When a young family moves in nearby, he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol, leading to a friendship that will turn his world around and renew his joy in life. The film was adapted by Monster’s Ball and Kite Runner filmmaker Marc Forster and does a great job of not just adapting the original film by Hannes Holm but honouring it as well with a very Swedish feel to it and a great deal of heart. Because it was one of my favourite comedy-dramas of 2015 and a film I didn’t really feel got the love it deserves, I maybe had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about an English language version but I really enjoyed it.
Spoiler Alert – I have to admit, I saw the trailer for this film before Bros and it really did absolutely nothing for me, felt pretty formulaic and bland. After I read up on it, I saw that it is based on a true story about television journalist Michael Ausiello, a man whose work I have read many times and my interest was piqued, just another Hollywood drama that suffers from an excessive bland trailer. The story follows the relationship of Ausiello and his husband, photographer Kit Cowan, from its inception through to Kit’s diagnosis of terminal cancer. Jim Parsons plays Michael, an actor I still place in the role of Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, a stigma that this movie helps to clear away in small scoops. The winning formula is it being directed by Michael Showalter who will always have a place in my heart with his partial biopic The Big Sick and a filmmaker who excels with dialogue that feels fresh new and, in this film, heartwarmingly funny. The final result is a film that feels a bit “paint by numbers” but the ending still swoops in to make you shed all your tears as it was handled so beautifully. I’m also starting to really love the actor who plays Kit in this, Ben Aldridge, who was just in the Shymalan thriller Knock At The Cabin a few weeks ago.
The Apology – With the sad news coming before Christmas about the layoffs at AMC it appeared that a major part of the horror-centric streaming service of Shudder had been cut and laid off so I still wonder how much longer we will get Shudder original films like this one, now debuting on Blu-ray. Featuring Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn, Mandy villain Linus Roache and comedian Janeane Garofalo, it has a hell of a roster of talented character performers to give a chilling and thrilling tale. The story follows a recovering alcoholic who is preparing to host her family’s Christmas celebration while still dealing with the trauma of the disappearance of her daughter twenty years earlier, when her estranged ex-brother-in-law arrives unannounced, bearing nostalgic gifts and a heavy secret. The film is the feature debut of a new voice in horror with writer and director Alison Locke and it looks like a successful endeavour as the story looks unsettling and unpredictable with a cutting edge that could lead to a shocking ending. I also appreciate that it is a Christmas-set thriller to join the side nice of holiday horror. It’s something, as a genre fan, that gives me pleasure, especially with my horror podcast Tremble, rate and subscribe!
The Good Fight: The Final Season – Al good shows eventually should come to an end and, as a big fan of the series that this show spun off of, The Good Wife starring Julianna Margulies, I feel it’s finally time to move on from the characters. I have been a fan of this show since it started on the less constrained CBS All Access for two reasons, the carryover star from that show, Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhardt and the always incredible Delroy Lindo but also the returning actors like Alan Cumming and Michael Boatman, make this. For those out of the loop, this series picks up one year after the events of the final broadcast episode of The Good Wife, where an enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, played by Game Of Thrones’ Rose Leslie, while simultaneously wiping out her mentor and godmother Diane Lockhart’s savings. Forced out of Lockhart and Lee, they join Lucca Quinn at one of Chicago’s preeminent law firms to hopefully rebuild an empire. The show plays heavily on real politics and it is going out with a big one as it tackles the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the Supreme Court. I will miss how biting this show was in current events but glad it’s going out on its own accord.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Goodbye Mr. Chips – It’s all Warner Archive stuff this week on the geek out-side as the good people there hooked me up with a trio of classic films. The first is this romantic drama from the late 30s that earned seven Academy Award nominations, won one of them for Best Actor and was included on the American Film Institute’s top four hundred of the greatest films of all time up until 1998. Starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson, the film follows old classics teacher looking back over his long career, remembering pupils and colleagues, and above all the idyllic courtship and marriage that transformed his life. Playing his one-time wife, Garson ended up earning her Leading Actress nomination with just twenty-five minutes of screen time. She would ultimately lose to Vivien Leigh for Gone With The Wind, the juggernaut of that year, but the accomplishment is still so impressive.
Wife Versus Secretary – Let’s peel it back a few years for the second entry of the week and this one has some heavy star power with Clark Gable leading, Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow rounding out the top cast and James Stewart in a supporting role. This would be the fifth of six films paring for Gable and Harlow, and the fourth picture for Gable and Loy starring together. It was the first film Loy and Harlow appeared in together and they would be cast together again for “Libeled Lady” in 1936, which I’ve covered in this section before. The film follows Loy as the wife of a publishing executive who starts to question the professional relationship between her husband, played by Gable, and his new secretary, played by the alluring Jean Harlow. Pretty standard story here but it ended up a success for MGM at the time, bringing in a profit of $876,000 which would be about $15.2M in modern inflation according to studio records. It is a fun audience pleaser that is definitely trapped in the gender roles of its time but this can’t keep down the star power of the leading ladies who always find little pieces to shine, even dwarfing Gable in some points.
The Long, Long Trailer – When I initially posted this film on my Instagram feed which sends to Facebook as well, I got a lot of feedback on it from some older friends and my mother-in-law as apparently this was a big movie in their childhood and was absolutely cherished. Just on the outside, I can see its charm as it stars one of the greatest husband-and-wife comedy pairings ever, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It also was directed by one of the biggest filmmakers of the era, the legendary Vincente Minnelli, husband to Judy Garland at one point and the father of the iconic Liza Minnelli. The film follows the hilarious couple as Nicky and Tacy, two bigger-than-life people in the midst of a whirlwind romance, looking to be married. When it comes to their living situation once married, Nicky has a more traditional idea planned out with the house of their dreams but Tacy has bigger thoughts in the more mobile trailer approach that would add some excitement to their young marriage. This was the first film of a multi-picture deal Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed with MGM when I Love Lucy was America’s top-rated television show. When their second vehicle Forever, Darling, released two years later, turned out to be a box office and critical disaster, the rest of the contract remained unfulfilled. That film aside, which I have never seen, this one brilliantly showcases exactly why these two were America’s sweethearts for so long.
Television:
Shadow And Bone: Season 2 (Netflix) – Let’s head back into a world of fantasy within the Netflix fold that gain a lot of popularity and one that still may catch the attention of rabid streaming fans looking for their next binge. Adapted from the Leigh Bardugo written book of the same name, the first of the Grisha trilogy, the first season of the series drops you in a war-torn world where a lowly soldier and orphan named Alina Starkov has just unleashed an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free. With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive. The show has a really great look to it and I loved the solid production value that keeps the fantastical story driven and not waiting on how cheesy it looks. I also have to praise actor Ben Barnes who seems to get better and better every time I see him. He also isn’t a stranger to Netflix as he did the villain thing on the awesome Marvel series Punisher.
Agent Elvis (Netflix) – The animation section on the streaming giant Netflix has become incredibly deep over the years with many different genres of shows for adults so when Matthew McConaughey wants to voice Elvis in a new action-oriented show, I think you have another hit on your hands. That is if the bosses don’t get antsy and axe the show after one or two seasons. Yes, the glorious Texan voices the King in this series that has him trading in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country. Obviously, Priscilla Presley has spearheaded this new show that is definitely trying to capitalize on the Oscar-nominated biopic from last year bringing Elvis back into the pop culture conversation and I love the supporting cast around McConaughey with Christina Hendricks, Kaitlin Olsen, Simon Pegg, Kieran Culkin and more. I’m really liking the art style of it and the showrunner is Mike Arnold, head writer on Archer for years, so the potential is there.
Ted Lasso: Season 3 (AppleTV+) – Probably one of my most anticipated shows of 2023, the moustachioed Jason Sudeikis is back for one more time as he tries to guide his club, Richmond FC, to the top of the Premier League. Is this doable? well, first he must get over the obstacle of former assistant coach Nathan Shelley who has left the club under bad circumstances and become the coach for the villainous West Ham, run by Richmond owner Rebecca Welton’s ex-husband Rupert. While it feels sad to be saying goodbye to a series that I have loved every single moment of, I am grateful that it is going out on its own terms and not getting itself to a “jump the shark” moment that makes us all turn on the writers and producers. I believe that all of the focus will be shifted onto the new series Shrinking from that same team and I am okay with that as the show is phenomenal. That said, I will be hanging on every second of this final season and I’m guaranteeing that there will be some tears along the way.
Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman (Disney+) – My love for the music of Irish rock legends U2 is all owed to my mom, a die-hard fan who has sentimental attachments to a lot of their catalogue. For fans like her, this movie is for you, a special love letter that is unforgettable in both being a celebration of U2’s past and a freshening of some of their greatest songs. The film follows David Letterman on a trip to Dublin for a one-night intimate experience of Bono and The Edge playing some of their greatest songs with a new perspective for a modern time. The film also explores the band’s beginnings and its relationship to their country, beliefs and legacy. I loved this film so much and the new versions of songs like One, Vertigo and A Beautiful Day will stick with me, just as hearing the origins for a forever favorite with Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Steve Stebbing 