The Northman – Following his incredible films the VVitch and The Lighthouse, this new feature film from writer and director Robert Eggers is easily one of my most anticipated films of 2022. The atmosphere and the approach to the subject matter are always one of a kind. The simple fact that he is tackling the Viking era with this film and a cast that is familiar to him and some outstanding new additions make me even more excited. The story follows Prince Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgaard, who is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy’s mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who’s on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father in a viscerally violent art film that will most likely be on my best-of list at the end of the year even though I haven’t seen it yet. With a cast around Skarsgard featuring Anya Taylor Joy, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang and even Bjork, this is going to be one hell of an experience.
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent – Being a huge Nicolas Cage fan, which is no secret to any regular readers of my work, this seems like the ultimate goal for this legend to hit at least once in his career, playing an ultra version of himself. Add to that the added charm of starring The Mandalorian himself, Pedro Pascal, which gives this comedy even more of a draw and my anticipation for it is huge. In the film, he plays a cash-strapped Nick Cage who agrees to make a paid appearance at a billionaire super fan’s birthday party but is really an informant for the CIA since the billionaire fan is a drug kingpin and he is forced to live up to his own legend, channelling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones. The onscreen chemistry between Cage and Pascal has me laughing so hard whenever I see the trailer and the addition of Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz as the CIA agents in question adds so much more to the hilarity as well. So excited for this movie too. What a movie week this is!
The Bad Guys – Based on a series of best-selling kids’ books, I knew nothing about this new Dreamworks animated movie but my daughter seems to know everything so when it comes to the subject of this new film I will just defer to being a fan of the voice casting in this. Led by an always charming Sam Rockwell, this film also has Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Zazie Beetz and many more, which would make a great adult comedy so I’m looking forward to what they do for the children and the parents who have to watch it along with them. The story follows notorious criminals Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula who are finally caught after a lifetime of legendary heists. To avoid a prison sentence, the animal outlaws must pull off their most challenging con yet, becoming model citizens. Under the tutelage of their mentor, Professor Marmalade, the dubious gang sets out to fool the world that they’re turning good. The animation style looks very cool and original, playing on a noir style almost with a dynamic shading to it which now looks confusing as I’m writing this but it really gives it a unique style. I’m sure that Dreamworks is hoping that this strikes with the reader fan base but as I haven’t heard of it before it might be smaller than they think.
Charlotte – As a big fan of foreign and European films, I really have a deep love for all French cinema and I have to say that their animation offerings are always so deep and have so much more to say than the mainstream pushed North American ones do. Instead of focusing on Shrek or whatever new Pixar commodity is up next, these films generally delve into something more real and totally grounded and this new film just happens to come from the creators of The Triplets Of Belleville, an incredible film from close to twenty years ago now. This film is based on a true story and is an account of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon living in the south of France between 1941 and 1943. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming a celebrated creator and her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. Sadly, the world around her is changing quickly and dangerously, limiting her options and derailing her dream. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she leaves Berlin for the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again and finds new love but her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only the extraordinary will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story in a film that hits hard in its end credits with the reality of Charlotte’s situation and untimely end. For the English version, Keira Knightly gives voice to the title character but in France, it was Marion Cotillard, a personal favourite of mine. This movie is heavy but bold and quite beautiful at the same time.
Blu-Ray:
Cyrano – The story of Cyrano De Bergerac has been told many times with many different actors taking the role like Gerard Depardieu and Jose Ferrer being the notables but when I saw Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage and Atonement filmmaker Joe Wright attached to this, I got immediately interested. What turns me off of it a little bit is that it is a musical but I’m willing to push that aside for a well-made movie. The story follows the title character, a man ahead of his time who impresses everyone with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel but, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne, Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian. The film is getting fantastic reviews and most of them praise Dinklage’s performance which this rests solely on in a lot of places but the help of supporting roles from Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ben Mendelsohn definitely elevate it as well. It was also shot by Seamus McGarvey who makes absolute gold with Wright time after time.
Jackass Forever – This may seem weird for a guy who loves to review Oscar-nominated and arthouse films but this is one of the most anticipated sequels and one I’ve been waiting a long time for. Yes, this is a justification coming from a forty-year-old dude but, to be honest, I grew up into my adulthood with Jackass the series, the movies and the CKY or Camp Kill Yourself videos that came before it and have been a longtime fan that even wore a wristband from the second film until it all but deteriorated off my body. Now having proven my fandom, we welcome this new and final film that brings back all but Ryan Dunn, who sadly passed away and Bam Margera who has been going through some notable drug and alcohol issues as well as severe mental health ones. What to expect from this one? Well, what do you usually go into these gross-out and low-bar series of stunts and practical jokes? Just go in with the brainpan closed off to any smarts and laugh your jackass off. That’s what I did and it paid off well.
The King’s Daughter – Looking at the cover of this blu-ray, it feels like it would have fit in well during the early to mid-2000s in the time of Ella Enchanted and films like that but this one plays it a bit more earnest which I believe is one of its many faults. The casting is solid though, featuring Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelerio, Pablo Schreiber and William Hurt in one of his final performances and the writing was promising with Ang Lee’s guy James Schamus penning the screenplay. The film follows Brosnan as King Louis XI and his quest for immortality which leads him to capture a mermaid to harvest her life force, a move that is further complicated by his illegitimate daughter’s discovery and immediate bond to the creature. This movie is beyond corny and, while still looking like a multi-million dollar production, is a misstep in every way. Predictable and groan-inducing, the film consistently feels like a film that was shelved for twenty years and forgotten about which is almost half true as it was made eight years ago and just got released now. The delay came from a series of events starting with the studio’s lack of enthusiasm with the cut they were originally presented with followed by Fan Bingbing getting into trouble with the Chinese authorities for non-payment of taxes. As the film featured a then major star in Chinese cinema and Chinese investors stumped up 50% of the budget, her income tax issues and the negative publicity in China effectively killed her career there and with it any chance of a lucrative Chinese release. With Pierce Brosnan as the only international star in the cast and without a major studio to back the release campaign, the film sat and collected dust which was probably for the best.
The Humans – With the buzz from film festivals and critics who got an early look at the film starting at the Toronto International Film Festival, I knew that this movie would be one of note but I didn’t want to know anything beyond that it was a Tony Award-winning play. This cast had me immediately on board, with Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein, June Squibb, Steven Yuen and Amy Schumer, but the substance behind it is where it excels and I won’t tip the hat at all to what it contains. The film is set inside a pre-war duplex in downtown Manhattan and follows the course of an evening in which the Blake family gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving but, as darkness falls outside the crumbling building, mysterious things start to go bump in the night and buried family tensions begin to reach a boiling point. This movie goes from conventional drama to veiled horror in unpredictable moments and it is so crazily unexpected that I slowly felt myself falling in love with it. The acting hits a crescendo that solidifies it as one of the strongest of the year but it’s the puppeteering of writer and director Stephen Karam that brings it there. This may not be for everyone but I’m saying this is one of last year’s best films.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
6:45 – Just one sole geek out this week and it just happens to be in a favourite genre for The Shift, the horror story! This one combines that lovely styling of films with the vacation subgenre making everyone’s thoughts and dreams cloudy with screams, terror and, of course, blood! The film is distributed by Well Go USA, a company usually behind Asian cinema from every eastern country but this is a strictly American production that features a totally unestablished cast. In a “Groundhog Day” style story, the film follows Bobby Patterson, a man who is taking one last romantic shot at saving his rocky relationship with his girlfriend, Jules Rables, by taking her on a weekend getaway to the picturesque island resort of Bog Grove. To their bewilderment, the sleepy beach town is curiously deserted but they soon learn about its notorious and bloody history, one that’s about to repeat itself again and again. This movie was a pleasant surprise for me as I’m used to seeing some of the bottom of the barrel, eye-roll-inducing crap. Maybe it’s due to me really liking the time loop device in horror and this film using it well, even if it peters out a bit in the finale. Even still, it was one of the more enjoyable horror stories this year that I hadn’t heard of previously.
Television:
The Flight Attendant: Season 2 (Crave) – I have to admit that for a long time whenever I saw anything with Kaley Cuoco in it for over a decade I automatically think of her character Penny from the long-running series The Big Bang Theory because that’s just the stigma that these sitcom stars are saddled with. Now she has been Harley Quinn in animated form for three going on four seasons and the first season of this dark comedy mystery really earned her a lot of acclaim. In the show, she plays flight attendant Cassandra Bowden who wakes in her hotel room in Dubai, hungover from the night before and with a dead body lying next to her. Afraid to call the police, she continues her morning as if nothing happened, joining the other flight attendants and pilots travelling to the airport but in New York, she is met by FBI agents who question her about her recent layover in Dubai. Still unable to piece the night together, she begins to wonder if she could be the killer. I love the mystery drive of this series and it was created by writer Steve Yockey, who wrote for years on the recently ended Supernatural and more so I have some high hopes for where this continuation of the show is going, especially because I had assumed that it would be just a limited series.
Russian Doll: Season 2 (Netflix) – I might be putting a lot of hopes into the sophomore season of this great time loop series but I believe it has all the elements to have some continued success and may even bring more viewers in through word of mouth this time around. Natasha Lyonne stars as a woman who is desperately trying to escape a party thrown for her for one reason or another. The compounding issue is that every time she makes a break for it she dies in varying ways and then is reset to the beginning of the party again in sort of a Groundhog Day scenario. I really hope I threw you for a swerve in that description because that is exactly what the trailer for the first season did for me and I fell deeply in love with it. Created by Lyonne, Amy Poehler and the very funny Leslye Headland, this is probably your next binge and it would be a more than worthy one.
Mayans M.C.: Season 4 (FX) – Sons Of Anarchy fans, myself included, still have something to cling to as this series has broken through its uncertain period and now Kurt Sutter has exited as showrunner and it’s been fully on co-creator Elgin James’ plate for the past season or so. The show is thriving with its new sort of Jax, EZ, played by JD Pardo, a character that starts his journey from the bottom as a prospect which adds to a different dynamic in the show. I love the supporting cast like Edward James Almos and Tudors star Sarah Bolger and the returning actors Ray McKinnon and Emilio Rivera in their Sons of Anarchy roles, this all taking place in a post-Jax Teller world. As a merchandise-owning fan of the original series, I will ride with this show until the wheels fall off. Blood feuds have come and gone, new feuds have started and the show is more engaging than ever. Just hook it to my veins!
A Very British Scandal (Prime Video) – If it’s a British true story and Claire Foy is a lead role then you definitely have my attention but when you add one of my favourite character actors of all time, Paul Bettany, into the mix then you make it one of my most anticipated things of the week. Foy is also getting a second kick at the Royal family as well with this being very Winsor-centric, returning her to the wheelhouse of The Crown once again. This limited series is the story of events surrounding the notorious divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll during the 1960s, a story that I really had no information going into but the advanced word says that Foy and Bettany are really great at playing two completely loathsome characters and that totally has me fired up. Funny enough that no one involved in The Crown had anything to do with this show as it comes from showrunner Sarah Phelps who cut her teeth in writing for over fourteen years on Eastenders. Scandal is definitely her wheelhouse but this is definitely on a bigger scale, historically speaking.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore – I head into this second sequel in the spinoff prequel of the Harry Potter franchise with a few mixed emotions. The first Fantastic Beasts film I found to be really fun with some great characters and storytelling but the second film, The Crimes Of Grindelwald, felt way too much at once being shoved into a single movie which grew tedious as the story moved on. Now we return to the world of wizarding with Dumbledore, played by Jude Law, at its head. With the knowledge that Grindelwald, now played by the great Mads Mikkelsen, is intent on seizing control of both sides of the world, both magic and ordinary, Albus must enlist Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. The good thing is, from all early reviews of it, we get more of a return to what made the first movie so entertaining and they don’t feel like they cram in and rush little storylines that come to fruition later. I wonder how now they will deal with the problematic casting of Ezra Miller who now seems like more of a PR problem than Johnny Depp ever was.
Father Stu – With the news that Mark Wahlberg may soon be retiring from mainstream Hollywood filmmaking and focusing only on faith-based stories like this one, it adds all that much more disappointment to covering this one which was already at a low with the casting of Mel Gibson. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, n good storytelling has come out of the faith-based market ever and I have suffered through too many of them. This one follows the life of Father Stuart Long, played by Wahlberg, a boxer-turned-priest who inspired countless people during his journey from self-destruction to redemption. Everything about the trailer for this movie feels like a pandering message-driven story that once again focuses on delivering the ideals over being an actually entertaining movie. I don’t need to be preached at about faith and belief but that is all these films seem to do. Seriously, how many people are being converted to Christianity or catholicism during an outing to the movies? Just give it up already.
Choose Or Die – I can’t lie, I had some hopes for this new technology-driven horror movie that played with the trope of being based around an 80s style video game but having lived through 2006’s Stay Alive in theatres, a video game horror slasher film that was terrible, I should have known better. My draw to this, besides what I previously mentioned, is it has Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert England, but the latter was in voice form only and he kind of plays himself. The story follows a broke student who, in pursuit of an unclaimed $100,000 prize, plays an obscure 1980s survival computer game and after a series of unexpectedly terrifying moments, she soon realizes she’s no longer playing for the money, but for her own life. The premise is neat but that’s all there is to this bare-bones horror film that relies on cheap sound drive jump scares and some janky special effects to get its thrills across. Butterfield plays a small supporting role to drive the main character’s narrative and I feel like nothing comes together in any logical sense in the third act. Disappointing all around.
All My Puny Sorrows – I really have a place in my heart for festival darlings and not only does this one hold that title but it won a handful of awards at last year’s Vancouver International Film Festival which gives the love that local flavour. Beyond that, the film features leading performances from two favourite Canadian actresses, Alison Pill who I’m currently watching on Picard and Sarah Gadon who I have loved in absolutely everything she has done. The film is based on the international best-selling novel by Miriam Toews and is the poignant story of two sisters, one a concert pianist obsessed with ending her life and the other, a writer, who is wrestling with this decision, makes profound discoveries about her herself. With mental health finally being something discussed more openly, this film is an important narrative to get out to the masses and writer and director Michael McGowan does an incredible job in conveying it. It also adds to a killer list for the filmmaker as his Joshua Jackson drama One Week is a Canadian favourite of mine.
Kicking Blood – Vampire horror is a dicey thing to get into these days, especially with the absolute classics that reside in that side of the genre, so if you’re going to do it, you better expect many people to compare it to things they have already seen before. That is the minefield that Canadian writer and director Blaine Thurier is navigating with his new feature film but he isn’t a stranger to the overarching genre as he is following u his last film, a high school-set dark comedy horror called Teen Lust. This story follows Anna, a centuries-old vampire who spends her nights watching Robbie, a charming but reckless young man that is recovering from his alcoholism. Finding that her possible obsession might be something more deep and human in nature, she decides to quit blood and restore her humanity. The film doesn’t feature any widely recognizable cast but lead actress Alanna Bale is so compelling in her performance that it is hard not to be drawn into the drama of it all. This film played at the Vancouver International Film Festival last year and I heard a bit of buzz about it then but finally seeing it, I was really impressed with how well the story is told against a pretty low budget.
Blu-Ray:
Spider-Man: No Way Home – It was pretty damn cool to head into the end of the year with the biggest Marvel movie of 2021 and a film that changed the landscape of that cinematic universe for the next phase. There was so much speculation heading into this film, one that brings the multiverse into the equation and we knew from the trailers that Alred Molina’s Doc Ock, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro appear but the big question was do Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spideys drop in as well? I think a large number of us know the answer to that now but I’ll still play vaguely on it. The film takes up just after Spider-Man’s identity was revealed, forcing Peter to ask Doctor Strange for help. When a spell goes wrong, dangerous foes from other worlds start to appear, forcing Peter to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man. Again, I’ll play non-spoiler games here ad not delve in on the secrets revealed in this awesome thrill ride but I will say that it is possibly one of the most entertaining films in the whole Marvel universe and proves not just how great of a Spider-Man Tom Holland is but just how damn good that Willem Dafoe is as well. There’s a reason that he is consistently my favourite actor in everything he does.
Gold – Zac Efron’s most recent adventures were documented in his Netflix docuseries Down To Earth which had him travelling around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live but it must have also been to help prepare him for this new survival thriller because it really seemed to pay off. Interestingly enough, he almost died making the reality show so it’s even more fitting that this film takes place in one of the most deadly places on the planet as well. The film is set in the not-too-distant future and follows Efron as a drifter travelling through the desert who discovers the largest gold nugget ever found with his driver who is reluctantly escorting him through the harsh terrain. While his new business partner treks off to find an excavator to dig up their find, the drifter is left to his own devices to guard it against thieves amid harsh conditions and wild dogs while waiting for his meal ticket to return. Beautifully shot but dour and depressing, this movie is as harsh as they come and shows, without any flinching, a man whose body is torn apart by the elements he faces. Efron is put through the absolute wringer in this film and I felt captivated the whole time. The viewer takes a beat, albeit far less than the character on screen, but it is quite the journey.
Last Looks – Just like anyone else that sees the cover of this new blu-ray, I feel all kinds of weirdness seeing Mel Gibson in any sort of prominent role, a guy that has had no remorse for any of the bad things he has done but still gets rewarded anyways. That said, the film is lead by Charlie Hunnam and I am a huge Sons Of Anarchy fan so I had no choice but to pop it in and press play. The film is based on a novel of the same name by author Howard Michael Gould, who also wrote the screenplay, and follows a disgraced ex-cop named Charlie Waldo who seeks solace by moving to the woods, but finds his quiet life shattered when a studio executive recruits him to investigate the high profile murder of a famous actor’s wife. As against this film as I felt initially, I found myself falling deeper and deeper into the storyline as it progressed, filled with intriguing characters and some well-written dialogue. The film isn’t really anything largely special but I do appreciate the private investigator Hollywood noir of it all and I wouldn’t be against seeing more of the Waldo character as Gould already has another novel in this progressing series out.
Spiritwalker – South Korean cinema is still and forever will be my total jam and this new action thriller with a little bit of a sci-fi element filled that bucket for me so well. It doesn’t come from a filmmaker that I’m at all familiar with, Jae-geun Yoon in just his second feature film, but he has quickly been put on my list of people to keep an eye on, especially his last movie Heartbeat which features Lost actress Yunjin Kim. This stylish film kept me on the edge of my seat though, a fantasy action that revolves around a man who loses his memory and subsequently wakes up in a new body every twelve hours. As the reasoning around his predicament becomes increasingly clear, his peril becomes more heightened and Yoon and his cinematography hold his perspective so well. These films are still very niche, no matter what the acclaim that Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite should have done for Korean films after the Oscars, so they all seem like hard sells still but they arguably make better action thrillers than most of the North American productions. If you aren’t going to see the Bay-hem of Ambulance in theatres now, this would be a solid runner-up.
American Flyers -Warner Archive hooked me up with a Kevin Costner double feature this week and it’s pretty cool because the two films occupy certain niches in his career starting with this one, the sports movie. It is the beginning piece to a trend that would encompass a golf movie, a relay racing film, a football draft story and multiple baseball films and I definitely think it was a really solid start. He plays Marcus in this, a sports physician who persuades his unstable brother David to come with him and train for a bicycle race across the Rocky Mountains. Marcus doesn’t tell David that he has a brain aneurysm that could render him paralyzed or dead at any given moment and while his brother powerfully heads for the victory, he has to realize that the contest is now beyond his capabilities and his progressing disabilities. This was just at the beginning of Costner’s leading man career and he hadn’t hit his stride yet as an A-lister but this movie excels on the work of director John Badham, fresh off of WarGames, and writer Steve Tesich who had just earned acclaim for The World According To Garp. The drama is so well told and the chemistry between Costner and his co-stars David Marshall Grant, Rae Dawn Chong and Alexandra Paul is solid and keeps you into it.
Fandango – This is a special film in the career of the great Kevin Costner as it is the first collaboration between him and writer and director Kevin Reynolds with the duo pairing to do two more films afterwards with Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and the unfairly maligned Waterworld, as well as the Hatfields & McCoys series. This film also pushes the great ensemble tendency for Costner again as Judd Nelson and Sam Robards feature alongside him with Suzy Amis and Gleanne Headly in supporting roles. The film is an emotional story of a “last hurrah” and the changing of innocence following five college buddies from the University of Texas circa 1971 who embark on a final road trip odyssey across the Mexican border before facing up to uncertain futures, in Vietnam and otherwise. A cool story about this film, it was the feature-length version of Reynolds’ short student film from when he was in USC film school which was seen by Steven Spielberg who coaxed him into making it a feature film that was definitely underappreciated critically in its time and has found a positive reaction since.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
The Cabin In The Woods – I am fully in the know of how unacceptable it is to praise Joss Whedon as a creator now that the grossness of his past actions has been brought to light but I instead use this film to give accolades to Drew Goddard, the director and co-writer of this brilliant horror-comedy that was shelved by the studio for so long because they didn’t understand where to release it in the year and had no idea how beloved it would become to the fan base. It really took Chris Hemsworth’s success in Thor to give it a new theatrical life. This movie is fantastic in every way but I’ll keep spoiler-free for those who haven’t seen it and just say that it is about five friends who go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for and discover the sinister and crazy truth behind the cabin in the woods. Featuring Bradley Whitford, Richard Jenkins, Fran Kranz and Jesse Williams, this might be one of my favourite horror films of all time and no one at all is prepared for the game-changing twists or that insane third act. True movie magic.
Frailty – This is a great week for the geek-outs as I wasn’t sent anything late so I get to delve into the anniversaries of the week, as that previous entry with its ten-year birthday. This thriller here is turning twenty this week and is one of my all-time favourites as well and was also the directorial debut of the late, not forgotten and sorely missed Bill Paxton. Paxton stars in a major supporting role but the heavy lifting is done by Matthew McCougnahy and Powers Boothe in a story about a mysterious man who arrives at the offices of an FBI agent to recount his childhood and how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to destroy people who were in fact “demons.” This movie brilliantly plays with your perceptions of what the final truth is and is crafted so masterfully until its sinister final act. There are many fans of this film that wanted a sequel but I’m so happy it was left to breathe on its own because I believe it is a perfect southern gothic tale in every way.
Grosse Pointe Blank – I’m a huge John Cusack fan and have been for a long time and this is a film in his filmography that I will always hold close to my heart, along with High Fidelity, but I assure you the love does come from before this. This one is really special as well because he co-wrote the screenplay for it and it shows off that great dark humour that he wears on his sleeve in so many roles. For those who have never seen this absolute gem that is celebrating twenty-five years, it follows Martin Blank, a professional assassin sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, which is also, by coincidence, his hometown and his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the exact same time. All the awkwardness of those reunions is at play at the exact same time that a rival killer is looking to snuff out the competition, played so well by the great Canadian, Dan Aykroyd. With a soundtrack that you can’t help but tap your toe along to and a script that is hilarious and infinitely quotable, there is no wrong time to see this movie for the first time. Trust me, it is a total classic.
Television:
Roar (AppleTV+) – I’ve said it many times before but I think AppleTV+ is one of the only streaming services that are taking bold chances with their programming, sometimes picking up other network and studio cast-offs, and this new series fits the niche of original and offbeat shows. What took me in right away about this show was how non-linear it came across in its approach and, aside from the mega-stardom of Nicole Kidman and the always fantastic Betty Gilpin from GLOW, it relies on its writing and focused subject matter to do it. The description feels very vague on the outside but to put it in nutshell it is an insightful, poignant, and sometimes hilarious portrait of what it means to be a woman today featuring a unique blend of magical realism, familiar domestic and professional scenarios, and futuristic worlds. The show actually comes from a novel by author Cecelia Ahern, an Irish writer who gifted the from com audiences with favourites like P.S., I Love You but this one is a totally different sort of beast and offers some gender empowerment that sometimes isn’t present in the mainstream television ideals. It feels very much like a cut and dry single season so I think it’s easy to call this one a limited series.
Anatomy Of A Scandal (Netflix) – Nothing ropes viewers in better than a controversial and maybe seedy storyline and, honestly, no one does it better than the Brits when it comes to depicting it because the BBC has been doing knockout work in this type of show for years. Netflix seems to want their cut of that action as they’ve produced this new series and enlisted a handful of recognizable actors but only if you’re an avid watcher of British television and to be honest most of them are faces that I can’t put immediate names to. The story infiltrates Britain’s elite through personal and political scandal, where the truth lies between justice and privilege following James and Sophie Whitehouse who live in a blissful and rarified world. A Minister in Parliament with a loving family at home, James’ trajectory appears without limits until a scandalous secret suddenly comes to light. Barrister Kate Woodcroft has a trajectory of her own, and her prosecution threatens to tear into Westminster, the Whitehouse marriage, and her own personal esteem. The subject matter and how it is taken on may feel a bit dry to North American viewers who are used to a glossier sort of courtroom procedural but for me, a fan of Broadchurch, Law & Order UK and Vera, all of this plays so well into my wheelhouse. That said, I don’t at all expect this series to be a runaway hit at all, just a pleasant discovery for Netflix subscribers.
Hard Cell (Netflix) – Speaking of British programming, this new comedy series caught my eye because of the lead star Catherine Tate who, for me, is always memorable as one of Doctor Who’s Companions, Donna Noble, but for many she is remembered as one of the many replacements for Michael Scott on The Office when Steve Carrell departed the show. Now she gets to stretch her comedy wings again, something she is incredibly good at, even on Doctor Who, and play around with portraying multiple characters. Taking a bit from The Office’s styling, developed by the great Ricky Gervais of course, the series is a documentary-style show that follows a filmmaking crew filming the inmates and staff of HMP Woldsley while Tate portrays multiple characters to capture the penal system at its brutal humorous best. There is a lot of obviously British-focused lampooning in this but for a guy like me that was raised on this country’s comedy, through the Canadian PBS broadcasting, all of it plays so well with me. Like the previous entry on this list, the series may not appeal to a broader North American audience but I’m sure it will land with a United Kingdom comedy-seeking crowd.
Outer Range (Prime Video) – Josh Brolin is an easy sell for almost everyone as he is guaranteed to have been in a film you love, dating all the way back to The Goonies because, damn, wasn’t Brand the epitome of cool? Well, he heads to the open country but this one isn’t No Country For Old Men or anything Cormac McCarthy but something more mysterious and I’m still trying to figure out what. Co-starring the equally phenomenal Imogen Poots and Lili Taylor, this series centers on Royal Abbott, a rancher fighting for his land and family, who discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness, delving into some seemingly supernatural mystery. The series was created by Brian Watkins who has no other credits under his name but sometimes that works out in a sort of wunderkind fashion as it did for the Duffer Brothers with Stranger Things. Now, I’m not trying to set up the expectations that that series have levelled with its fans but I am really excited to see an original idea fleshed out with the power of Prime Videos wallet which is immense just based on the budget that The Marvelous Ms. Maisel has.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 – If you ask my daughter what the biggest movie of the year is she will without hesitation point to this film, the sequel to the best movie of 2020 just before we headed into the shutdown of the pandemic. Video game adaptations are more often than not completely awful but the first film was well constructed, brilliantly cast and made with the same love that the fans have for this beloved SEGA character. This film picks up right after the first film with Sonic embracing his newfound hero role when the manic Dr. Robotnik returns to Earth with a new ally, Knuckles the Echidna. Together with his new ally Tails, the blue and speedy hedgehog had to take down not just his old enemy but an unpredictable foe that is very similar to himself. The initial reviews are really great for this movie promising that if you loved the first movie you will indeed adore this one just as much. The trailer is all sorts of fun and I’m excited to get more characters from Sonic’s world and can’t wait to see how the third movie will be set up which has already been greenlit.
Ambulance – Looking to blow things up in the biggest ways possible with the story usually being a secondary motion, Michael Bay is back on the scene with this new action thriller that only has my attention because of the lead stars of Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul Mateen III who are always incredible on screen. I used to be into the “Bay-hem” of this action pioneer but have been dulled down by too many Transformers films and the cacophonous noise of his style but maybe the low bar will work out in my favour. The film follows two desperate men who pair for the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history with a take of $32 million. Of course, things go wrong and they hijack an ambulance with a wounded cop clinging to life and an ace EMT on board, played by Baby Driver’s Eiza Gonzalez. With it being a Michael Bay film, besides explosions, it will be full of insane camera twirling, sunkissed shots of the Los Angeles cityscape and more of his trademarks but I’m hoping that the acting elevates this one because he has some heavyweights. The movie is also a remake of a 2005 thriller out of Denmark as was Gyllenhaal’s previous film, The Guilty, which is fantastic and on Netflix right now.
All The Old Knives – I feel like it’s been a long while since we’ve seen Chris Pine in a leading capacity, the last time being the complete downgrade of a Wonder Woman sequel. He has great company for this new Prime Video released espionage thriller with Thandiwe Newton who has always been a favourite but rides even higher now with the phenomenal Westworld character Maeve in recent memory. They play two CIA operatives, and former lovers, who reunite at idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea to re-examine a mission six years ago in Vienna where a fellow agent might have been compromised. The film comes from Danish filmmaker Janus Metz who compelled with his sports biopic Borg McEnroe which I had the pleasure of seeing at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and he also did some episodes of the second season of True Detective so he has experience in a darker form of storytelling. It’s interesting to note that it was supposed to be Idris Elba and Kate Winslet, who starred together in The Mountains Between Us, and at one time Michelle Williams was attached as the lead.
Metal Lords – Someone at Netflix must have my best interest in mind because they have gifted me and everyone else, I guess, with a film so embedded with the love of heavy metal that you feel it in every moment. This, paired with the warm and funny heart of Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist director Peter Sollett, makes this immediately one of my most enjoyed films of the year. The story follows two kids who want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal. Hunter is a diehard metal fan who knows his history and shreds with an undying dream to win the upcoming Battle of the Bands. He enlists his best friend Kevin to man the drums but with schoolmates more interested in Bieber than Black Sabbath, finding a bassist is a struggle until Kevin overhears Emily playing her cello. The motley crew must contend with school, parents, hormones and teen angst while trying to get along long enough for Skullfucker to win the Battle of the Bands. With a killer soundtrack, a staple in Sollett’s films, great performances from a stellar young cast and thoroughly funny script I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call this a crowd pleaser but I think it would be better to call it a mosh pit pleaser. Damn, this movie was so great.
Mothering Sunday – If you’re in the mood for some post World War I British romance then this is a damn good week for you because this film ticks all the boxes plus it features Colin Firth and Olivia Coman in supporting roles which is the set up to an actor’s dream showcase. The film also features actress Odessa Young in the lead role, looking for some redemption after The Stand, opposite Josh O’Connor who swept television award shows recently for his portrayal of Prince Charles in the Netflix series The Crown. The story follows a maid living in England after the war who secretly plans to meet with the man she loves before he leaves to marry another woman in a clash of familial relationships and societal politics. This film is driven by fantastic performances that are subdued and seemingly bubble just under the surface. Aside from the few episodes I saw of the Prime Video series Hanna that director Eva Husson had directed, I wasn’t familiar with her work until this movie and was totally blown away by how studious her craft was alongside Moffie cinematographer Jamie Ramsey. This film won’t have a lot of mainstream buzz around it but it is definitely worth the watch.
As They Made Us – Bonafide movie stars still very much have their allure to me and one of those people is Dustin Hoffman, a classic presence who never seems to disappoint even if the movie around him does. He takes a supporting role to Glee actress Diana Agron in this film but he also has Candice Bergen and Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg with him which is fitting because his co-star Mayim Balik makes her feature directorial debut here as well. The story follows Agron as Abigail, a divorced mother of two who is struggling to balance the dynamics within her dysfunctional family as she attempts to cultivate new love. Her father Eugene has a degenerative condition that he and his wife Barbara refuse to accept, and her brother Nathan has been estranged from the family for decades. A self-appointed fixer, Abigail tries to mend her complicated family before it’s too late but it may be enough dysfunction to sabotage her own life. This movie was a delightful surprise that doesn’t just sate by on the power of it’s cast but has a great heart at the center of it’s script, also written by Balik. You can really feel Mayim draw from her own life experiences and Agron paints it so well onscreen with her dramatic prowess that has never been properly shown as it is here.
Blu-Ray:
Scream – Usually January is a dead-in-the-water month for big releases but in 2022 we got the horror year rolling in style early because a slasher franchise heavyweight made its way back to theatres and fans, such as myself, was really excited about it. It should be noted right away that this is the first Scream film to not be directed by horror master Wes Craven who sadly passed away almost seven years ago but it is in safe hands with Ready Or Not filmmaking duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film picks up twenty-five years after the streak of brutal murders that shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, California in the original film and now a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past and to force Sydney Prescott to come back and deal with the terror for good. The film has Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox returning to the franchise with The Boys’ Jack Quaid, 13 Reasons Why’s Dylan Minnette, Yellowjackets’ Jasmin Savoy Brown and more joining the cast. I have to say that I was totally satisfied with the outcome, a film that breathes a fresh new life into a franchise that does have a pulse in continuing and does it with reverence to Craven and Kevin Williamson’s original landmark film. Without giving too much away, Scream fans will really dig into this film as a feast created just for them.
Death On The Nile – Agatha Christie is something of a forgotten era of filmmaking but Kenneth Branagh seemed to pull it off well with his remake of Murder On The Orient Express and why shouldn’t he be successful? This is the guy who did a multitude of Shakespeare adaptations. Now he is returning with another Christie mystery and slipping back into the role of master detective Hercule Poirot. This film follows the Belgian sleuth vacationing aboard a glamorous river steamer when it turns into a terrifying search for a murderer after a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping Egyptian desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this mystery has a killer cast in it including Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Russell Brand and more and I have a good feeling for it to be a fun flick, especially for a totally classic whodunit being retold.
Parallel Mothers – Pedro Almodovar makes cinema with every flourish of his being. It may not be relatable or something in your particular wheelhouse but it is evident that he comes from the school of the greatest international auteurs and he also has that classic loyalty to his stars like Penelope Cruz who leads this film as well. Co-starring the incredibly stunning Rossy de Palma, the story sets out with two women, Janis and Ana, connecting in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident with Janis, a middle-aged man who doesn’t regret it and is excited for the journey and the other, Ana, an adolescent who is scared, repentant and traumatized by the whole experience. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors and with only a few words exchanged between them in these hours, it will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way. The film is always vibrant and colourful but it is the eyes of both women that get a focus that pulls you into the drama of the situation as well as the dread felt when secrets and revelations come to light but aren’t immediately spoken. The film fills an international niche that might be widely sought but the fans of this style will eat it up like a well-prepared meal.
Jockey – Clifton Collins Jr. is a name you might not know by just hearing it but you know his face and he’s been making your favourite films better with his supporting work for decades now. He gets his chance to absolutely shine in this new horse racing-driven character drama and shares the screen with an equally game Moises Arias from The Kings Of Summer. Collins plays an aging jockey who is still hoping to bring home another championship for his longtime trainer but injuries have thrown the whole arrangement into question. Throw in a new young rider who claims to be his son, and whom he takes under his wing, to further complicate the path to fulfilling his dream of going out at the top. Beautifully written and directed by Clint Bentley in his feature film debut and shot by Adolpho Veloso, whose work is new to me but I look forward to what he does next. The final shot of this movie is such a lingering triumph that it made me smile. I love character films like this one.
The Long Night – Some occult horror hits the screens this week with the scream queen of Scout Taylor Compton, an actress that was given her start with Rob Zombie in his remake of Halloween. Beautifully shot and with some insanely insidious imagery, the film would be a perfect fit for a company like SpectreVision, nestled against other movies like Mandy and Color Out Of Space. The story follows Compton as New York transplant Grace who returns to her childhood southern stomping grounds with her boyfriend, searching for the parents she’s never known and following a promising lead on her family’s whereabouts. Upon arrival, the couple’s weekend takes a bizarre, terrifying turn as a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader terrorize the pair en route to fulfilling a twisted ancient apocalyptic prophecy. So many creepy animal skull masks but surprisingly low on the gore angle. It still does have its fair share of blood but the scares come from the atmosphere of it all and the creepy drone to the musical score. I also have to hand it to the director by doing a full-on intro that mirrors the opening of Kubrick’s The Shining and I think it even uses the same music which is probably public domain now.
Let It Ride – Paramount is coming through with three new editions of their library this week, two of them being a couple of forgotten classics. This first one here was a complete surprise as I had never seen it before and it features the fantastic Richard Dreyfuss who is one record for saying that he’s forgotten doing some of the films in his career. I wonder if this is one of them. In this fast-paced comedy he plays an average kind of guy who drives a cab for a living and tries to stifle his problem with gambling. So, of course, he goes to the track, and mystically, it seems as though he can’t lose, no matter how he bets and he has an incredible day. Is this the turning point in his life or a pathway to his untimely demise? The film is interesting because it was made by filmmaker Joe Pytka, a guy largely known as a music video director aside from this then Space Jam about six years later which I find totally odd. The secondary interesting fact is that this was the second of three adaptations of the novels of author Jay Conely which started with the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm and finished with Bill Murray’s Quick Change, an all-time favorite of mine.
Jack Reacher4K – With Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher being back in the zeitgeist with the hotness of the new Prime Video series Reacher being a top show in 2022, it’s cool to get this brand new 4K version of the first Tom Cruise film as well as being in a gorgeous steelbook which you should hop online and check out. This is the be-all and end-all of Reacher films as well as the sequel proved that Tom Cruise should never double dip in franchises that aren’t Mission Impossible. Nothing is decided on Top Gun: Maverick yet. This film follows Cruise as Reacher, an enigmatic ex-Army investigator who is brought in to look into the murder of five seemingly unconnected victims who were taken down by a former Army sniper who has a history of shooting people in the streets when he was in the service. The action is fantastic in this movie and I have to give it to the chemistry between Tom and writer and director Christopher McQuarrie who have a near perfect penchant for making explosively entertaining films together. Now you can experience it or relive it in glorious 4K, the way it’s supposed to be.
Soapdish – This is a weird one, the second of the classic Paramount releases, and I only think so because I saw it at a young age for the first time and definitely didn’t fully understand the subject matter but also did not appreciate the caliber of the cast. Interestingly, this movie also touched on a film from my generation’s childhood too as Kevin Kline was unable to accept the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s Hook due to the extensive reshoots and Robin Williams replaced him. This dastardly comedy romance follows an ambitious television soap actress who conspires with her producer to scuttle the career of the show’s long-time star but nothing works as they plan and the blowback comes back to affect the fate of the entire show. The cast is crazy in this with Sally Field, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey Jr., Elisabeth Shue, Teri Hatcher and Cathy Moriarty to back up Kline and my young little mind at the time had no idea the mixed generational talent that was in this. The film was also very well reviewed at the time but seems to have vanished from conversations of great rom coms, especially during the kick off to the nineties which was a great time for the genre.
The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 4 – To be honest, knowing the Margaret Atwood source material, I always thought that this series had a finite amount of story to it but I really think that this adaptation has almost evolved into something all on its own now. The series is also massively popular and has given lead star Elisabeth Moss so much well-earned acclaim in her role as June Osborne. Now after three seasons, this one has June in a desperate situation as she is wounded from the events of the third season finale and a fugitive of Gilead along with some of her fellow handmaids. This is the season where she rises up to become a formidable rebel leader though and takes the fight to her oppressors in a season that I felt was a bit better than the last but I still feel like an abrupt end should still be on the horizon. Moss is so good, as well as Joseph Fiennes who is a usual favourite of mine for anything he’s in.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Bryan Loves You – I love it when obscure horror lands on my doorstep and it’s even better when it is a fresh new voice in the genre that gathers some classic names in their cast. This is a reason why I love my little gig here because I get to megaphone out to the masses with this weirdo stuff and it just happens to have some Rob Zombie alumns in it like Daniel Roebuck, Cheers regular and House star George Wendt and Candyman himself, Tony Todd. This movie is a straight-up creeper that follows a small-town therapist played by Seth Landau, who also writes and directs this, that falls under the seductive spell of a dangerous cult in a dusty Arizona town in 1993. The idea and execution of this movie are super compelling as it takes a low pro approach in a documentary feel that ramps up with the intensity we are seeing on screen. I feel like this is for the oddballs in the genre fans’ wheelhouse and not really a recommendable film by any standard but I know I found myself highly entertained.
From Paris With Love – Sometimes you need a campy and ridiculous movie to throw on and laugh at how bad it is, elevating it to be an enjoyable experience. That is exactly what this movie is through and through, a high budget and insanely explosive action comedy that pairs the proper and meek Jonathan Rhys Meyers with a gonzo hitman John Travolta. This one is over a decade old now but for those who have never seen it, the film follows a young employee in the office of the US Ambassador who is forced to tag along with an American spy looking to stop a terrorist attack in the city. The film was directed by the eyes behind the Liam Neeson franchise Taken, Pierre Morel, who is a protege of the great actioneer Luc Besson and all of those lessons he learned under the tree of one of the best work well in the high octane nature of this nutso flick. It’s just everything else like plot and script that don’t really cohese that well. Still, if you turn the volume up and grab some snacks you probably won’t even notice.
Television:
Close Enough: Season 3 (Netflix) – Ever since HBO Max has launched in the United States they have been releasing series after series of new show revivals, original programming and bold narrative choices for all ages but this new animated series might be one of my favorite products from the platform and I honestly just started getting into it. Coming from the creators of Regular Show, a Cartoon Network original from J.G. Quintel, this is a decidedly more adult-oriented series about a couple trying to face various challenges in their daily lives while trying to cope with their changes from 20s to 30s. Quintel takes the lead role, just as he did with his previous series but this also has Jason Mantzoukas who just might be my favorite current comedian, podcaster and writer. I think I love this show so much because I see so much of myself within it, a pretty immature dude who has the responsibility of molding a young mind to thrust into this thing we call society. I can’t be the only one that relates to it and that is something that Quintel has a gift for because I even saw myself in the Regular Show characters and they were a blue jay and a raccoon.
Tokyo Vice (Crave) – Michael Mann has been off the grid for a while but in the last six months he popped up again in a big bad way with the announcing of a sequel to his bank heist masterpiece, Heat, although it is in novel form. Another announcement, although a little bit quieter, was this series and just from the name alone I get excited because this is the man who started his career with a show called Miami Vice and I’m actually a fan of the movie as well. Starring West Side Story’s Ansel Elgort and the great Ken Watanabe, the story follows a Western journalist working for a publication in Tokyo who takes on one of the city’s most powerful crime bosses in a descent into the neon lit underbelly where foreigners are not welcome. I am so excited for this and though Mann only directs the pilot, he still oversees the entire eight episode run of a show produced by HBO Max so you know the grit contained will be boundless. This might be a good fit for those who were enamoured with True Detective.
Morbius – I have definite worries about this new piece of the Sony Pictures part of the Marvel cinematic universe and it’s not just because of the length of time it took for it to finally be released because that is all pandemic related. My trepidation comes from the lacklustre trailers that seem totally corny and uninspired, the shoehorning of Michael Keaton’s Spider-Man: Homecoming character into said preview or the fact that we get a glimpse of a villainous Matt Smit to go against Jared Leto’s Dr. Michael Morbius but zero motivation to why. The story follows the brilliant biochemist as he tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead. I was never really on board with any of these unconnected MCU Sony films like Venom but both of those films kind of subverted my expectations so that’s how I will head into this film, will the bar set low. I will say that director Daniel Espinosa is usually pretty solid, with films like Safe House and Life, but the studio meddling may have dampened his style. hopefully, I’m wrong but the advance word is not great.
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood – One of my favourite filmmakers of the last thirty years, Richard Linklater, is dipping into his past successes a little bit as well as into his own childhood for a delightful new movie that feels like more of a self-imposed passion project that a full-on linear story and at the end of it I was more than okay with that. The film seems to borrow from the growing-up drama that was the inventive and unseen before ten-year journey that was Boyhood and combines it with his digitally filmed but animated over top of gems like A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life. Narrated by Jack Black, this is a coming-of-age story set in the suburbs of Houston, Texas in the summer of 1969, centred around the historic Apollo 11 moon landing and most notably a ten-year-old boy who is picked by NASA to be shot into space to make up for a space capsule that was made too small. The second part of this is obviously fantasy but the narration brings us through the time period and daily life that was Texas in the late sixties, the pop culture and world-shaping events that transpired and their effect on the youth. Linklater seems to be exploring his own familial relationships in this film, a story that more feels like a catharsis for him and may not be broad enough for a large audience. I personally loved this film and found myself enthralled with its inventiveness and the subtle comedy of it.
The Bubble – It feels like so long ago when I was looking forward to Judd Apatow’s movies. Since Knocked Up I was totally into Funny People and Trainwreck, two very decisive films with audiences but nestled in there was the quasi-sequel to that Seth Rogan movie This Is 40 and The King Of Statin Island that left me a little off with its unevenness. Now he has a new quarantine made movie that features a good cast with Karen Gillan, David Duchovny, Keegan Michael Key and even his own daughter Iris that follows a group of actors and actresses stuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel attempts to complete the next piece of their fan favourite franchise. With this film, I can say that Apatow has made something so disjointed and unsatisfying that it makes me question his drive for narrative films anymore. The guy crushes it with documentaries like the Garry Shandling one and I have hopes for the upcoming George Carlin documentary but this movie is just plain not funny aside from one drug-fueled moment. I want to love Judd forever but I don’t want to force it and to give this any sort of a good review and not letting him feel the wrath would just plain be wrong.
Blu-Ray:
Sing 2 – It may be my lack of emotion for musicals or my need for a deeper story but neither of these Illumination Entertainment-produced music-driven animated features has done anything for me or remain memorable in my mind at all but I will say that my kid adores them. The voice cast should have roped me in, with Matthew McCoughnahey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and more but it just feels like a loose plot and popular music to sing along to. This sequel has Buster Moon and his theatre full of performers in financial trouble again, pushing them to persuade reclusive rock star Clay Calloway, voiced by a debuting Bono, to join them for the opening of a new show. It is all paint by numbers stuff and, I have to throw some shade here, but Bono is incredibly wooden in a speaking role and it feels so weirdly distracting. I also feel like him voicing a lion was a weird stretch that he did not fit at all. This movie is total kid’s fluff so it should be regarded as such.
Pursuit – John Cusack is having a rough time movie-wise, much like a lot of former A-list stars who start to coast down to the B-level direct to video market and, hey, Morgan Freeman has done it lots as well so maybe it’s the lull before the renaissance. The good news is that Emile Hirsch is along for the ride as well in this thriller and he always brings it no matter how bad the script may be. The story has actor Jake Manley as a detective named Breslin who crosses paths with Calloway, a ruthless hacker who’s trying to save his kidnapped wife from a drug cartel. When Calloway escapes from police custody, Breslin joins forces with a no-nonsense cop to reclaim his prisoner. This is the bargain basement of action thriller filmmaking with terribly constructed sequences and the corny bad guy and tough-guy bravado. It feels needlessly convoluted, to the point of ridiculousness, and doesn’t have any sort of payoff for trying to go so deep. I guess it was a paycheck for a lot of these guys but I honestly feel robbed of my time.
The Requin – Giant shark horror films, yay! Am I the only one cheering for this? C’mon, friends, the allure of Jaws is a forever thing now and we always clamour for more that’s why we allowed the Jason Statham action flick The Meg to be somewhat of a hit. This movie has the added nineties nostalgia of starring Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone, and that’s the film she was in not the demeanour of the person. In the second of two films she features this week (the other being the much better Last Survivors), she co-stars with Big Little Lies actor James Tupper in a film that follows a couple on a romantic getaway who find themselves stranded at sea when a tropical storm sweeps away their villa. In order to survive, they are forced to fight the elements, while sharks circle below and it immediately springs to mind the thriller Open Water which I will say right here right now was a better movie. This film consistently suffers from not capitalizing on good opportunities horror-wise while also not giving us enough monster thrills with the sharks. I don’t know if it was the budget but I don’t need to squint through CGI fog for an hour and a half, please.
The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm – The first of two Warner Archive titles this week, the new edition of this film fascinates me because it is rumoured that it could never be “restored” because the original three-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged. While we don’t have the capability to screen three-panel Cinerama anymore, no matter how much they tried, the rumours proved to be untrue and we get a special edition of this Lawrence Harvey fairy tale epic. Simply put, this film is set in the early nineteenth century, following the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm who are commissioned to write a family history for a local Duke which is shown in the reenactments of three of their stories including “The Dancing Princess”, “The Cobbler and the Elves” and “The Singing Bone”. Later nominated for four Academy Awards and won one for Best Costume Design, I feel like this film is largely remembered for the gimmick in which it was shown as well as the huge cast. As a Twin Peaks fan, I’m drawn to the fact that Russ Tamblyn is in it.
A Star Is Born – When Lady Gaga took her first big-screen movie role in the long gestated remake of this film a few years ago it elevated the original films into the spotlight again but probably more so the Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson version. Well, this isn’t that on, nor is it the Judy Garland one that came before it but instead it’s the one before THAT from 1937 starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. In the simplest version of the story, the story is removed from the music artist’s skewed tale and instead follows a young woman who comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him. Just like the remakes to follow, this movie was also an Oscar darling that pulled in eight Oscar nominations and netted them two which included best Original Screenplay. Obviously, the approach to this movie is dated but the bones of a classic Hollywood story are very neat to see exhumed and there has to be a reason that this particular character tale is so popular.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Outs:
Surf Nazis Must Die – I got my first Troma Entertainment review copy so I had to bring it out this section if not just to show it off to the people in the know. For those who aren’t, Troma is an independent film production company and distributor that makes the schlockiest and most ridiculous horror-comedies known to film, all under the eye of the great Lloyd Kaufman, known to his fans as Uncle Lloydie. With the ridiculous title that this film has, you know it’s going to be crazy and follows a tough gun-wielding woman who is sent on a path of revenge when her son is brutally murdered by neo-Nazi surf punks in a post-apocalyptic future. One by one she hunts each of them down to dispatch them in the goriest ways possible and this late eighties film comes through brilliantly on this newly restored Blu-ray edition. Is it in bad taste? Oh, most definitely but that is how Troma rose to be the indie darling it is and has spawned filmmakers like Eli Roth, James Gunn and Trey Parker and Matt Stone from South Park. The fans of this are savvy to everything this studio has to offer and this landmark release will be a big hit.
The Flag Of Iron – 88 Films has gifted me not one but two great classic Shaw Brothers classics from their extensive vault of martial arts stories. The cool thing about both of these is that they were made in the early eighties, a very different era for the Asian film company. This one was released in 1980 and was made more as a proof of concept film as it came from a burst of inspiration when director Chang Chen had found new talent and blood with his “The Five Venoms” actors, a movie he had made a couple of years prior, most of which were trained in the highly acrobatic Chinese opera and well versed with exotic martial arts weapons. This created a new spark for Chen as he started to write with the use of these bizarre weapons as the focal point in his films. The revamp of the picture for blu-ray is stunning as the colours pop off the screen, the special features are great and the packaging is everything a collector dreams of. This even includes posters which makes me very happy.
Legendary Weapons Of China – The second 88 Films and Shaw Brothers co-release comes from a couple of years later but this time from the legendary Chia-Liang Liu, a filmmaker that gave us movies like The Legend Of Drunken Master and the Wu Tang Clan inspiring, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Liu was less about experimental filmmaking and more about what had worked previously and it always translated well to screen. That is evident with this action drama with a side of comedy that focuses on a band of killers from an ailing kung fu and magic society who are sent on a manhunt for a former member of the society whose bad mouthing threatens its existence. I absolutely loved the credits for this movie that does each actor’s credit with them fighting against a colour backdrop, a trope that would be used a lot in martial arts movies. Again the presentation of the blu-ray is exquisite and the cover of it may be my favourite that I’ve received from 88 Films.
Liar’s Moon – A cool thing about being hooked up with MVD Visual, besides all of the Shaw Brothers films and now Troma releases that I just talked about, is this collector’s series side of their releasing that sheds a spotlight on films I’ve never heard of with now big and prominent Hollywood stars. This one caught my attention because it has Matt Dillon and a couple of years before the cool one we got to see in the S.E Hinton adaptations of The Outsiders, Rumble Fish and Tex and just after his dorky appearance in My Bodyguard. The film is about a romance between class levels that blossoms in East Texas during the summer between the daughter of a rich banker and a working teen on his way to blue-collar career. Although he wasn’t at the time that this came out, Dillon is the most recognizable star in this film, just a young lad, but classic actor Broderick Crawford also appeared in this in his final performance after a forty five year career that included All The King’s Men and Born Yesterday.
The Stand – I felt like I’ve been waiting since the mid-nineties for someone to tackle this epic Stephen King novel and the timing is really weird for a story about an uncontrollable virus that decimates the earth’s population to be released but, when it was released mid pandemic, well, it was what it was. Let it be known that this is probably my favourite book of all time and under The Fault In Our Stars filmmaker Josh Green, the potential is huge. The story exists in the mass destruction caused by a manmade virus called “Captain Trips” with a false messiah emerging to gather his like-minded survivors, possessing incredible powers and hellbent to rule the remaining human society. It’s up to a group of people to journey the post-apocalyptic wasteland to stop him and his army or perish in the attempt. With a killer cast, including James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgård and many more, the unrated platform of CBS All Access was supposed to be a perfect way to convey this story if they had decided to do it correctly, instead of just cherry-picking everything they wanted out of the book and essentially throwing the rest into a tire fire. I was so angry with what I was seeing and I felt like it was completely toothless by the end, a forgettable piece of fluff never to be thought of again. Between this and the treatment of The Dark Tower, I’ve been upset with the handling of the Master Of Horror’s works largely.
Television:
Moon Knight (Disney+) – The new arrival in Marvel Cinematic Universe television has arrived so you know exactly what to tune into for the next six Wednesdays on Disney+, something that has been missing since the end of The Book Of Boba Fett. What I find really cool about this is that one of my favorite directing duos, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, the minds behind The Endless and their last release Synchronic, are the showrunners on this show that is a little inaccessible to a mainstream audience. Oscar Isaac takes the lead in a story that follows a former U.S. Marine who is struggling with dissociative identity disorder, flipping back and forth between himself, Marc Spector and a museum giftshop employee named Stephen Grant. Spector knows that within him he is granted the powers of an Egyptian moon god but his dormant counterpart is not and quickly finds out that these newfound powers can be both a blessing and a curse to his troubled life and may cause the downfall of the world within the wrong hands. Isaac is brilliant as usual, playing between Grant and Spector so well and Ethan Hawkes shines so well in his villain role as the former host of the powers that Moon Knight possesses and one that will eat everyone’s soul to regain it. The show starts off strange and gets even stranger but the pay offs are so cool and the dual looks of Moon Knight are totally awesome. I’ve loved everything I’ve watched so far and can’t wait for more.
The Lost City – Sandra Bullock has a good penchant for picking good co-stars to feature in her comedies which is a genre she fits in best because, well, Sandy is always charming. I feel like her characters are always just a millimetre away from the true lady. While the movies aren’t exactly ones that stick in your memory, like The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds, they are always entertaining at the time and I expect the same from this new film with Channing Tatum in the co-pilot seat. Bullock plays an adventure romance writer who is kidnapped by a young and ruthless treasure hunter played by Daniel Radcliffe. This prompts the cover model of her books to prove that he is a real-life hero to her and heads into the jungle to rescue her. The trailers for this honestly look pretty funny, relying on the two stars’ onscreen chemistry and proven acting chops to get the audience a satisfying film that will remind us of the Michel Douglas and Kathleen Turner film Romancing The Stone and the sequel Jewel Of The Nile. Also, I have to mention that Brad Pitt is in this too and looks hilarious in a long hair action hero spoof role.
Everything Everywhere All At Once – After the insanity and soulful beauty that was Swiss Army Man, a must-see film for any arthouse fan, I’ve been waiting for the next collaboration between the two-headed creation team which is Daniels. Always idiosyncratic and entirely on their own path, the films that they created separately have been wildly original as well so they are seemingly on a constant hot streak in my opinion. For their new mind-bender, they’ve enlisted Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and former child star Ke Huy Quan for this story about an aging Chinese immigrant who is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led. Yes, it might be reminiscent of the sci-fi action flick The One with Jet Li from the early 2000s but I know that Daniels is going to give this story a whole new spin. The trailer makes my draw drop to the floor and I can’t even begin to consolidate my expectations which, at this point, are set from here to the moon. I can not wait and it may be on my best-of list at the end of the year.
Gold – Zac Efron’s most recent adventures were documented in his Netflix docuseries Down To Earth which had him travelling around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live but it must have also been to help prepare him for this new survival thriller because it really seemed to pay off. Interestingly enough, he almost died making the reality show so it’s even more fitting that this film takes place in one of the most deadly places on the planet as well. The film is set in the not-too-distant future and follows Efron as a drifter travelling through the desert who discovers the largest gold nugget ever found with his driver who is reluctantly escorting him through the harsh terrain. While his new business partner treks off to find an excavator to dig up their find, the drifter is left to his own devices to guard it against thieves amid harsh conditions and wild dogs while waiting for his meal ticket to return. Beautifully shot but dour and depressing, this movie is as harsh as they come and shows, without any flinching, a man whose body is torn apart by the elements he faces. Efron is put through the absolute wringer in this film and I felt captivated the whole time. The viewer takes a beat, albeit far less than the character on screen, but it is quite the journey.
Moonshot – Cole Sprouse has left all of that Zack and Cody Suite Life stuff behind him as he has been in this new emo phase of his career ever since the fan loved Archie reimagining on The CW, Riverdale. The fans will certainly be following him over to the Crave streaming service via the conduit of HBO Max for this new romantic drama and I’m digging that it has a bit of a sci-fi edge to it plus it has Zach Braff so that guarantees it getting my time. Co-starring Lana Condor from Alita: Battle Angel, the film is set in a future where Mars is terraformed and colonized by the best humanity has to offer and two very different college students wind up joining forces to sneak onboard a space shuttle to the red planet in order to be united with their significant others. The film comes from filmmaker Christopher Winterbauer whose first feature Wyrm invoked comparisons to other nuanced directors like Yorgos Lanthimos and Todd Solondz which just adds to the pile of things that fascinate me about this film. I enjoy the weirdness in cinema, as evident from a lot of the recommendations I’ve given so I see this as being no different.
You Are Not My Mother – There is something about British, Irish, Scottish or Welsh-made films that automatically makes me gravitate towards them but the horror side of things really gets my attention because they are always so incredibly crafted. Last year had the Welsh mind twister Censor and the British chiller Caveat and it’s right in between those great films where this simple and slightly monstrous horror tells its compelling tale. Not featuring any cast members that are known on a global scale, this film is set in a North Dublin housing estate where a young teen named Char’s mother goes missing. When she returns Char is determined to uncover the truth of her disappearance and unearth the dark secrets of her family as she starts to see weird behaviours in her mother that she has never seen before and her grandmother seems both wary and knowledgeable about the whole situation. This film is immensely satisfying in its incredible atmosphere that draws you in deeper and deeper into the mystery that surrounds Char and her family with subtle little flashes of pure terror that will get under your skin. What I love about horror is it can be made for relatively nothing and still be effective with every frame, as this film shows off with class.
Run Woman Run – Immediately when I saw the premise for this new film I was reminded of the Jillian Bell comedy-drama Brittany Runs A Marathon which has the simple basis of a woman wanting to try the simple thing of running every day and it slowly starts to change her life. This one has a very loose similarity but I’m excited to talk about it as it is another piece of filmmaking from the indigenous community and it features Lorne Cardinal from Corner Gas. The Story follows Beck, a single mother who learns how to reclaim her dreams, family and honour her life, all thanks to an unlikely coach who forces her on the path to a better life. The film has already been screened for First Nations communities across Canada to great acclaim and it will be cool to see what the rest of Canada thinks now that it is in a wider release. It was written and directed by Zoe Leigh Hopkins who is fast becoming a rising storyteller n Canada and I look forward to what she’s coming out with next.
Blu-Ray:
Nightmare Alley – It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a Guillermo del Toro film because it has been four years since his Best Picture-winning The Shape Of Water divided audiences. Full disclosure here, it’s a fantastic film. One of the greatest cinema masters today, he returns with a remake of a classic film noir and it’s a timepiece of a film that speaks out from the exact era that it is voicing with a knowledgable tone. The film stars Bradley Cooper as an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words who hooks up with a female psychiatrist, played by Cate Blanchett, who is even more dangerous than he is. Featuring a supporting cast of Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe and Ron Perlman, this movie is a phenomenal character ride that drips with that del Toro style that just leaps off the screen thanks to the work of his many time collaborator and stalwart cinematographer Dan Laustsen. I really would love to see this film released in the same black and white style that the original film was made in because I think it would play really well, just like Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist did.
Fortress – Now for the periodically fun portion of this blog sometimes maybe, it’s time to look at the latest direct-to-video entry from Bruce Willis and a glimpse of what he’s lazily lining his pockets with. This sounds very harsh but it is only because I’ve been driven to this point by again and again being subjected to his mediocrity. The film has Willis as Robert, an ex-CIA agent, who lives in a hidden woodland resort that serves as a retirement community for former spies. His estranged son Paul is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur who has run into trouble and needs to ask his old man for help but, unfortunately, Paul’s plans aren’t as secret as his father’s location which leads a group of criminals hellbent on revenge to Robert’s doorstep. The film co-stars Chad Michael Murray and Jesse Bradford, two actors who have worked with Willis on a direct to video film here and there and is directed by James Cullen Bressack, a super nice guy on Twitter but, woof, is this movie ever bad. I think the issue is Willis who seemingly couldn’t give an ounce of energy to any line reading to save his life or the plot’s integrity. Just ho-hum level of delivery on everything. He’s now pathetic.
Ted Bundy: American Psycho – Really, another Ted Bundy story? Unfortunately, we can’t leave this serial killer story alone it seems and Chad Michael Murray makes his second appearance in a row but it is just as bad as the first one, sadly. Also known as the “American Boogeyman”, a terrible title, the film follows FBI agents Kathleen McChesney and Robert Ressler as they organize one of the largest manhunts in history to apprehend America’s most infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy, played by the former One Tree Hill star. I don’t know who this movie was made for because even the most season serial killer movie fans have seen this Bundy story played out over and over again and remarkably better so as well. This movie is hobbled from the get-go, playing hard into schlocky tropes with little to no pay off and the acting is truly dreadful on all levels. I know that the horror genre isn’t usually where one would go for some good line deliveries but there has to be a bar set and this film doesn’t even come close to even meeting it.
Come Drink With Me – Arrow Video is going back to their seemingly neverending well of Japanese cinema that carved a huge path for itself, creating impressions and inspirations on many of the Japanese filmmakers today. I’m loving all of these new collector’s editions because many of these films never made it to North America in any sort of a wide release until now. This one is a crime-action story that follows a ruthless band of thugs who kidnaps a young official to exchange for their leader who has been captured by the opposing organization. Golden Swallow is sent to take on the thugs and free the prisoner who also happens to be her brother and, though she is able to handle the overwhelming odds, she is hit by a poison dart and gets help from a beggar who is really a kung-fu master in disguise. With his help, she forms a plan to get her brother back in some really killer action sequences. The film was made by King Hu, a major piece in the Shaw Brothers releasing studio with films like A Touch Of Zen. Interestingly, this film is rumoured to be an early appearance of Jackie Chan as one of the child singers near the beginning of it although lead actress Pei-Pei Cheng denied this in the audio commentary to the Hong Kong DVD release of the film. Still, the film is listed among Chan’s acting credits on his official website and autobiography.
The Godfather Trilogy 4K – One of the greatest series of films of all time get their 4K release is coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the adaptation of the first Mario Puzo written novel. Yes, I do concede that the third movie is pretty bad and only improved to a good movie through the recently mad Coda version but it definitely has the greatest sequel ever made with The Godfather Part II. Of course, for those who don’t know, this is the saga of the Corleone family through the eyes of Don Vito and then through Michael, the reluctant heir to the throne who descends down the path that eventually destroys him. Nestled in there is the brilliant origin of young Vito played by Robert De Niro which is, in my opinion, one of the greatest performances of all time. There is so much to love about this Francis Ford Coppola-directed trilogy and I’m so happy that I now own it in the best possible format other than having the original reels themselves.
Captains Of The Clouds – Warner Archive swooped in this week and gifted me with a brand new throwback edition of something from Golden Age Hollywood and it brings us to the era of the early forties, a few years before World War II ended. It features a giant of the times, the iconic James Cagney, not opting to play a gangster or a cop this time around but instead he does the hero thing. Set in a time that had the Ally Canadian nation inspired by Churchill’s Dunkirk speech, the film follows brash, undisciplined bush pilot Brian MacLean and three of his friends who enlist in the RCAF but are deemed too old to be fliers and that’s just the beginning of the story. Yes, that’s right, this is a Canadian story about the Royal Canadian Air Force, some national pride flavour from a classic movie era. The film was also made by director Michael Curtiz, one of the most sought after filmmakers of the time, responsible for films like The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Casablanca, which came out the same year, and White Christmas which came later but adds a whole new sense of credibility to this classic war story..
Dexter: New Blood – The Sopranos used their chance to satisfy their fans who were let down by the infamous fade to black that angered many but I really loved with a prequel movie that kind of disappointed more people. Dexter gets to do the same thing now by kind of retconning the last terrible season of the acclaimed series or, who knows, maybe they keep it in place as a “screw you, we did it” sort of thing. The series is set ten years after Dexter Morgan went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura at the end of the final season and he is now living under an assumed name in Upstate New York, Iron Lake, far from his original home in Miami. We definitely should assume his “dark passenger” is still along for the ride but what is his son Harrison like now and does he have his own darkness to satiate? Also, Jennifer Carpenter, who played his sister Deb, is in this revival as well and, given her fate in the series, what role does she play now? There are so many questions swirling around this new revisit to an old friend and I’m definitely excited to check it out.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek-Outs:
23rd Century Giants: The Story Of Renaldo & The Loaf – When I get weird stuff after street date I always relegate them to this part of the weekly blog and that’s why this is the sole entry this week but it’s a decidedly weird one as well which gives me a little excitement. Even better than that, this film is one of those music documentaries that I cherish so much and about a couple of artists I have never heard of before. The film lays out a decades-long friendship that drives an architect and a biomedical scientist to make the weirdest music you’ve ever heard in your life, and thanks to the Internet, they became more popular than they could ever dream of. Brian Poole and David Janssen, aka Renaldo and the Loaf, are an avant-garde duo who have been creating strange and captivating music together since the ’70s and this documentary dives deep with interviews with the duo and virtually every key figure in their musical lives, unseen photos, unheard music, and comedic cutout animations that make this film embody the weirdness of its subject. After just learning about Sparks last year, I feel like these guys are my big discovery this year.
Television:
Halo (Paramount+) – It’s been a long and rocky road for the video game adaptation to find any sort of footing in Hollywood. At first, it was going to be executive produced by Peter Jackson, the mind behind everything J.R.R. Tolkein on the big screen, written by Alex Garland, the filmmaker behind Ex Machina, Annihilation and Dredd albeit afterwards and director Neill Blomkamp, the eyes behind District 9 and Elysium. At one point even the great Guillermo Del Toro, was mentioned for the second time this week, but the point is that many were gunning for this to happen. Well, Showtime actually went ahead and made the series but got cold feet and Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment took over and here it is, living big on Paramount+. The series really has ll you want from it if you are a Halo fan. Master Chief is there, the Covenant are launching their universal attack, Cortana is referenced, all of that good stuff. Now is where we see if that goodness is sustainable and I will say that some of the CGI with the Spartans is a bit dodgy but I’m having fun with it.
Bridgerton: Season 2 (Netflix) – Shondaland is bringing back the horny again this week because the famed production company has landed on Netflix with the second season of its randy little bodice ripper that can’t wait to show partial nudity and get swearing immediately. Created by one of Shonda Rhimes’ main dudes Chris Van Dusen, this series is set in the backdrop of Regency era England as seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family in their follies of wealth, lust, and, of course, betrayal. The young cast is young, attractive and relatively unknown, aside from Jonathan Bailey from Broadchurch, Nicola Coughlan from Derry Girls and Freddie Stroma, AKA Vigilante from the fantastic HBO Max and DC Comics series Peacemaker but it’s veteran inclusions like Rome’s Polly Walker and the legendary actress Julie Andrews that gives this one any weight. You’ll know quickly if this show is for you and I say that over the first season it had me and lost me multiple times but I do understand its appeal.
Parallels (Disney+) – Since the Netflix success of original shows like Stranger Things and picking up the Danish made series Dark which blew the minds of many who discovered it ad shepherded it on by word of mouth, I know all the streaming services are looking for their own pre-teen thrillers and Disney+ seems to have netted their own with this show that was a hit in it’s native France. The show dabbles in sci-fi more than it does in the horror genre but I love these types of shows so it is no bother to me. The main story follows four teenage friends, on the French-Swiss border, whose lives are turned upside down by an experiment of the LHC, the world’s biggest particle collider. Torn from their reality and deposited into four different alternate worlds, each of them must do everything possible to understand what exactly happened and look for a way to return to their original homeworld. The special effects in this look very cool and it seems to be a series that the whole family can enjoy, almost like a new type of Sliders and I’m not talking about those mini-burgers. The only thing it’s missing is Jerry O’Connell but, even though I’m bummed about that, I doubt he knows how to speak French fluently enough for a good role in this.
Atlanta: Season 3 (FX) – It’s been a long time since Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry and Lakeith Stanfield have reprised their characters on this hit FX series and, seriously, a lot has happened since the end of the second season almost four years ago. Glover’s Childish Gambino is one of the hottest acts on the planet, Henry is now a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Stanfield is an Academy Award-nominated actor for Judas And The Black Messiah but they all found time to come back for this season and the subsequent fourth one which will be its final one. For those who have never had the pleasure of seeing it, the show follows Earn and his cousin Alfred as they try to make their way in the world through the rap scene. Along the way, they come face to face with social and economic issues touching on race, relationships, poverty, status, and parenthood all to varying degrees of comedy and harsh realities. This is easily one of the best shows of the past twenty years and I think it will be talked about years after it ends.
Deep Water – It has to be frustrating for an actor to put all of his efforts into a film only for it to be shelved for a long period of time because the studio can’t find a spot for it in its release schedule then it gets relegated to being an almost home release and put of Prime Video. That is exactly what happened to Ben Affleck and his new film and to make matters worse he made it with his now ex-girlfriend Ana De Armas and subsequently has to do press with her for this film. Don’t feel too bad for Ben as he’s back with JLo so all well that ends well. This new mystery thriller follows Affleck as a well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce but becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her multiple lovers. What excites me more than De Armas and Affleck being in this, because I do adore Anan, is that it was made by the legendary Adran Lyne who was responsible for thrillers like Jacob’s Ladder, Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful, a total master of his class especially when it comes to adultery and murderous jealousy. Based on a novel by acclaimed author Patricia Highsmith, the reviews are good and the screenplay was written by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson so it is blisteringly hot right now given the success of that show, now in its second season.
Windfall – Here’s another late to the game filmmaker for me as I really didn’t know about writer and director Charlie McDowell as a mumblecore filmmaker until years after his mysterious little drama The One I Love starring Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss had been long gone from movie screens and on-demand platforms but I am in the know now and with great timing as this new film debuts on Netflix this week. Once again, he has paired himself with greatness as the always bankable Jesse Plemons stars, with the lovely Lily Collins playing his wife, and usual comedic actor Jason Segal dips back into the drama field again, something he is so damn good at which is evident in The End Of The Tour and Our Friend recently. This film has Segal playing a man who breaks into a tech billionaire’s empty vacation home with no real intent other than to see how he lives but things go sideways when the arrogant mogul and his wife arrive for a last-minute getaway and the intruder’s intent pivots to extortion with a potential to explode into violence. This movie operates as a film noir in a Hitchcockian eye and pulls you in deeper and deeper with just these three actors as your moving parts. I was also really drawn to the cinematography and rightfully so as it. is Isiah Donte Lee, who also shot the great Netflix original Burning Sands as well as some solid J. Cole music videos. This isn’t really a broad appeal movie but mumblecore fans will eat it up.
The Outfit – Mark Rylance is an Academy Award winner who always gives his best in every film he does but a lot of people still don’t know who he is or know his face but not his name. Well, he might get some eyes on him now as he’s in this brand new crime thriller that has him front and center and the target of some pretty bad guys. The story has him as Leonard, a master English tailor who’s ended up in Chicago and operates a corner tailor shop with his assistant, played by the great Zoey Deutch, where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them, a family of vicious gangsters. One night, two killers, played by Dylan O’Brien and Johnny Flynn, knock on his door in need of a favour and Leonard is thrust onto the board in a deadly game of deception and murder as a result. This film is the debut as a director for writer Graham Moore who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for The Imitation Game and not to sound like a cliche when it comes to a film about a tailor but this looks so slick and stylish that it has me salivating to check it out. I also geek out that this was shot by cinematographer Dick Pope who has done incredible work in his career, especially his films with Edgar Wright.
X – Ti West is a voice in horror I’ve always loved, a writer and director with old-school American horror in his blood. Debuting with the throwback slasher horror House Of The Devil, he has always found a way to hook me in with his stories and when I saw his new trailer with the A24 studio card ahead of it I got really excited. Set in 1979, the story follows a group of young filmmakers who set out to make an adult film in rural Texas but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast finds themselves fighting for their lives in a very Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired tale of terror. Pardon my pun here but this film has a killer young cast including Scream’s Jenny Ortega, High Life’s Mia Goth, Brittany Snow from the Pitch Perfect franchise and rapper turned actor Kid Cudi and is just oozing with all of that style and substance that Tobe Hooper brought when he unleashed his brand of violence in the seventies. I also find it fascinating that they filmed this in New Zealand yet it looks so much like a dusty Texan setting. The power of movies, people!
Black Crab – I have been a fan of Swedish actress Noomi Repace ever since I saw her in the original adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. She has since been in huge Hollywood feature films like Sherlock Holmes and Prometheus but has decided to go back and make something Scandanavian again after returning home to make the stellar but totally weird drama Lamb. This movie hits the sci-fi button, following six soldiers on a covert mission in a post-apocalyptic world who must transport a mysterious package across a frozen archipelago. The look of the film is gritty and bleak which plays right into my wheelhouse as I eat that atmospheric stuff up and director Adam Berg certainly has big ideas contained within that. My issue is that it all seems too big for just one movie and the setup was never going to satisfy its conclusion and I really don’t see another production coming from it. That said, as far as debut feature films go, this is solid and betrays his inexperience greatly.
Umma – More horror to get inside your heads this week but this falls far from the path of slasher scares and gets spooky through family history and lineage. It has the added draw of lead star Sandra Oh who is in the forefront right now with the latest season of her hit series Killing Eve as well as the voice of the mom in the infinitely cute and heartwarming Pixar film Turning Red. Well, this one is aiming far away from that audience base as she plays a mother named Amanda who is living a quiet life on an American farm with her daughter. When the remains of her estranged mother arrive from South Korea, she becomes increasingly aware that she is turning into that person she feared with each passing day and their dark past is thrust into the light. The film is the narrative debut of writer and director Iris K. Shim, who earned a lot of acclaim with her documentary The House of Suh, and now turns to a genre that I love so deeply in my heart, much to the chagrin of our illustrious host. Shot by Gareth Evans cinematographer Matt Flannery, the eyes behind The Raid: Redemption, The Raid 2 and Apostle, I can not wait to get my eyes on the delicious camera work of this horror that may get that slow burn word of mouth by fans across North America.
Alice – We get some blaxploitation-derived revenge thriller for our eyeballs this week at it has the added bonus of starring the wonderful Keke Palmer in the lead role who has shifted from a solid child actress to a commanding leading woman in seemingly the blink of an eye. The fact that rapper turned actor Common is the co-star in this film isn’t too shabby either as well as a villainous Jonny Lee Miller who I have adored since the mid-nineties film Hackers but I’m losing the focus here. Palmer plays Alice, a woman who yearns for freedom as an enslaved person on a rural Georgia plantation under its brutal and disturbed owner Paul. After a violent clash with Paul, she flees through the neighbouring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned political activist named Frank, Alice quickly comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage and the promise of Black liberation. Inspired by true events, Alice is a modern empowerment story tracing Alice’s journey through the post-Civil Rights Era American South. Palmer is without a doubt the strongest thing in a thriller that loses its footing narratively when she isn’t present. It’s a bold debut from writer and director Krystin Ver Linden but the inexperience does shine through more often than not, that being said, this is a help of a crash course to start and I look forward to what comes next. It is also a hell of a lot better than that Janelle Monae thriller Antebellum so it wins in that department.
Master – Race and true psychological and spiritual horror come to a head in this new Prime Video original film and just looking at the synopsis I know that it will be divisive, relevant and utterly terrifying and I am here for all of it. Featuring a super-effective trailer that gets into your bones, this is yet another debut this week in a feature form, this time for writer and director Mariama Diallo, a short filmmaker up until this point but one with a lot of promise. The film follows two African American women who begin to share disturbing experiences at a predominantly white college in New England which was built on the site of a Salem-era gallows hill. Navigating politics and privilege, they encounter increasingly terrifying manifestations of the school’s haunted past and struggle to not become a footnote in its menacing present times. Starring Regina Hall, this film immediately springs to mind the limited series Them, which is also available on Prime Video, so hopefully, the inevitable success of it will lead people to check that one out, one of my favourite new shows of 2021.
Rescued By Ruby – With The Flash’s Barry Allen leading your film, the charming Grant Gustin, a cutesy little dog movie will always win at least a little spot in your heart just on substance alone no matter how terrible it might actually be. This movie has the added cushion of being directed and written by Katt Shea, a veteran filmmaker who has brought us movies like Poison Ivy, Streets and The Rage: Carrie 2 so it can’t all be bad, right. Well, maybe scratch that last one. This film has Gustin playing Daniel, a state trooper chasing his dream to join an elite K-9 unit who partners with a fellow underdog, a clever but naughty shelter pup named Ruby. Surrendered to the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by her original owners, Ruby was deemed unmanageable due to her overabundance of energy but found her real home with Daniel. Probably not a lot of depth to this kids film but it does have a cute dog and former heartthrob from Party Of Five, Scott Wolf, in a supporting role. If anything this is an easy Sunday afternoon watch with the family that won’t offend anyone.
Tollbooth – I feel like it is in my blood to love crime comedies ever since I fell in love with the works of Guy Ritchie who kicked off the new releases this week with something big and bold. His beginning wasn’t as big but was bold as Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels formed my love for the British gangster film and it’s a bucket of love that could never be emptied. I think that’s why I gravitated to this one, though it is vastly different at its core. Starring the great Michael Smiley, this darkly comic thriller follows Brendan, a man who works solo shifts in the quietest toll booth in Wales, hiding from a criminal past where nobody would ever look. When he finally gets outed, word of his whereabouts gets to his enemies and they head west for revenge. Meanwhile, local traffic cop Catrin’s investigation into a simple robbery finds her heading for the booth at exactly the wrong time, setting up a cataclysmic finale for the guy who really just wanted to lay low for the rest of his existence. Co-starring Iwan Rheon, who people may remember as the sadistic Ramsey Bolton from Game Of Thrones, this film hit all the right notes for me and I found myself loving the writing style and whirlwind directing from Ryan Andrew Hopper who is yet another first-time feature filmmaker on this list. I will gladly follow him into more crime stories if he has them to give.
Moon Manor – On the outside, this film looks like an odd sort of drama about an old man coming to grips with his own mortality and the losing of the memories that he holds close to him, something great to pair up with the new AppleTV+ series The Last Days Of Ptolemy Gray from last week. On closer inspection, this is more a fantastical flight through the fleeting memories of an Alzheimer’s patient as he prepares for the next step. The film follows Jimmy, an ailing old man who is given the prognosis of having only one last day on the planet. He quickly decides to waste no time and to die like he lived, with intention, humour and zest, and show his funeral guests that the art of living may actually be the art of dying. This is definitely an odd duck of a movie that doesn’t really have a set audience but I really like its weird nature and it stars MadTV alum Debra Wilson, busy character actor Richard Riehle and Lou Taylor Pucci and I felt myself pretty engrossed with it. This is not to undersell lead actor James Carrazo who makes you root for Jimmy pretty much from the get go. As someone who has seen a couple of grandparents go to this horrible disease, I feel like it celebrated life more than it focused on death and I really appreciated that.
Tin Can – Some indie sci-fi slides into limited theatres this week which could mean a surprise hit that will earn the slow burn of word of mouth, a cheesy mess that needed millions of dollars to work or a forgotten film that will be on the woodpile of 2022 to burn at the end of the year. The cool thing and the reason I want to celebrate this movie is it comes from Nova Scotian filmmaker Seth A. Smith, a storyteller that surprised me with his film Lowlife in 2012 and then The Crescent in 2017. This film is set, ironically, in a world that faces a deadly plague, following a front-lines parasitologist who is imprisoned in a life-suspension chamber and to escape from this created tomb she must destroy the last of her kind. It’s cool that Michael Ironside co-stars in this movie, a classic actor. He now lends his time to being in smaller sci-fi and horror films like Turbo Kid and Bloodthirsty, almost like a return to what made him cult famous in legendary films like Scanners and Visiting Hours. This movie’s greatness is not just a success because of his involvement though, as it used the limits of the COVID isolation to a positive result. in a story that carves a new and fresh swath out of the path that David Cronenberg laid before it. Effective and well-acted, Tin Can makes a mark on you even if the name sounds a little dumb.
Dear Mr. Brody – Immediately the thing that upset me most about this movie was that I didn’t know who Michael Brody Jr. was beforehand nor had I ever even heard an inkling of his story which seems crazy. You would think that with how wild this story is and for how big it got that it would be a cautionary tale of either ignoring those powerful speakers who can make a difference in this world or not believing in false leaders but I’m getting ahead of myself. This documentary is about the titular Mr. Brody, a twenty-one-year-old hippie millionaire who, in 1970, promised to give away his $25M inheritance in an effort to usher in a new era of world peace. What resulted was a nationwide push to impress upon Brody the usefulness of his money to the causes of thousands of people that wrote him letters. The producers. of the film meticulously went through all of the unopened letters as a backdrop against the unfurling true story of who Michael Brody Jr. was by the people who know him intimately at this time is compiled interviews. This film is engrossing in its place in history plus the dreams and ideas that we’re flushed out of the American people when the possible benefactor or conman put his call out into the world. I live for mysterious documentaries like this and it satisfied my cravings on all levels.
The White Fortress – It’s not often or really ever that I get to talk about a foreign film out of Bosnia but that’s the greatest thing about being a reviewer that has many studio public relations contacts is that it sort of becomes a cultural melting pot in your emails. With all of the current global happenings on the conflict front, it is hard to watch an Eastern European war-related story but this one was too interesting to pass up and the war in Sarajevo isn’t a usual movie subject, aside from the incredibly must-see Quo Vadis, Aida?. This film is certainly not for the faint of heart but focuses on two teens from opposing sides in the Bosnian war who find love across a vicious divide. This film has all of those Romeo and Juliet star-crossed lover things going for it, with families that are volatile adversaries and a total class differential but still manages to be original and, at times, totally shocking. This one will certainly get lost in the global shuffle of cinema but I really enjoyed it.
Blu-ray:
West Side Story – Steven Spielberg’s long gestated passion project has finally made its way to the big screen to Disney+ for streaming and now on glorious 4K blu-ray and, impressively, during one of the toughest times to make a huge film, a global pandemic. While Scorsese’s passion project was a brutal film about missionaries bringing the word of God to Japan in Silence, Spielberg wanted to do the big musical with Maria, the Jets, back alley finger-snapping brawls and a very Romeo and Juliet plotline. For those who don’t know, this is an adaptation of the 1957 musical which explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. This film is an absolutely glowing piece of cinema but that isn’t a huge surprise when it comes to one of the best filmmakers in the game ever since he debuted. Spielberg got me into film, like many of us, and even though I don’t like musicals, I’m fascinated by his take on them and I thought this movie was gripping from the opening shot that needs to be seen to be believed as it is a treasure trove of the things we love about Spielberg. The story captivates, the cast and choreography leap off of the screen and it’s always evident why this story, even set when it is, will always be timeless when seen through a celluloid lens.
Red Rocket – Sean Baker, a writer and director who frequents Vancouver and has met a bunch of my friends, is one of the most important filmmakers of our time to me, telling the stories of real people and microcosms in our would the predominantly make up the majority. With his films Tangerine and The Florida Project, he exuded this and it came to a point in the latter that it broke me down into tears in theatres. Now he teams with actor Simon Rexx for this Trump-era comedy-drama that follows Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown that has no interest in having him back. Rexx gave the performance of 2021 and I was hoping that this was the year that Baker’s work elevates him to the top of the game as he has deserved for a long time but, alas, he was only truly appreciated in the independent circuit as Rexx did get an Independent Spirit trophy for Best Actor. I dare say he’s one of my absolute favourites today and I also venture that if you watch this film you will never hear NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye the same again.
Project Gemini – When I get these new releases from Well Go USA, most of the time I have no knowledge about them unless it’s a bigger international targeted film but sometimes I have seen a trailer for it on a previous release that sticks in my head. This is definitely one of those films as the preview is massively intriguing and could possibly be all of a ruse just to get you to watch it, as most trailers are, but I had a good feeling about this Russian thriller. The story follows a crew of space explorers sent on a mission sent to terraform a distant planet to ensure the survival of the human race. However, the mission encounters something unknown that has its own plan for the planet and it suddenly becomes a battle for survival with all o mankind at stake. This movie is a lot of fun and has some cool effects throughout while featuring great twists and turns to keep you guessing. There is a certain amount of frenetic filmmaking that is the norm when it comes to Russian filmmaking that could turn some viewers off but I really enjoyed it. I know it’s taboo at these times to praise anything Russian but I have to give this movie its due because the creators absolutely deserve it.
A Tale Of Two Guns – Bad western stories have made it to blu-ray release again this week and when your two lead stars are Casper Van Dien and Tom Berenger, both of who have had their great times in the sun before, you know you have made a wrong turn because those days are behind them. It’s a real bummer because I love a solid western but believe me, this is anything but. Obviously, this takes place in the lawless West, following The Cowboys, a notorious brotherhood of killers and thieves who reigned over the land with brutal fists and fast guns. Fate had finally caught up with them and now the merciless gang has but a single surviving member. When a deputized gunslinger takes up the call to hunt down the last Cowboy, the chase is on and the bullets fly and only one of these hardened men can survive. Corny and badly constructed, this movie sputters constantly with contrived moments and sequences that were done with much more spirit in far better films. I don’t see this one hitting in a big way on demand but if it does, just let it blow away like a bad tumbleweed. I’m doing you a favour, partner.
John And The Hole – At forty years old I feel like I’m still too immature to say this title without giggling like a schoolgirl but there’s just something about it that is inherently funny and I place the blame directly on the producers and creators. Laugh-inducing title aside, I was definitely unprepared for how good the film was that I was about to see and the fact that it has Dexter star Michael C. Hall in it is just a cherry on the sundae. The film is a coming-of-age psychological thriller that plays out the unsettling reality of a kid who holds his family captive in a hole in the ground. It’s really just as simple as that and, through satisfying twists and turns, it never becomes a story that feels familiar at all or predictable which serves to constantly keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering what’s next. Along with Hall, the film also features Taissa Farmiga who is fast becoming a favourite of mine, just like her mother Vera, and it is usually in a horror setting that she impresses. This may not be everyone’s cup of tea but the horror-like atmosphere and the traped isolation is so well done.
The Boy Behind The Door – When I saw the one location creature feature The Djinn starring young Ezra Dewey I remembered thinking that both the star and the minds behind the film, David Charbonier and Justin Powell, had massive futures ahead of them. For this reason, I was excited to receive this new thriller which takes the accelerator off of the supernatural stuff for something more grounded, and this was made before The Djinn, technically being their first feature film. The story follows best friends Bobby and Kevin who are kidnapped after their baseball game, separated from each other, locked in two different rooms. Bobby manages to escape but hears Kevin’s screams for help and realizes he can’t leave his friend behind and decides to steel himself for a showdown with his captor, a fight that only one of them will make it out of. Dewey again delivers a really fantastic performance as Kevin and newcomer Lonnie Chavis as young Bobby is put through the absolute wringer in his role and does it damn well. It was also great to see True Blood star Kristin Bauer Von Stratten appear in this one but I’ll keep quiet on her role to avoid spoilers. Sold thrills, chilling violence and kid actor that are not annoying definitely work in this movie’s favour and you don’t have to be a horror fan to enjoy it. It helps but you don’t have to be one, trust me.
Shooter4K – Mark Wahlberg spent a lot of time in New Westminster during the filming of this Antoine Fuqua adaptation of the popular Steven Hunter book series and I think about the locations every time I watch it. The good news now is that the Bob Lee Swagger movie is now on beautiful 4K in an even cooler steelbook, which is something we collector’s totally geek out on. For those who didn’t get a chance to check this one out, it follows Wahlberg as Swagger, a marksman living in exile who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the President. After being double-crossed and pinned with the assassination attempt, he is on the run and on a collision course with the real killer and the truth in a flick that features awesome action sequences and a great cast around Wahlberg, like Michael Pena, Danny Glover and Elias Koteas. They ended up making a television series around this film in 2016 with Ryan Phillippe but nothing holds a candle to what they did with this film and it was a missed opportunity that they didn’t make more, like Jack Reher, unfortunately, did with Never Go Back, an ill-advised movie.
An American Werewolf In London4K – One of the greatest horror of all times with some of the best dark comedy beats that hold up to this day, I have a deep love for this John Landis classic. The title really gives you all the exposition almost immediately, a couple of American college students, played by David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, go on a trip to London where they are attacked by a werewolf, leading to one of our guys turning into one in the most iconic transformation film ever put on screen. Seriously, that scene is a work of art. The new Arrow Video special edition is gorgeous now that they’ve moved it to a 4K Collector’s release, with a brand new transfer of the film, a commentary track with Naughton and Dunne, many brand new featurettes and an interview with John Landis. This is a killer edition but there is only a limited amount of copies so if you love this stuff like I do then I would get on it immediately.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Outs:
Ghostriders – My first thought when I saw this fun-looking release from MVD Visual was “hey, this doesn’t look like any Marvel release that I know of” and that’s because it isn’t and it’s very far removed from one as well. Made thirty-five years ago now, this one is a fun and definitely a dumb release that plays in a subgenre that is not often explored, the horror western. That’s right, this film follows the descendants of a group of cowboy lawmen who are targetted by the ghosts of an outlaw gang that were hanged by their ancestors. It’s a crazy storyline just in its simplicity and I would honestly love to see it get remade today because the film is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. I will admit that the pacing is at a snail’s pace in getting going but once the villains are introduced it gets pretty wild on a noticeably low budget. None of the actors are notable, the director hasn’t done anything else that would elevate him over cult status and it has been largely forgotten until this release but somehow it worked with me. I definitely can’t say it’s recommendable unless you like cult films though.
Deadly Games – Yes, I have to admit that my geek-outs this week are centralized in horror subgenres but these two were too good to pass up on a campy level cult double feature for this section. This one brings us back five years before the previous entry on the list and, again, doesn’t feature a cast you would recognize or a writer and editor who did anything notable afterwards as it loos like Scott Manfield’s follow up to this one, Imps, outright murdered his feature film career. The film is one of those classic exploitation flicks from the seventies and eighties, set in a town being terrorized by a masked killer who is murdering women. A young woman is attacked by the killer but escapes but with a bit of pertinent information as she believes the killer to be either the town’s policeman or the manager of the local theatre and she devises a plan to find out which is the actual killer. I wasn’t fully truthful when I said that this doesn’t feature any notable actors in it as Chicago Bears legend Dick Butkus appears in this mystery horror although I don’t think I can regard anything he does in it as “acting”. That really isn’t the point of this almost grindhouse style feature film as, just like the film on this list previously, its good old campy fun without any substance to it whatsoever.
Television:
Cheaper By The Dozen (Disney+) – Now that Disney owns Fox it’s time to capitalize on all of the properties that they owned under the Fox family film banner and that definitely includes this title which had two films that starred Steve Martin. Martin isn’t back for this one, nor is Bonnie Hunt who played his wife in it, but I think we have some solid lead actors in Gabrielle Union and, my personal favourite, Zach Braff. For those who didn’t get to see these movies in the early 2000s, this series follows the rambunctious exploits of a blended family of twelve, the Bakers, as they navigate a hectic home life while simultaneously managing their family business as well. Braff has incredible comedic timing as I am a huge fan of his show Scrubs which I’ve watched time and time again, something that is also on Disney+. I’m excited that this is a series that I can watch with my kids, the audience it is geared to because, well, Scrubs is definitely not family-friendly. I’m really hoping that there is a Donald Faison cameo that would set my nerd heart on fire.
DMZ (Crave) – One of my favourite graphic novels of all time, brilliantly written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Riccardo Burchielli, has finally made its series adaptation at, really, the best possible time to tell the story in a live-action format but I can’t help being scared that it will meet the same fate as another adapted favourite, Y The Last Man’ and get cancelled far before it’s time. Shepherded to the screen by producer and directors Ava Duvernay and Ernest R. Dickerson, this gritty post-fall of society story has a hell of a cast in it too with Rosario Dawson, Benjamin Bratt and Canadian star Agam Darshi and a storyline that I hope people see the depth in. Set in a near-future America, fractured by a Second Civil War, the story focuses on the titular DMZ, or the demilitarized zone, which is a ravaged Manhattan Island. No one goes in, no one comes out. But for medic Alma, who is desperate to find her missing son, it all comes down to her becoming a symbol of hope for the occupants trapped inside the DMZ. The future and the truth to the masses rests in her hands. I have no idea what to expect from this series but given the work that Duvernay and Dickerson have done before and the societal consciousness they have enacted, I can’t see them taking the teeth out of this biting world commentary that Wood created. I want more Wood adaptations if this does well because he has a bunch of really great stories ready to hit the small or big screen.
Human Resources (Netflix) – After the five seasons of Big Mouth I think the continuing story of the pubescent teens has hit the endgame and the resolutions have been met so Nick Kroll and his crew are moving on to spinoff with an integral piece of it, the hormone monsters and all the other psyche related creatures that make up the human mind. The spin-off pulls back the curtain on the daily lives of the creatures Hormone Monsters, Depression Kitties, Shame Wizards and many more that help humans journey through every aspect of life from puberty to childbirth to the twilight years. I’ve always said that the monsters were my favourite piece of the original series, especially Maury and Connie, and I’m glad my Netflix account was listening to me and whipping this up for us. I will say that this is not for everyone and is completely offensive but if you made it through all five seasons of Bog Mouth you are pretty much desensitized and if the show turned you off before that then the scars you have earned for life won’t let you watch this. It’s a win-win situation.
Minx (Crave) – I feel like a little precedence was set for this new show by the HBO series The Deuce which focused on the porn industry in the seventies because this HBO Max made show pull a little bit of the subject matter from that but leans into the comedy aspect a bit more. If that doesn’t sell you at all the casting of New Girl star Jake Johnson should help a bit and it is led by Ophelia Lovibond who MCU fans may remember as the assistant to The Collector who meets an unfortunate demise in Guardians Of The Galaxy. Like The Deuce, this show is set in the seventies as well and follows an earnest young feminist who joins forces with a low-rent publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. The advance reviews are really good for it as it pushes the comedy but is also racy and raunchy in the exact ways you think it would be. I’m not hugely knowledgeable on creator and showrunner Ellen Rapoport but I do know the work of Rachel Lee Goldenberg who directs all of the episodes as she also directed the film Unpregnant, an absolute must-see film.
Life & Beth (Disney+) – Amy Schumer makes her return to the television series format with this new scripted series from Hulu and separates herself from the sketch comedy stylings that made up her first series, Inside Amy Schumer. She comes to this one with a bit more acting chops as well after starring in the fantastic dramatic film The Humans which had her on-screen with the always fantasy Richard Jenkins, Steven Yuen, Beanie Feldstein and June Squibb and something has to rub off in that company. The series follows Beth, who after an unexpected incident starts having flashbacks to her teen self and learns how she became who she is and who she wants to become. The show is getting a lot of praise and not just for its comedy but the depth of character to it as well. Much of it plays for a longer game in the plot and, although rough at times, Schumer’s character work shines through and the rest of the cast, including Michael Rapaport and stand-up comedian Gary Gulman, add a lot to it as well.
The Adam Project – Those ones there that think the fun and smile-driven success of the action flick Free Guy was just a fluke, well, leading man Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy are back with a new blockbuster to prove that their hit-making combo isn’t a one-time thing. Not only that, as they did with their video game action-comedy, they are tapping into some big-screen nostalgia that is reminiscent of things like Flight Of The Navigator and The Last Starfighter in tone and I ate it all up happily. The film follows Reynolds as a time-travelling pilot who teams up with his twelve-year-old self after accidentally crash-landing in 2022. The mission is to destroy the time travel technology that was created by his father who passed away the year before he arrives. This film was awesome, featuring killer special effects, exhilarating action sequences and another charming performance from Reynolds as well as Catherine Keener and Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo in a 13 Going On 30 reunion. The stand-out is young Walker Scobell who has all of that sarcastic swagger of the guy he’s emulating the junior version of and then some. This is a fantastic film that will satisfy the audiences and give you that Spielberg and Zemeckis feeling you are craving but don’t even know it.
Turning Red – Another Pixar release had been given the direct route to Disney+ this week and, again after Luca, I feel for the people behind this beautiful production because it would have played so wonderfully on the big screen. Even more a bummer, this film is distinctly Canadian as it is a fully Asian story that feels so fresh and original. The story follows a thirteen-year-old girl named Mei Lee who turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited which, as it turns out, is a family tradition she was not informed of. The movie is put together by writer and director Domee Shi who did the Pixar short Bao, a little story that literally brought me to tears in theatres. There are many beautiful moments that will make you well up in this and that third act is gargantuan in stature and in heart as well. The kids will love this one but so will the adults.
Donkeyhead – Family drama is always traumatic in some sense but when a film can’t seem to find the line for being fully dramatic or a comedy, it all gets a bit muddled and confused which is what we have right here. I want to be totally positive about this week’s batch of movies because it largely features Canadian productions but in the interest of transparency I have to be honest and start this by saying I’m on the fence here. The story mainly follows Mona, a failed writer, who carves out a life of isolation while caring for her ailing Sikh father. When he has a debilitating stroke, her three successful siblings show up on her doorstep determined to take control of the situation and start the proceedings to sell the house and prepare his estate for the next step which throws her life into disarray. This story could be triggering for a lot of people, me included having just lost two grandparents but the film can’t seem to find a pulse that doesn’t falter on a dramedy beat. What fascinates me is the different personalities within the Sikh culture but Mona seems so Canadianized that it loses its voice with her. This isn’t to say that this is a bad movie but it certainly feels a bit misguided.
The Wolf & The Lion – Canada is definitely the theme this week and this co-production with France had something even more rooted in our great nation as it also features Graham Greene who just showed up in the hilarious Last One Laughing Canada recently. The film comes from a story idea from director and writer Gilles de Maistre who has a penchant for lions as his last film Mia And The White Lion did some mind-blowing work with the majestic animals that left my jaw on the floor. The film follows a young woman named Alma who decides to go back to her childhood home, after the death of her grandfather, to a little island in the heart of the majestic Canadian forest. While there, she rescues two helpless cubs, a wolf and a lion, and they forge an inseparable bond but their world soon collapses as the forest ranger discovers the animals and takes them away. The two cub brothers must now embark on a treacherous journey across Canada to be reunited with one another and Alma once more. If you love animal movies then this movie will play to all of your sensibilities and once again de Maistre is able to put these wild animals so closely with the human actors, totally baffling me to the process one more time. The drama side and performances from the actual cast are not fantastic but I don’t think that’s where the draw of it lies.
Wildhood – This Canadian-made drama was only really on my radar because of the involvement of actor Michael Greyeyes who I really enjoyed in the zombie survival horror Blood Quantum and now also his upcoming turn in the Firestarter remake from Blumhouse. Not knowing anything about this film, I had no idea of the resonance and identity it has in our current landscape of cultural awareness. The story follows rebellious teenagers who run away from their abusive foster care in search of their identity, to find the eldest, Link’s, mother and heritage as a part of the Mi’kmaw people. As well as being an indigenous story of young people that have been failed by a terrible system, it also acts as an allied voice in the caring and understanding of the LGBTQA+ community and through a lens of not understanding his feelings, as Link displays in the film. This movie did really well at the Toronto International Film Festival and for good reason.
A Grand Romantic Gesture – Romantic comedies are pretty dicey as they largely feel contrived and unoriginal leading me to get a solid orbital workout of rolling my eyes almost constantly. It’s easy to say that the bar is set high and it takes a lot to squeak by my scrutiny and sadly this movie is definitely not it. To be honest, if this was a French film starring Isabelle Huppert I would be all over it because it works to that international degree. The film follows a woman who is encouraged by her husband and daughter to take up a class like cooking when she unexpectedly loses her job. Not quite gelling with the culinary world, she ends up taking a drama class where she falls head over heels for the leading man in the room and creates chaos in her home life. The film stars Gina McKee, a British actress who has done great work in films like Phantom Thread and Atonement, but this movie is pretty much just fluff with no substance in it. She deserves better than this bare-bones rom-com.
Scarborough – Another Canadian entry this week, which could easily be deduced by the title, I didn’t expect this movie to grip me as much as it did but deep character films involving kids do that and we have had two significant ones this week. The film comes from the triple threat of directors Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson and writer Catherine Hernandez who make a hell of a narrative film debut together and I have to say that it comes from their background in documentary filmmaking. Set in Scarborough, Ontario, the story follows three children who become friends while living in a low-income neighbourhood and strive to exist and grow in a system that has forgotten them and, in one case, a horribly abusive father who is destined to lead his daughter to more financial ruin and, worse, possible starvation. This movie hits like an emotional hammer more often than not and it has to be attributed to the life on the street style cinematography that puts you in the classroom, on the streets and in the low-income housing with the characters. Not a lot of people will check this one out as it isn’t really advertised at all but those who do will find a deeply emotional reward.
The Exorcism Of God – The title is terrible and the production levels aren’t great but a well-constructed trailer can do wonders for you and this movie has, possibly, one of the leading ad campaigns to get people’s eyes on this and it would have gotten me for sure if I didn’t already have to watch this for review. The film starts out with an American priest working in Mexico who is possessed during an exorcism and ends up committing a terrible act. Eighteen years later, the consequences of his sin come back to haunt him, unleashing the greatest battle within which turns out to be a more pointed critique on religion and gross-out brutal horror violence. I found myself wondering if it was more intent on being digested as a sort of satire than it was horror in a straightforward manner. It was hard to process what to take seriously.
Ella And The Little Sorcerer – Foreign animated films getting their North American revamps don’t always work out that well box office wise and I really can’t see this new one getting any sort of acclaim either. There isn’t any sort of big actor draw to it at all, It is low budget in its design and it is bafflingly trying to dispel the fact that it is a Cinderella story at its heart which is a family story that has been beaten to death, far past being a dead horse. Simply told, the story follows Ella and her friends who set off on a journey to find the magic potion ingredients to save Prince Alex when is trapped in the body of a mouse. Of course, friendship is the magic as the Little Ponies have always tough us, so of course, you can telegraph that moral but it might just be better to put the film on for the kids and walk away because there’s absolutely no adult merit to this film whatsoever and the target market is glaringly obvious.
Tzouhalem – Getting back to Canadian filmmaking, and specifically documentary storytelling, this is another special one as it is another voice in the indigenous community to shed light on. What I really love about films that come out of these great creators is that they are telling a history that was never shown in school or beyond and feature voices that have largely been silenced in the mainstream. Through interviews and creative re-enactments, this documentary examines the near-mythic figure of Cowichan Chief Tzouhalem, the account of his life from both historians and First Nations Elders, the folkloric tales concerning him, his impact on the modern relationship between the Crown and First Nations, and how his legend remains alive to this day, examining critically how his story has been told and passed down to us. Being First Nations myself, this one hits very close to home as the Cowichan people are tied to my own ancestry with the Shimshan and Haida so this film felt like a little bit of self-discovery as well, something that I have wanted since embracing my heritage through my mother. I’m not sure how broad all of it will be with a regular audience but I really enjoyed it.
Blu-Ray:
The Matrix Resurrections – Even though the last two movies in the original Matrix trilogy are not great, to say the least, the anticipation for his new restart to the franchise was at a fever pitch and the expectations, at least in my eyes, are kind of endless. Did we even know where this could lead or where the jumping point is? Did we know if this is set up for more to come? It was all speculation until we got our eyeballs on this visual feast and, for me, it was all worth it. Loosely speaking on its synopsis we return to a world of two realities, one which is everyday life and the other, the one that lies behind it. To find out if his reality is a construct, to truly know himself, Mr. Anderson will once again have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more. Keanu and Carrie Anne Moss are really the only returning stars from the first films aside from a small role from Jada Pinkett-Smith but it looks just as dazzling as we remember those films to be with slight tweaks to the fight sequences as there was a different choreographer for it. With only Lana directing this film, it has a slightly different feel to it but plays in its own meta-universe to a gleeful degree. I’m so happy that I have this one on blu-ray now as I really think it demands multiple viewings.
A Journal For Jordan – Denzel Washington made two appearances in cinemas around Christmas but this one had him behind the camera for his fourth feature film and one that puts one of the hottest actors today, Michael B. Jordan, in the driver’s seat. What I’m most surprised to see is that this film got slaughtered by critics which is a definite first for any Denzel project, whether he starred in it or directed it. The story follows Jordan as First Sergeant Charles Monroe King who authors a journal for his son, before he is killed in action in Baghdad, intending to tell him how to live a decent life despite growing up without a father. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy (Chanté Adams) revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child. What I’m seeing online is that the melodrama in the film is so heavy that it almost feels like a made-for-TV drama and far less than the calibre of the star and its director would lend. This is so disappointing but at least we got Denzel and a Coen brother on AppleTV+ to dispel some of that downtrodden feeling.
Redeeming Love – Faith-based melodrama rears its head this week, an inevitability every few weeks but this one is trying to be more progressive, almost to a fault. The big thing that Christian entertainment news outlets are pushing is that this film is one of the few or any religious dramas to have a full-on sex scene in it. More than that, apparently the main characters are actually having sex on the poster but fully clothed and in a lush field of grass and flowers as I’m sure they do every time. Based on the novel by Francine Rivers, this is a powerful story of a young couple’s relationship that clashes with the harsh realities of the California Gold Rush of 1850. It could have been a well-told period piece against the backdrop of a developing America but, like most of the faith-based filmmaking, it is more driven in giving its messages and morals than telling a compelling and well-rounded story. It is also terribly dull and predictable and leaves you looking for the remote to fast forward to more completely clothed sex. Just as God intended.
Coming 2 America – I’m kind of disappointed in the film world for the simple fact that Eddie Murphy’s grand return in the biopic Dolemite Is My Name wasn’t as celebrated as it should have been, a total crowd pleaser and the brilliant role he needed to put himself back on top and for awards accolades to roll in. None of that happened but what we did get is him reteaming with the director, Craig Brewer, to bring us the long-awaited follow-up to a classic John Landis comedy that is still hilarious. The film brings us back to the lush and fictional royal country of Zamunda with newly-crowned King Akeem and his trusted confidante Semmi, played once again by Murphy’s pal Arsenio Hall embarking on an all-new adventure that has them traversing the globe from their great African nation to the borough of Queens, New York, back to where all of his worldly escapades began. Both Murphy and Hall once again don multiple characters in a film that sadly feels like a diminishing return that forgot the heart of the original story, goes for easy gags and jokes and, at times, becomes a muddled mess of morally questionable moments and lacklustre filmmaking from a guy I always praise. I even defended Craig Brewer on Footloose. Yes, I enjoyed that one.
One Shot – Scott Adkins is always going to be that underrated action hero that people will only remember for the small roles in things like The Expendables 2, Doctor Strange and Zero Dark Thirty but the guy has some range and should be utilized on a grander scale. This is definitely not one of the movies to showcase his acting chops as the action thrills are the draw as well as supporting performances from Ryan Phillippe and Ashley Greene. Adkins plays the leader of an elite squad of Navy SEALs who are sent on a covert mission to transport a prisoner off a CIA black site island prison but are quickly and efficiently trapped when insurgents attack while trying to rescue the same prisoner. The action is fast and furious with all of the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six-style tactical scenes you could want but is warned that the film is incredibly bleak and all bets are off for who survives at the end. To be honest, everyone felt like fodder around Adkins who commands the screen as a good action hero does. To think that this dude was almost Batman at one point is pretty cool.
Silent Night – Camille Griffin gifted the world with a talented son who gave us the loveable character of Jojo Rabbit a couple of years back and now that she has done that the gloves are coming off with her narrative debut that she wrote and directed. The timing of the film might be a perfect storm for how heavy this story lands and how dark some of the comedy comes off but I think it all blends into how great the foundation is of it to start. The film follows Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode as a couple of parents who have invited their closest friends to join their family for Christmas dinner at their idyllic home in the English countryside. As the group comes together, it feels like old times but behind all of the laughter and merriment, something is not quite right as the world outside is facing impending doom, and no amount of gifts, games or Prosecco can make mankind’s imminent destruction go away. Now entering the endemic part of the crisis that affected us for the last couple of years, there are things in this movie that ring so blood chillingly true and conversations about vaccination, isolation and societal decisions start to blur the line between fantasy and unfortunate reality. I don’t want to delve deeper as it enters spoiler territory but I think the review scores are too low on this and it should be widely watched by a bigger audience.
The Legend Of La Llorona – The title here may be misleading for two reasons as the ghostly legend of La Llorona has been used a couple of times already, once by The Conjuring universe in the Curse Of La Llorona and then with the Guatemalan horror La Llorona. The first film was a pretty sizable letdown, even with the great Linda Cardellini as the lead, but the second one was absolutely amazing and a total must-see so my expectations with this were up there. The story follows a young family who is terrorized by a malevolent spirit while on vacation in Mexico. Staying in an isolated hacienda, the family is warned about the entity’s thirst for children’s souls and do everything in their power to escape with their lives in a movie that I should have known was going to be lacklustre when I saw Autumn Reeser and Danny Trejo were the top names. Not to say that they are bad or anything but they do such a huge body of work yearly and the ratio generally doesn’t work out in their favour. That said, this film was a dud that is unenthusiastic in almost every single way.
American Siege – To go along with the regular intervals of faith-based Christian films every few weeks, it seems that every other week we are getting new Bruce Willis action films that film me with just as much excitement as I do for Redeeming Love. I’m assuming that Bruce shares my same lack of enthusiasm as he exhibits it every time he does one of these direct to video productions and he even brings down lead star and former Sons Of Anarchy villain Timothy Murphy in this. Willis plays a washed-up sheriff who guards the secrets of the wealthy residents of a small Georgia town. When three outlaws take a prominent town doctor hostage in search of a missing woman, he is called in to handle the situation before the FBI arrives and in a race against time, the mayor pressures Sheriff Watts to launch an assault on the hostage-takers and to eliminate all witnesses. When the Sheriff realizes he may be a pawn in a larger scheme, he must carve a bloody warpath to expose the truth behind the town’s dark secrets. It’s crazy the amount of sleepwalking through scenes that the former John McClane actor can do and still earn a paycheck as I’m guessing all the good he did in his career was just so he could coast as he ages. It sounds like I’m critiquing him as a person, which is sort of what I’m doing, but I’m definitely jealous as well. I deviated from talking about this terrible movie here but just know it’s bad with no reason for anyone to watch it.
The Nowhere Inn – Music group St. Vincent and their pal Carrie Brownstein have collaborated for a new horror film and I had no clue it even existed but I’m really glad it does. Even better, the movie is a mockumentary that has all three of these talented ladies playing heightened versions of themselves in a Christopher Guest-like way. The story has the indie darling setting out to make a documentary about her music, but when she hires a close friend to direct, notions of reality, identity, and authenticity grow increasingly distorted and bizarre, which is where the ethereal horror starts to set in. I love it because the creators behind this as well as Ms. Annie Clark are such students of the indie scene and obviously know their horror tropes as well which blend to make a really engrossing little feature. There’s something about this film that makes it so oddly original yet it has a broadness that will engage viewers who want something a little unpredictable but still grounded.
National Champions – Sports movies can be a multiple-choice answer when you watch them. It can be a dime a dozen affair where you can predict all the dramatic beats, a well-acted and dynamic story that keeps you on the edge of your seat or a badly cast and put-together film that has you looking for the exit. This film is a mixed bag of all three, following a star quarterback who ignites a player’s strike hours before the biggest game of the year in order to fight for fair compensation, equality and respect for the student-athletes. What kept my focus in the film is the phenomenal cast assembled around lead star Stephan James including J.K. Simmons, Timothy Olyphant and Tim Blake Nelson but seems to pull the rug out from under it at all the worst times with a cringe-worthy script. It takes a lot for Simmons to come off like a cheeseball and director Ric Roman Waugh does it multiple times. It’s sad because his last film Greenland was such a pleasant surprise by being good and utterly depressing too.
Supergirl: Season 6 – Melissa Benoist and cast bid farewell to their little vision of National City as this Lower Mainland filmed part of the DC Comics television universe comes to an end. This show has had its bumpy points but I really enjoyed it for the most part and it has to come down to the casting of Benoist as the title character, David Harewood, who would eventually be revealed as the Martian Manhunter and the stunt casting of Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor which is such a great in-joke to the original Superman movie franchise. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing any of this series, it follows National City’s new hero, Supergirl, who takes on the responsibility of keeping the people safe. Going on adventures filled with action, hope and love, she is determined to make a difference by bringing not only her superpowers, but her heart to the table as well. I’m being a bit biased here but the best episodes of the show were the ones made by Kevin Smith who has put his fingerprints all over this show from season two on, as well as on The Flash, and as a comic book guy who knows his stuff, it resonates it what he created in his pieces and their resonance through to the end. As a guy slowly but surely collecting all of these pieces, this was a welcomed addition.
Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Almost two years after the ending of the original series, a fan favorite that drew a crowd of all ages, we get more adventures with Finn The Human, Jake The Dog and all of their friends but with a little bit of a twist. The new show is more hyper focused on the side stories of characters like BMO, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen on their own solo exploits doing heroic things. I’m being vague but I now this will also become a massive success with the fan base because Pendleton Ward has always delivered, including the series The Midnight Gospel on Netflix with Duncan Trussell.
Yellowstone: Season 4 – Kevin Costner takes the lead in this series that has taken audiences across North America in a big bad way and it’s because it is a damn good series both in writing from Hell Or High Water and Sicario’s Taylor Sheridan and a well-rounded cast around Costner including Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser and Wes Bentley to get things started.. The show follows the Dutton family, led by John Dutton played by Costner, who controls the largest contiguous ranch in the United States, under constant attack by those it borders, such as land developers, a nearby Indian reservation and the keepers of America’s first National Park. It is an intense study of a violent world far from media scrutiny, where land grabs make developers billions, politicians are bought and sold by the world’s largest oil and lumber corporations, where drinking water is poisoned by fracking wells and unsolved murders are not news. I was severely late to the game and am currently immersed near the end of the third season and am really enjoying it, a good series for those who like crime series like Sons Of Anarchy or The Sopranos.
Steve’s Blu-Ray & DVD Geekouts:
Marionette Land – I feel like this is a documentary that is destined to creep not just me out but a myriad of people that find marionettes and old antique dolls utterly unnerving. That’s probably a seemingly harsh attitude to take and I am who I am and can’t stop that but I don’t want it to diminish the incredible work of the man at the heart of this film. The film is an intimate portrait of the world of Robert Brock, a man who lives above his own magical marionette theatre with his mother, Mary Lou. Brock creates and performs classic marionette shows for families as well as grown-up shows where he straps on his heels to become famous Hollywood divas of the past but new personal and professional challenges emerge as Robert and Mary Lou struggle to keep the marionette theatre open while preparing to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. The film goes into directions that I didn’t really expect and for Brock to be able to live in his own identity and to pursue his passion is heartwarming but the struggle is something we can all relate to with any of our own interests. As far as character-focused documentaries go, this is a well-done film that puts you on Robert’s shoulders and I found it fascinating. The dolls still creep me out though.
Alice In Wonderland – In a continuing bid to own everything Tim Burton has made, for better or for worse, I bring this Disney-fied take on the classic Lewis Carroll book that I believe is just a dose of acid for kids. That said, this movie is so Burton-y but colourful it is just weird and Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter straight up looks like Madonna but I totally digress. For those who don’t know the classic literature, the story follows a nineteen-year-old Alice who returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny which is to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. Of course, being a Tim Burton film, Helena Bonham Carter was your villainous queen and Christopher Lee appears but it is the voice of the always loved and long-missed Alan Rickman that keeps me coming back to this film. I feel like now, six years after his passing, I will always put on something he’s a part of just to hear that iconic voice.
The Wolfman – This Universal monster remake got a raw deal I feel and if only they had released this Blu-ray version, the director’s cut, I think audiences would have received it better. Made by an exhilarating director in Joe Johnston and starring a great cast with Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, I guess it was just destined to fall into the underrated and underappreciated column. Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot, a nobleman who returns to his ancestral home in Victorian-era England to search for his missing brother Ben, only to fall under a terrible curse that causes him to experience an unsettling transformation. Talbot soon discovers that a ravenous beast is on the loose and he must protect the woman he loves from its clutches as well as discover the true nature of his newfound affliction. The transformation scenes in this film are fantastic and, when we constantly hold it up to the greatest werewolf transformation ever, An American Werewolf In London, I think it passes the test. Johnston gives this film a solid pace as well that keeps you engaged with the mystery of it all. I’m still unsure why this movie bombed and wasn’t used as the template for a new Universal monsters franchise.
High Life – In the last few years, especially with season movie lovers, this title gets brought up and we immediately think of the Claire Denis sci-fi tale starring Robert Pattinson that is memorable for more than a few reasons that I don’t want to discuss here but this Canadian made bank heist comedy-drama came first and almost ten years prior. It has its charm in the top star of Timothy Olyphant but this is definitely not the dreamy leading man you know or the tough guy from Justified but a dirtier and drug-addled version. The story is set in the early eighties and follows a hopeless junkie named Dick who gets an unwelcome visit from the past, his seriously sleazy former cellmate, Bug, a violent man with a hair-trigger temper. Bug requires a crash course in the eighties with the different music, different drugs, and machines in walls that dispense money. Explaining the latter development gives Dick an idea and the two enlist some help into knocking off some ATMs to secure their futures… or a weekend worth of drugs. This film is purely character-driven and is almost a comedy of errors in a bank heist format that descends into some dangerous territory really fast. Olyphant is great as usual, as are co-stars Joe Anderson and Rossif Sutherland who I always enjoy but the breakthrough is the guy Bug himself, played by Steven Eric McIntyre who steals the show. I really don’t know him from anything prior or since so I guess this was a one-off. Still a solid discovery.
Television:
Letterkenny: International Women’s Day (Crave) – The boys of Letterkenny are back in one of their focused holiday specials in the perfect vein of this rural comedy and all of its hijinx. Lots of comparisons are made to Trailer Park Boys for this show but I firmly believe those comments are made by people who have never seen it. For those who are new to it, the series showcases the antics of the residents of Letterkenny, a small rural community in Canada. Siblings Wayne and Katy run a small farm and produce stand, with Wayne’s friends Daryl and “Squirrely” Dan helping out. Many of the town’s inhabitants fall into one of several groups, which include the farmers, or “hicks,” the out-of-towners on the local hockey team, the local drug addicts and the “natives,” who are members of the local First Nation. The sophistication in the writing of this series is on a whole other level and I always laugh until my sides hurt every episode. It’s really kicking me in the funny bone that they have focused on International Women’s Day with this special and I can’t wait to see what they do with it because, it may not look like it, but this series is massively progressive in its morals and attitudes which the fans of the show know and love already.
Upload: Season 2 (Prime Video) – After the surprise hit success of the first season which capitalized on everyone being on lockdown and needing something to watch, Amazon Prime has gone for a new batch of episodes of this sci-fi series from Greg Daniels, the creator of the American version of The Office and Parks And Recreation. Starring Robbie Amell, this ten-episode second season follows a man who gets to electronically pick the new world he inhabits after his untimely death. This is a show that has been long in development for Daniels as he started writing it right after the series finale for The Office and I really loved a lot about the first season including Amell’s brash sarcasm that really ropes you in as a lead character. I also really love the satire on humanity’s future as well as it trying to capitalize and make money off of the afterlife. It’s really smart, funny and the right kind of comedy for the world right now.
Shining Vale (Crave) – The main thing that brought me into this new Starz original was Courtney Cox, an actress I have loved since Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and one who is fresh in my mind after Scream in January. Oddly enough, it’s kind of hard to find a tone in this new half-hour series but I think that’s the draw to it as well. Is it a comedy, a ghost story or a drama about infidelity and depression? Who knows! I do know that it follows a family that moves to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place but no one seems to notice except for Pat, Cox’s character, who’s convinced she’s either depressed or possessed and, as it turns out, the symptoms are exactly the same. Episode one lays out the groundwork for a mysterious series quite well and with the first two immediately available, it could gather a fevered audience pretty quickly. It also has Greg Kinnear as her emotionally damaged but stunted husband and in this way, he works so well.
Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty (Crave) – Adam MacKay just had the critical fence riding comedy Don’t Look Up on Netflix that let him get some vitriol out while also resulting in him getting lambasted by half the audience online but he’s back to tell some basketball history. Sadly, this was also the project that broke the friendship of MacKay and longtime pal and collaborator Will Ferrell as he wasn’t approached to star in it but it looks to be an alright consolation prize for not getting a Stepbrothers sequel. The series is a comedy-drama that centers on the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of sports’ most revered, dominant dynasties and a team that defined an era, both on and off the court. The swagger of the eighties style is all there, we have Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird as well as one-time majority shareholder Jerry Buss played by John C. Reilly in another team up with him and Adam. I’m loving episode one a lot and I can’t wait to burn through more of this
The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey (AppleTV+) – Samuel L. Jackson and AppleTV+ are here to bring something trippy but totally heady and philosophical and what piqued my interest right away is the filmmaker who is heading u the who project. Featuring director Ramin Bahrani of 88 Homes among many other great films, the legendary Debbie Allen, and Guillermo Del Toro’s longtime cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, this show is definitely like no other and it is most definitely a limited series. The story follows Jackson as the title character, a ninety-year-old man forgotten by his family, by his friends and even by himself. On the brink of sinking even deeper into lonely dementia, Ptolemy experiences a seismic shift when he’s given the tremendous opportunity to briefly regain his memories and uses this precious and fleeting lucidity to solve his nephew’s death and come to terms with his past. There is probably a limited audience for this show but I feel like the built-in viewer just wants to see something different and that’s what I love about AppleTV+ and the chances they take with their content.
The Batman – This is the first highly anticipated release of the year for me as I’m sure it is for a lot of Batman fans out there and I really hope it squashes the conversation of Robert Pattinson only being a sparkly vampire for good. Yes, there was a lot of anger at the casting of the Tenet and Good Times star but I think he’s going to absolutely crush it as a younger Bruce Wayne and Caped Crusader. The film follows Batman as he is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement when the Riddler, a sadistic serial killer, begins murdering key political figures in Gotham. The film is directed by Matt Reeves who has a perfect filmmaking record which includes Planet Of The Apes sequels and a remake of an incredible Swedish vampire masterpiece so I really have the utmost respect for him as a storyteller and from what I can see in the trailers, he totally nailed this. My excitement is at a fever pitch right now.
After Yang – Colin Farrell is getting a double shot of releases this week, not only playing The Penguin in the biggest film of this week but also co-starring in this critically-lauded drama. The film was made by writer and director Kogonada in his follow up to the phenomenal Columbus from almost five years ago and features Jodie Turner-Smith who blew me away in Queen & Slim last year. The film is set in a near-future where humans are dependant on androids to do their bidding and one family’s struggles with questions of love, connection, and loss after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down. Kogonada plumbs some incredible depths of human emotion in his last film so I’m really excited to see what he does with this sci-fi twinged setting and I really love sombre Colin Farrell character work as in the Yorgos Lanthimos films The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and The Lobster. This might be a low-key best film of 2022 I think.
Drive My Car – With Academy Awards nominations and critical acclaim from so many renowned film reviewers around the world, the bar has been set pretty high for this Japanese drama. This is no flinching matter for writer and director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi who to only netted the Best Foreign Oscar nomination but the Best Adapted Screenplay one as well which puts him in the arena against favourites like Jane Campion, Denis Villeneuve and Maggie Gyllenhaal but I don’t think he’s worried because his film is that good. The story follows Yusuke Kafuku, a renowned stage actor and director, who receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theatre festival in Hiroshima just shortly after the tragic passing of his wife. There, he meets Misaki Watari, a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production’s premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koshi Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke’s late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins, with the help of his driver, to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind. This film is made with such rich performances and a beautiful scope that reminded me of the serene qualities of a Hikaru Korreda film, a dramatic director who prefers stories about quiet solitude. I don’t want to give too much of this movie away but it is a real crowd-pleaser that will be remembered long afterwards.
Fresh – I haven’t been a part of it for well over a decade now but the dating pool seems like a cutthroat and devious game now, much more than it was before, and this little thriller with a darkly comedic edge is definitely exploring that a bit. This is a tricky film to talk about as I have to skirt around huge story reveals but just know that Sebastian Stan is in this and incredible as usual but it’s the leading power of newcomer Daisy Edgar-Jones that does an incredible job of the heavy lifting. She plays Noa, a single girl playing the Tinder market with one disastrous date after another until she meets Steve in the produce section of her local grocery store and the two quickly hit off. A whirlwind romance ensues and the couple starts to make deeper plans with each other, starting out with a visit to Steve’s secluded country house that looks like a sombre little dream. This is where the other shoe drops and Steve’s intentions are revealed and we are drawn into a hell of a rollercoaster ride that I can’t even begin to describe. If you love a good but albeit violent thriller you will dig the hell out of this movie.
Jockey – Clifton Collins Jr. is a name you might not know by just hearing it but you know his face and he’s been making your favourite films better with his supporting work for decades now. He gets his chance to absolutely shine in this new horse racing-driven character drama and shares the screen with an equally game Moises Arias from The Kings Of Summer. Collins plays an aging jockey who is still hoping to bring home another championship for his longtime trainer but injuries have thrown the whole arrangement into question. Throw in a new young rider who claims to be his son, and whom he takes under his wing, to further complicate the path to fulfilling his dream of going out at the top. Beautifully written and directed by Clint Bentley in his feature film debut and shot by Adolpho Veloso, whose work is new to me but I look forward to what he does next. The final shot of this movie is such a lingering triumph that it made me smile. I love character films like this one.
The Souvenir: Part II – Following the first film that is a sort of autobiographical tale from writer and director Joanna Hogg and starring Honor Swinton Byrne and her real-life mother Tilda, I didn’t expect this follow up but I’m really glad we got it. Executive produced by the great Martin Scorsese, this film is a real look into how life trauma can lead to the burgeoning of a creative whirlwind with good and bad results. The first movie focuses on Julia Harte, a young film school student who gets wrapped up in a romance with a self-centred and totally divisive man and now this story picks up with the aftermath of ending that relationship and the catharsis or trying to construct something out of the shards that fell. Honour is sombre and totally relatable in this film but it’s the third act where the presence of it really comes out with the unveiling of her graduation project. As a big cinema nerd, this movie got me hooked, line and sinker but I think it would be less accessible for a mainstream viewer.
Against The Ice – Nikolaj Coster Waldau is mostly known in our minds as Jamie Lannister in Game Of Thrones and, sadly, to a large international audience he hasn’t made anything to propel him above that so far but not for lack of trying. The wheelhouse that he is generally running in is the mystery thriller market and so far he hasn’t had one that exceeded mediocrity yet but this Netflix release definitely sounds promising. Co-written by the star himself, this story is set in 1909 and follows two explorers who fight to survive against the elements after they’re left behind while on a Denmark expedition in ice-covered Greenland. The film co-stars Joe Cole, who has been so impressive in his role on the audience’s favourite Peaky Blinders, and I would say that the two series stars’ presence is enough to bring you into this story. I’m also a sucker for survival dramas, especially if they are done right.
The Weekend Away – Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester is dipping her toe back into the horror-thriller pool and, if anything, it will be a vast improvement over her last time out in this genre, the terrible and cheesy The Roommate. This one is a different sort of thriller that plays on the stranger in a strange land premise which is an international fear I believe. The story follows two best friends, Kate and Orla who have overcome personal setbacks and no matter what life throws at them, they always look forward to their annual weekend away. This year they are on a trip to Lisbon, and everything is perfect until Orla wakes up to find Kate missing. With only a fuzzy memory of the previous night and the police not helping, her frantic search uncovers devastating secrets closer to home. Adapted from a novel by author Sarah Alderson, this film rests on the pedigree of Australian director Kim Farrant who has definitely done some work in the dour drama department with her Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes film Strangeland which was absolutely depressing so she is not averse to a downer ending which honestly sells this a little more for me. Not being a huge fan of Meester’s work, this is where I put my dependence on this film.
Lucy And Desi – Months after the Aaron Sorkin written and directed biopic Being The Ricardos which has earned a bunch of unearned accolades and Academy Award nominations, Amy Poehler has stepped behind the camera for a documentary approach to a telling of the most influential couple in comedy history’s story. This film will explore the rise of comedian icon Lucille Ball, her relationship with Desi Arnaz, and how their groundbreaking sitcom I Love Lucy forever changed Hollywood, cementing her legacy long after her death in 1989. Poehler has a great series of talent for the interviews including Bette Midler, Charo, Carol Burnett and Norman Lear as well as direct family members like Lucie Arnaz and, honestly, I think this will be a far better watch than to endure the two-hour mess that is that Sorkin film. I’m still pretty angry about that one and I hope it doesn’t win a single award. Okay, rant over.
Nightride – After one-shot masterpieces like Birdman and 1917, a device uses like the thriller Locke and impressive but dull and drawn out foreign flicks like Victoria, this storytelling technique is never not impressive. This is the method used in this new Irish crime drama that relies heavily on actor Moe Dunford from the History Channel series Vikings to keep it all on the rails. The film is a wry, real-time one-shot thriller set on the midnight streets of Belfast. It places us in the driver’s seat with smalltime dealer Budge as he tries to pull one last deal with cash borrowed from a dangerous loan shark but when the handover goes catastrophically wrong, he finds himself in a race against time to find his missing product and get a new buyer before the loan shark tracks him down. The intensity is ramped up and effect as you can almost feel Budge’s time ticking down without actually seeing it on the screen as an episode of 24 with Keifer Sutherland. At a quick pace of an hour and a half, there are no lull moments to the story as each barricade in Budge’s night feels like it could be the one to end him. The title is totally correct as this certainly is a night ride into uncertainty.
The Scary Of Sixty-First – An addition to the weird movies I’ve watched in 2021, this is one I never saw coming and I don’t know how anyone could, Coming from writer and director Dasha Nekrasova, who also stars in a supporting role that shifts to the main one, this mumblecore horror with a slightly comedic edge definitely wouldn’t have worked too well in a conventional pitch room. The film follows friends Addie and Noelle who are doing something city dwellers know is truly horrifying, apartment hunting. Everything changes for both women when an unnamed stranger knocks on their door off their new sweet deal abode and tells Noelle that she believes they’re living in a place that has seen untold horrors as one of the apartments in which Jeffrey Epstein used to traffic and abuse girls. Before you know it, they have tumbled down the rabbit hole into a world of conspiracy theories about Epstein and his apartments while Addie starts to become possessed by… something. This is like a long Jeffrey Epstein joke without the benefit of a punchline and a third act that I’m still trying to unpack I honestly don’t know who the audience is for this.
Blu-Ray:
Belfast – Kenneth Branaugh returns to work behind the camera with what is one of the most heartwarming masterpieces in years set against a backdrop of lower-class struggle and I honestly couldn’t get enough of its charm and cinematic brilliance. Filmed beautifully in black and white, the cast really had me too as it has Dame Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan and Ciaran Hinds just to name a few, stars who, in their native British Isles, always deliver in one way or another. The story is semi-autobiographical and chronicles the life of a working-class family and their young son’s childhood during the tumult of the late 1960s in the Northern Ireland capital. Everything about this film cries winner and hopefully a future Best Picture winner and it is really a great feeling to have a true masterpiece as Branagh has delivered. Maybe it was his closeness to the story but the atmosphere of it is immediately special and so many aspects about it I will carry with me as a movie lover for a long time to come.
Demonic – Neill Blomkamp is a filmmaker who I adored with his first film but has honestly had a series of films afterwards that signified a few diminishing returns creatively. The South African writer and director who is based in Vancouver now debuted with District 9, moved on to the Matt Damon sci-fi action Elysium before his Die Antwoord Short Circuit-like story Chappie and now moves to the horror genre for this tech-heavy exorcism movie that has everything aesthetically going for it. Not featuring any big stars, unless you’re Canadian and love Carly Pope, the story follows a young woman who unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades-old rift between mother and daughter are ruthlessly revealed. I really wanted to like this movie a lot but it feels like a better idea within the concept and maybe realized as a short film but a fully pieced feature film just ran out of steam slowly but surely. I can see why this movie was retooled to be a smaller release because it just isn’t to the calibre of the big boys. That said, I still yearn for Blomkamp’s success.
Run & Gun – You know, I’ll be really honest here and say that you can drag me in with a small inkling that your film is going to play with a seventies exploitation style, it is that totally simple. That’s how this little flick landed on my lap and it also has the added bonus of starring bad ass martial artist Marc Dacascos, most recently seen as the big bad in John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, and Angela Sarafyan from Westworld. It follows the main character Ray, played by British actor Ben Milliken, a good guy who has reformed after leaving a life of crime and violence and now enjoying a quiet family life in the ‘burbs. When his past is discovered, Ray is blackmailed into one last job to collect a mysterious package and, after a deadly double-cross, he finds himself wounded and on the run from ruthless assassins who will stop at nothing to get what he has. Now, with the lives of his loved ones hanging in the balance and danger at every turn, Ray’s only hope is to draw upon his violent past to survive. You can tell that this film has a pretty low budget but they manage to make an entertaining story out of it, even with some pretty glaring cliches along the way. Milliken also feels a little out of his depth with some of the other actors who are clearly more experienced but it is some great groundwork in the end for a character actor.
The Pilot – I got an email on the day that this new blu-ray from Well Go USA hit shelves that they would be halting the promotion of this film due to the conflict in the Ukraine so I’ll be pretty brief about it. IT’s understandable that the distribution company would want to shy away from it as it was made by Russians and glorified one of their war heroes but I felt, for posterity and full coverage I would mention it anyways. The story follows pilot Nikolai Komlev who was shot down during World War II and managed to bring his plane down in a remote forest clearing, but far from friendly territory and then faced a relentless test of physical and mental endurance to survive. Unfortunately, with it being a Russian production that pro-military propaganda is fully on display but there is an entertaining story at its heart but the truth of it, I’m sure, is debatable.
The Batman: Complete Series – With The Batman hitting theatres right now, of course, it is the perfect time for Warner Bros. to repackage and restore this great cartoon series into the format of blu-ray with this new set that includes all six seasons. I owned all of these already on DVD but it was super cool to get this new revision and show it off to the next generation, also known as my daughter, to keep the love for animated Batman shows going. This animated adventure series, much like the Animated Series but less revered, follows the life of Bruce Wayne, billionaire by day, crime fighter by night, who starts as Wayne balances life as a free-wheeling bachelor, with his role as the Caped Crusader. He’s joined on occasion by Robin and Batgirl to take on Black Mask, Killer Moth, the Everywhere Man, and a brand-new Clayface who join The Joker, Penguin, and The Riddler in ceaselessly tormenting Gotham City. This show was so much pure fun and is just as good on a second time, third time or infinite time watch. Batman is timeless and in the animated form, it just seems to leap off the screen.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Outs:
Lost Highway – Almost five years after going incredibly dark for the prequel to cult hit and one of the great television series ever made, Twin Peaks, with Fire Walk With Me, it seemed that David Lynch wasn’t finished with his darkness and made a film that I believe is very much a mystery horror. Yes, twenty-five years ago this week this Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette led masterpiece that features an incredible soundtrack produced by Nine Inch Nails creator Trent Reznor and Lynch himself and the creepiest of co-stars in the form of now-convicted murderer Robert Blake hit theatres and it still lingers in my brain a lot. The story follows Pullman as Fred Madison, a saxophonist who is accused under mysterious circumstances of murdering his wife Renee. On death row, he inexplicably morphs into a young man named Pete Dayton, leading a completely different life. When Pete is released, his and Fred’s paths begin to cross in a surreal, suspenseful web of intrigue, orchestrated by a shady gangster boss named Dick Laurent. This movie is awesome but only for people who like to experience something totally weird and idiosyncratic. I feel like those who know and love this movie share a Lynchian bond that means we can be best friends and talk about how Mulholland Drive is a spiritual sequel to Twin Peaks that was supposed to be a series. I digress greatly but you see what I mean.
Black Snake Moan – Craig Brewer is a filmmaker that came out of the gate hot and heavy with his Atlanta rap saga Hustle And Flow which ended up garnering so much awards attention and had people singing “it’s hard out here for a pimp”. Sadly, his second film didn’t earn as much acclaim even though I say it might be as good, if not better. The story has Samuel L. Jackson as a God-fearing bluesman who takes to a wild young woman played by a fearless Christina Ricci who, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, looks everywhere for love, never quite finding it. Hoping to cure her of her sexual demons, our man Lazarus chains her to the radiator in his Tennessee home in a darkly comedic drama that needs to be seen to be believed. How Brewer, Jackson and Ricci didn’t get boasted during awards season is a total crime as I always recommended this film when it had just been released and have mentioned it more than a few times on Twitter. People need to rediscover this movie right now, it may be Brewer’s greatest work.
Zodiac – With The Batman getting so many comparisons to this brilliant David Fincher-directed slice of serial killer cinema, it’s only right that I bring it to the geek-outs as it is also celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and a pre-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. who, at the time, wasn’t such a media darling but delivers a hell of a performance in this. Set between 1968 and 1983, the story follows a San Francisco cartoonist who becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorized Northern California with an infamous killing spree. Fincher and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth create a mesmerizing tale of mystery that was such a treat to see in theatres but still keeps those jaw-dropping beats across multiple viewing as this movie fails to tarnish anytime I see it. The film is a genuine cinematic goldmine that I still think about often. It might be an all-time favourite for me.
Television:
Pieces Of Her (Netflix) – There is a general rule in this household and that is the simple truth that Toni Collette is one of the greatest actresses on the planet, never phones in a performance and could be the sole reason anything she is in is good. This is exactly why this new series was immediately on my radar and, to be honest, Netflix has been good to her already with her solid mystery drama Unbelievable from a few years ago. This new series treads in the same sort of waters, a mystery thriller that follows a woman that must piece together her mother’s dark history after a violent attack in their small town brings hidden threats and deadly secrets to light. The show is based on a popular book by author Karin Slaughter, who may have one of my favorite names ever, and was spearheaded by The Plot Against America director Minkie Spiro but the B-movie quality of the production is a little hard to swallow sometimes and takes the wind out of some pretty big plot twists. That aside, if you’re only watching this for Toni’s involvement in it you will not be disappointed because even in bad things she is still so utterly incredible.
The Dropout (Disney+) – Just a few weeks after the Disney+ and Hulu debut of the true story of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s sex tape, the same two collaborating streaming services are delving into more true story territory with this series about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. These adaptations have been working well for this hybrid releasing system, with Dopesick being another solid hit, and I’m liking this Amanda Seyfried-led series so far. She plays Holmes in a story about her beginnings from the ground up and her attempt to revolutionize the healthcare industry after dropping out of college and starting a technology company. The show was developed by Taylor Dunn, Rebecca Jarvis and Victoria Thompson, the same three people who spearheaded the podcast of the same name that served as the backbone to a series that will surely get Seyfried some awards attention this year and if it continues down the solid path I’ve been watching it will be the breakout hit of March. Disney+ is fast becoming a contender that the other streaming services will want to watch out for.
Our Flag Means Death (Crave) – Taika Waititi is gold every time he writes, directs or stars in anything. He is so much so that I am totally willing to forgive his trespasses in the terrible Green Lantern movie but it was before he was Hollywood famous anyways. Teaming with Flight Of The Conchords great Rhys Darby, he is once again headed to genre television, much like he did with What We Do In The Shadows. For this show, he gets pirate-y in the year 1717, following a wealthy landowner named Stede Bonnet who has a midlife crisis and decides to blow up his cushy life to become a pirate and obviously it does not go well. My favourite thing is right off the bat it is based on a true story. The show also features Waititi on screen as the dastardly pirate Blackbeard but definitely played with his own proclivities and if you’ve seen Jojo Rabbit and his interpretation of Adolf Hitler, well, all bets are off. This has the potential to be one of my favourite shows of the year and I really can’t wait for it.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical (Prime Video) – The anticipation of the new season of The Boys is seriously high right now, as it is based on my favourite comic series ever, and that little teaser trailer, however brilliant it was, is just not enough to keep me satiated right now. Luckily, Prime Video has released this brand new animated accompanying piece to take off the sting a little bit and I am grateful. Done in a dastardly evil Looney Tunes sort of way, the series has Antony Starr voicing Homelander along with the rest of the recurring cast for a quick eight-episode series of fifteen-minute episodes. What is it all about? Well, that stuff is being held close to the chest right now by the creators and producers but I have a feeling it might have to do with the superpowered babies that shoot lasers out of their eyes but that’s just my inkling. Either way, I’m going to watch the hell out of it.
Super Pumped (Crave) – When it comes to biopics and shows set in the tech world, we seem to really love an anti-hero character or someone who really isn’t that likeable on a cellular level. It worked for Mark Zuckerberg and The Social Network and the Steve Jobs film from director Danny Boyle and now we’re getting a look at the rise of the ride-sharing company, Uber. More than that, we get an inside look at the man behind the idea, Travis Kalanick, played by the usually likeable Joseph Gordon Levitt. More to the point, this is the story of douchebag tech bros, their rise to power and the subsequent ousting of Travis, or TK to his fairweather friends, from his own company once his usefulness has come to pass. Not to say that Kalanick didn’t deserve what was coming but it’s hard to pinpoint a good guy in this show. After one episode, I’m totally hooked and I’m loving the supporting cast which includes Kyle Chandler, Elisabeth Shue and Richard Schiff, who I have loved since The West Wing. I know I’m early in this show so far but I’m really into it.
Cyrano – The story of Cyrano De Bergerac has been told many times with many different actors taking the role like Gerard Depardieu and Jose Ferrer being the notables but when I saw Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage and Atonement filmmaker Joe Wright attached to this, I got immediately interested. What turns me off of it a little bit is that it is a musical but I’m willing to push that aside for a well-made movie. The story follows the title character, a man ahead of his time who impresses everyone with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel but, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne, Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian. The film is getting fantastic reviews and most of them praise Dinklage’s performance which this rests solely on in a lot of places but the help of supporting roles from Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ben Mendelsohn definitely elevate it as well. It was also shot by Seamus McGarvey who makes absolute gold with Wright time after time.
Big Gold Brick – With the cast boasted in this new weirdo crime fantasy I was really heading into it expecting what the title suggested, a big gold brick. Led by Brooklyn’s Emory Cohen and co-starring Andy Garcia, Megan Fox, Lucy Hale and even Oscar Isaac, the expectations climbed every time I read someone new on the cast list. The film recounts the story of fledgling writer Samuel Liston and his experiences with Floyd Deveraux, the enigmatic, middle-aged father of two who enlists Samuel to write his biography. The circumstances that lead up to this arrangement in the first place are quite astonishing, as Floyd basically runs Samuel over on a dark night,-and efforts to write the biography are quickly stymied by ensuing chaos as Floyd was already into some bad business that will quickly end the two’s newfound partnership. As high as my expectations were, it was never ready for this mess of a movie that was badly written from the start and features an almost nonsensical performance from Cohen that grated on my nerves every time he spoke. This brings me to Oscar who is utilized for a five-minute scene that goes absolutely nowhere. I appreciate where these filmmakers were coming from but they failed in every conceivable way.
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming – Tyler Perry is digging back into his bag of tricks that never seems to die as we get yet another installment in his popular character Madea’s ever-growing story. This time it comes with a new addition as well as it ropes in the Brendan O’Carroll creation of Agnes Brown who is known to many as the matriarch in the long-running series Mrs. Brown’s Boys. This film centers around Madea’s great-grandson’s college graduation, though the celebratory moment hits a halt as hidden secrets and family drama threaten to destroy the happy homecoming as it usually does and always ends up being resolved at the church or in the church or headed to the church. The point is, Perry’s messages are usually pointed and very faith-based, probably the biggest money-making vehicle ever attached to a faith-based film property. The film is going to find its own audience, especially after so many movies that are prefaced with “Tyler Perry Presents”.
No Exit – Disney+ and Hulu acquired this snowy little mystery thriller and decided to put it straight onto the streaming service, rather than do any theatrical release for it and I kind of get it. The film doesn’t really have any big actors, save for former President Palmer on 24, Dennis Haysbert, but it’s the story and the facelessness behind the evil that really garners the interest. The plot follows a college student, on her way home from visiting her mother, who gets stuck with a group of people at a mountain rest stop during a blizzard. Things take a turn for the worse when the young woman discovers a kidnapped child in a car belonging to one of the people inside, putting the group in a terrifying life-or-death situation as they struggle to escape while trying to discover who among them is the kidnapper. I love whodunnit stories like this and I think, for the most part, it pulls it off but the inexperience of director Damien Power shows through as this is only his second feature. I also wanted a little something more from the cinematography, especially with the snow blind locale they had to work with. Still pretty solid for a Disney and Hulu co-production through the conduit of what used to be Fox Searchlight.
Charli XCX: Alone Together – I have said before that I’m a bit leery about films coming out of the pandemic and using that traumatizing period to make content but with documentaries, I think it’s a little bit different. This is one of those films I would let skate by because it delves into interesting territory during this global event that sort of united us in a weird way plus it is a music-driven film which is a weakness of mine in this type of filmmaking. The film is a first-hand account of global pop star Charli XCX who, seeking solace in music during the COVID-19 pandemic, asks her fans to help her make an album while quarantined at home. Charli embarks on a creative and emotional journey as she confronts mental health issues, rekindles her relationship with her boyfriend, connects with her fans, and ultimately produces the music for how she is feeling now. The creative process is interesting to watch, even though I only knew a little bit of her music heading in and one of them was a collaboration with Iggy Azalea. Beyond just being a film about an album creation, this is more a story of an artist’s connection with her fans and not just what it means to them but what it means to her and her ability to create against an impending deadline as well as a very uncertain future.
Hellbender – Shudder is always the best place to find great original horror films that you wouldn’t find elsewhere and usually, for horror fans, Thursday is the day of bountiful gifts so this week I’m giving you the heads up. Witchcraft is always a fun little niche within the genre that really got its popular surge in the nineties with The Craft but its faithful storytelling within its origins get me. That’s what this new film is, following a mother and her daughter who live a life almost in seclusion in a mountainous area of the United States. The adolescent Izzy only has as a friend, her mother, a woman full of secrets with whom she shares a primitive rock band. The mother does not want people to come near her daughter but Izzy manages to escape to the city several times where she will soon discover that her family has a past related to witchcraft. This film pulls you in slowly to its slow-burn storyline while delivering a coming-of-age tale that descends to unfathomably sinister darkness. The direction is artfully powerful and the performance from young Zelda Adams as our protagonist Izzy is totally unforgettable. I feel like Adams has a huge future ahead of her as so many casting directors will snap her up after seeing this.
Wharf Rats – This was a weird one to receive as it is a fully Canadian production and sent to me as a movie but if you look it up anywhere it is listed as a limited television series so I guess it was all stapled together to make a feature-length film. A production that is now two years old, it seems this packaging was the best way to get it to a broader audience although the simplicity of its nature and the fact that, even in its native Canada, no recognizable stars headline this, it’s probably a hard sell. The show follows Hughie, the son of a local legend and beloved fisherman who hasn’t lived up to the family name at all. Frustrated that his uncle is about to sell the family company but too familiar with cheating his way through life to do anything about it legally, Hughie forms a misguided plan to pretend that a simple-minded man is his long-lost brother, the key to his father’s will. Filmed on location in Prince Edward Island, this feels so instilled in the Maritimer way and probably has a limited reach of engagement once the dialogue starts flowing and I doubt it will make a dent out here on the West Coast where I am. It’s simple, a bit daft here and there but it has a bit of a charm under the surface. If only it had the charisma to go with it we might have a little bit of a Canadian hit here.
Blu-Ray:
House Of Gucci – There’s something about this movie that looking at good reviews for it just didn’t ring true in my mind and it might be all stemming from a poster that looked like a Saturday Night Live sketch. It may also be my wavering belief in Ridley Scott’s films these days that set the bar very low but the film had been praised for Jared Leto and Lady Gaga’s performances in this scandalous fashion biopic. The film follows “The Gaga” as Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings that marries into the Gucci family and her unbridled ambition begins to unravel their legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately murder. The cast features Adam Driver, Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons in supporting roles and it is interesting to note that Martin Scorsese was originally lined up to direct with Robert De Niro possibly involved. Coming off of Ridley’s last film, the deceptively fantastic The Last Duel, I wasn’t sure what I was in store for with this but it is a definite character actor’s film with performances delivered to the rafters, especially from the aforementioned Gaga and Leto. Sometimes it falls into ridiculous stereotypes but it oddly fits in the context of the story Ridley’s trying to tell. In the end, I really thought it was pretty great, the soundtrack absolutely rules too but Duel is still the superior movie.
The King’s Man – Another pandemic hold out, we were supposed to get this Kingsman prequel last Christmas and we finally got to experience it for this past holiday season in theatres. I will say at the top of this that I love these movies so much, a brash emergence into a 007 dominated world that has biting comedy and satire, great characters and phenomenal action. That said, with this being an origin story for the organization, we get a whole new group of characters introduced but with Matthew Vaughn leading the way again, in his incredibly stylish way. The story is set in the early years of the twentieth century, as the Kingsman agency is formed to stand against a cabal plotting a war to wipe out millions. The cast has Ralph Fiennes, George Mackay, Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Arterton and Rhys Ifans and has all of the charm and style but feels really messy in its execution which took me out of it from time to time. Without the Taron Egerton character of Eggsy, the film goes down a far less crass route than its predecessors but it also seems to lift a bit of the comedy out of it while getting decidedly weird in other parts. The action is still exhilarating and awesome but the returns have been diminishing since the first film and this is definitely the weakest in the franchise and may have stopped it dead in its tracks.
The 355 – The beginning of January is where studios slot in the films that they are unsure of the market for and that feels very fitting that this new all ladies espionage action film that boasts a pretty good cast got its debut to the masses. Even with Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Bing Bing Fan and Penelope Cruz, everything about it is a painful retread of tropes we’ve seen time and time again. The story follows a wild card CIA agent who joins forces with three international agents when a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands and sets out on a lethal mission to retrieve it while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who’s tracking their every move. The film comes from director Simon Kinberg whose only other feature film is the dreadfully awful X-Men: Dark Phoenix so that should tell you almost all you need to know about it. Terrible and lazy dots connecting action scenes, hackneyed editing and deplorable continuity gaffs and a totally wasted cast that limps through each scene of an egregious long action bore. I was almost spitting angry by the time the credits hit but my relief it was over was enough to quell my fury. Don’t watch this, just don’t.
American Underdog – Faith-based drama is hidden by a big NFL legend biopic which would have totally pissed me off if it weren’t for the casting of the charming and charismatic Zachary Levi in the lead role. I’m not a football guy at all but I know who the man is at the centre of this film and, although I didn’t peg Levi for leaning so far into the PureFlix type of films that are usually awful, I was willing to give this a chance. Co-starring Canadian actress and True Blood star Anna Paquin, this is the story of NFL MVP and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves at a supermarket to becoming an American Football star. Of course, with the production company behind it, the film focuses mostly on how his faith guided him to become a massive star in football on a global stage but it still manages to still to the truth of Warner’s career and I actually found myself enjoying it for the most part. If this is the closest I’ll get to enjoy one of these very divisive films, I’ll take it.
Black Friday – A couple of cult horror favourites anchor this new creature feature that I think missed the boat by a couple weeks, landing on DVD just after the Christmas season in which it takes place. That said, the immortal Bruce Campbell and Canadian nineties heartthrob Devon Sawa feature big in a film that also boasts the international cred of Pan’s Labyrinth star Ivana Baquero, who I haven’t seen since that masterpiece. From the title, the film is pretty self-explanatory, following a toy department store and the employees who must work the overnight of Thanksgiving into Black Friday, dealing with the relentless customers. Even worse, a meteor crash-landed nearby and is turning the people into flesh-hungry parasitic monsters bent on the destruction of everything. I will say that the effects are pretty fun in a Troma sort of schlock sense and the gore is pretty cool but the story is formulaic and, despite all best efforts from the cast, it is utterly forgettable. Workplace and holiday horror will always have a place in my heart but there is a certain calibre that needs to be delivered to make the rewatch list and this one doesn’t have it.
Shattered – Sometimes a good cast in a film can be absolutely misleading and this one is one of those exact ones. With Frank Grillo, who I always love, Shameless actor Cameron Monaghan and the always commanding John Malkovich everything seems to lead towards being a solid time watching a movie but it all can be steered awry with bad directing and bad writing. The plot follows Monaghan as a rich divorcee named Chris who falls in love with a mysterious woman named Sky who suffers an injury and relies on her new beau to take care of her. Sky’s increasingly odd behaviour starts to make Chris suspect that she has more sinister intentions, especially when Sky’s roommate is found dead from mysterious causes, which is the tipping point to a situation that even puts his ex-wife and child in harm’s way. A convoluted Fatal Attraction style plot is also a tipping point for a terrible plot that starts sliding into mediocrity with each twist as if the storyline can’t really sustain itself. It’s really cheesy but is self-aware of this quality and many times hits a point like it’s not even trying to entertain you. Honestly, this was such a waste of time.
Edge Of Darkness – This is an interesting one as I’ve already brought a Warner Bros. release in my blu-ray geek outs that has this same title but starred Mel Gibson in a remake of a BBC series from Martin Campbell but this one is completely different but it does come from the Warner Archive collection. Made in the early 1940s, a couple of years before World War II ended, and starring the huge talent of Errol Flynn, this film went on to be included on the American Film Institute’s list of the Most Heart-Pounding American Movies. The film is set in a small Norwegian village during an occupation by Nazi forces who rise up to fight their oppressors when British forces sneak a cache of weapons into the nearby woods. The star was under deep scrutiny during this period, on trial on charges of rape during the production. Warner Brothers studio chief Jack L. Warner rushed his previous movie, Gentleman Jim into release, and even hired Flynn a lawyer and he was eventually acquitted of all charges. Also, this movie was apparently banned in Argentina when it was initially released with the government denying an exhibition permit for this movie, stating that it could compromise that country’s political neutrality. Lots of politics behind war movies made at this totally dicey time in history.
Escape From L.A.4K – Look, it’s not the best movie by any capacity but to get another collector’s edition and one in the glorious format of 4K for a film directed by the Master Of Horror John Carpenter and it features one of my favourite badass characters of all time, Snake Plissken, well, this is just a steal for a guy like me. The story follows Snake as he is coerced again by the United States government to do some world-saving merc work by recovering a doomsday device that is in Los Angeles, now a floating penal colony for the riff-raff of the country. The movie is definitely cheesy and very rough around the edges but little things shine through like Kurt Russell’s gruff character work, Steve Buscemi chewing the scenery and a great scene with Bruce Cambell as the torturous “Surgeon General”. I guess I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for this one.
Lies And Deceit: Five Films By Claude Chabrol – A new box set from Arrow Video hits shelves this week and it’s one that gives collectors the distinct feeling that these releases are the closest to a Criterion Collection treatment without having the C brandished on the cover. Five films are featured here from filmmaker Claude Chabrol, a creator largely known in international cinema as the French Hitchcock or the Balzac of Cinema, though I’m unsure of what that last one means. Lies And Deceit features some of the director’s best works including Inspector Lavardin, a classic drama mystery, the steamy bodice ripper drama Madame Bovary and the mystery thriller Cop Au Vin which ended up earning a Palme D’or nomination at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. Again, through Arrow Video I get more of a film education and exposure to a filmmaker that I wouldn’t have otherwise and I’m grateful because Chabrol’s work is fascinating and definitely influential.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek-Outs:
The Toolbox Murders4K – A classic slasher film showed up in my mailbox a few days ago, a few weeks after the release date, but I couldn’t help but want to bring it as my geek out this week as it is a new 4K release that has been totally restored and one that would later be remade by horror legend Tobe Hooper and, again, wouldn’t get the love it deserved. Sleaziness, blood and violence against women are at the forefront of this late seventies horror film and it’s obvious that because of these reasons and the sheer amount of gratuitous nudity made it a shunned production. The plot follows a lunatic who runs around an apartment complex, apparently home only to attractive flight attendants with a tendency towards exhibitionism. While there, the lunatic tries to kill all the tenants with the contents of a toolbox and it’s based, probably quite loosely, on a true story. Interestingly enough, the film, even with its crazy content, was never banned anywhere except for the United Kingdom as part of the “video nasties” controversy even though there is a full-on masturbation scene with one of the female victims which was definitely not the norm for the time. There was also a sequel planned in the mid-eighties that was never fully realized but now we get to experience this whole thing in the glory of high definition.
Television:
Vikings: Valhalla (Netflix) – It was quite the get for Netflix when they acquired the streaming rights for the History Channel’s first scripted series which became a go-to for Sons Of Anarchy fans once that series had run its course. Now that the show has ended and all the seasons have been available, Netflix has this new self-produced spinoff that will hopefully pull that fanbase in for more bloody violence perpetrated by Norsemen. Set one hundred years after the original series, this story focuses on the adventures of Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Hardrada and the Norman King William the Conqueror who blaze a path as they fight for survival in the ever-changing and evolving world. Created by legendary screenwriter Jeb Stuart, the man behind Die Hard and the movie version of The Fugitive, this series has an interesting cast to it as well, on the heels of great leads like Travis Fimmel and Alexander Ludwig, with The Walking Dead’s Pollyanna McIntosh and Game Of Thrones alumnus Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson and looks to be just as brutal as it’s predecessor. Maybe we’ll get six seasons out of this show as well.
The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder (Disney+) – Disney has been doing its damndest to resurrect all of its great animated shows from the nineties and 2000s, giving it the modern update and this one was definitely a huge hit in its time although it was in a period that was a bit of a blind spot for me. Bringing back most of the original cast, the show follows Penny Proud, a fourteen-year-old girl and her family, as they navigate their lives in the 2020s. Trudy, Penny’s mom, has new career highs, Oscar, Penny’s dad, has wild dreams, and Penny faces a myriad of challenges while her Suga Mama returns, as does Michael, Dijonay, Zoey, and LaCienega. New kids Maya and KG, who are raised by two dads, try to adapt to life in Smithville. The show is once again helmed by the original creators Ralph Farquhar and Bruce W. Smith and hasn’t seemed to miss a step. Farquhar is responsible for so much black-led television including Moesha and The Parkers so the return of this series to the zeitgeist is a big win for the community and many can introduce this show to their kids and have it infused with a time that they know. The voice casting is also still hilarious and the adult jokes all land very well.
Snowfall: Season 5 (FX) – For fans of shows like Narcos on Netflix and the spinoff series to follow as well as the recent Hulu and Disney+ released Dopesick, this series that is now neck-deep in its storyline might be a hidden gem that hasn’t crossed their vision yet. The good thing is that if you have the Disney+ platform you can now straight binge the first four seasons of this well-done series and be caught up for the new episodes that will hit weekly. Told through multiple perspectives, this is a drama set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, following numerous characters on a violent collision course, including Franklin Saint, a young street entrepreneur on a quest for power, Gustavo “El Oso” Zapata, a Mexican wrestler caught up in a power struggle within a crime family, Teddy McDonald, a CIA operative running from a dark past who begins an off-book operation to fund the Nicaraguan Contras and Lucia Villanueva, the self-possessed daughter of a Mexican crime lord. Starting out in 1984 Los Angeles, the series is fascinating in its gritty approach and no holds barred attitude as the f-bombs fly. I’m one of those people who is late to this show but I have to say that the pilot grips you from the get-go and doesn’t let up at all.
Uncharted – I feel like the rights for this video game property from developer Naughty Dog were optioned by Sony so long ago with multiple stars attached at some point or another but I guess it just took their golden boy Tom Holland’s influence to get the film going finally. Mark Wahlberg had been attached to the lead role for a long time and had director David O. Russell behind the camera but now steps into the supporting role to Holland’s Nathan Drake and Venom director Ruben Fleisher at the helm. The story follows a young version of the street smart character as he is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada. The film has the formidable Antonio Banderas in the lead role and looks to be an action-packed and fun ride with some really cool-looking sequences, just the sort of thing I’m looking for right now. There may become a time when we tire of Tom and his leading roles but it’s not here yet.
Ambulance – Looking to blow things up in the biggest ways possible with the story usually being a secondary motion, Michael Bay is back on the scene with this new action thriller that only has my attention because of the lead stars of Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul Mateen III who are always incredible on screen. I used to be into the “Bay-hem” of this action pioneer but have been dulled down by too many Transformers films and the cacophonous noise of his style but maybe the low bar will work out in my favour. The film follows two desperate men who pair for the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history with a take of $32 million. Of course, things go wrong and they hijack an ambulance with a wounded cop clinging to life and an ace EMT on board, played by Baby Driver’s Eiza Gonzalez. With it being a Michael Bay film, besides explosions, it will be full of insane camera twirling, sunkissed shots of the Los Angeles cityscape and more of his trademarks but I’m hoping that the acting elevates this one because he has some heavyweights. The movie is also a remake of a 2005 thriller out of Denmark as was Gyllenhaal’s previous film, The Guilty, which is fantastic and on Netflix right now.
Dog – Channing Tatum knows who he is and knows that the women and men will flock to the theatres because he oozes sexuality and charm. As gross as it was for me to say ooze there, I know this is the case and I really also enjoy him as an actor but to bring a dog along for your new film in the co-star seat seems a bit like stacking the deck I think. Co-directing this film as well with the Magic Mike franchise writer Reid Carolin, he plays one of two former Army Rangers who are paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime, the other one just happens to be a Belgian Malinois named Lulu. Together they buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier’s funeral on time while pushing each other’s buttons, breaking a small handful of laws and narrowly avoiding death along the way. I’m intrigued to see what Tatum is capable of as a director and I usually have a soft spot for road trip films, especially as this one is shot by Newton Thomas Sigel, the guy behind The Usual Suspects, Drive and most recently Da 5 Bloods. This might be a sleeper heartwarmer for audiences heading into spring.
The Cursed – When I was working at a video store I came across an indie film from a young Irish filmmaker named Sean Ellis called Cashback and I’ve been hooked ever since. His movies come across as creepy and fantastical but always play in a different pool of the mystery-thriller genre but for his new film he goes full-on gothic monster horror and it’s pretty awesome. Originally called Eight For Silver, the story is set in rural 19th-century France as a mysterious and possibly supernatural menace threatens a small village causing John McBride, a pathologist, to come to town to investigate the danger and exorcise some of his own demons in the process. The gore is immediately present and the darkness of this almost Lovecraftian levels of despair, this was quickly my type of movie about fifteen minutes in. Not to give any spoilers but there is a scene in this film that was so bold in its heightened horror that it caught me off guard and it reminded me of the great body scares John Carpenter brought to his The Thing remake. This movie will only appeal to a certain part of the horror community but those who are into it will love it immensely.
Ted K – Movies about serial killers have a certain hotness to them which extends beyond horror fans and I understand how gross that was to read as it was equally bad to write. It seems the same serial killers get the movie treatment over and over again like Ted Bundy or even the influence like Ed Gein for Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Jeffrey Dahmer for you Hannibal Lector like characters but the Una Bomber has been left untouched until now. The film has the great character actor Sharlto Copley in the lead role in an exploration of Ted Kaczynski’s life in Lincoln, Montana in the years leading up to his arrest as the infamous mailbox bomber. Copley is such a chameleon of a performer and I had the opportunity to chat with him after making the action flick Hardcore Henry and see what process he takes to get into anyone he is playing’s head. His dedication is always present which is why I have the utmost faith that he pulls this film off.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre – The new hotness in horror franchises is to ignore the subsequent sequels that have been released and just pick up after the original movies in a sort of retconning. It worked for Halloween which was worked into a finale trilogy and now The Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez is giving the same treatment to Tobe Hooper’s blisteringly iconic southern terror fest. Yes, after nearly fifty years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town. Even better, the group that descends on this ghost down to meet their grisly demise are a bunch of social media influencers which will give the audience a bit of glee when they are dispatched. This is by far the highest body count this franchise has ever seen and the gore is flying from the get-go which makes this movie an insane amount of fun to watch. I also really loved that there are no hero moments in this film and it gets almost comical. This is obviously geared at a certain audience and you already know who you are.
Streamline – Another film hitting me in my weak spot, there is a brand new Australian melodrama on the books this week and it also happens to have Jason Isaacs in a very background supporting role but still one that shows off his gravitas. The film also features young actor Levi Miller in the main role who was supposed to be a huge star after the blockbuster Pan which basically was a glittery bowl of diarrhea with no coherence behind it and I really hadn’t seen him in anything until now. This film is inspired by a true story and has Miller playing a gifted 15-year-old swimmer who is on the brink of the biggest swim meet of his life that could allow him to qualify for the Olympics. Pushed by his ruthless coach, and his mother Kim, it’s unclear if he actually wants the life he’s seemingly being forced to chase but when his estranged father is released from jail, his fight to escape his past to Olympic glory becomes even more dangerous. The movie is a first-time feature from writer and director Tyler Wade Johnson who has such a great command of dramatic performances that feel a little rough around the edges which really adds to the realism of the story. Miller is absolutely jacked now, really leaning into the swimmer’s body build, which might have been helped along by Aussie Olympic hero Ian Thorpe, also known as the Thorpedo, who was the executive producer of this movie. This is a solid film that sadly won’t get a lot of attention I think.
President – With all the post-election events in the United States since the 2020 results and frankly the attacks on our own current government in Canada over the last few weeks, there’s something about this new documentary that just hit harder. Playing very much in a compiled real-time with no narrator and a few subtitle cards to help you along the way, this documentary became a quasi horror film that saw the slaughter of democracy in an African country. The film follows a young and charismatic leader named Nelson Chamisa who takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential election. Early on and with no blatant hiding of the corruption, he sees the delay in the tabulating of votes by the Zimbabwe Elections council and the writing is on the wall from pretty much the beginning. While the end results are far darker and less hopeful than the start, to see the fight in the streets from the people of Zimbabwe is equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking and director Camilla Nielsson catches it all like a fly on the wall. I felt at the beginning that it felt a bit dry in its approach but as the ball gets rolling it all becomes a fascinating education in how our first world corruption bleeds into all other nations.
The Beatles And India – Months ago I brought a documentary about the Fab Four’s trip to India and the spiritual awakening they found there but it turned into a more lopsided affair of being about the effect it had on the filmmaker to experience this alongside them but this documentary is far more straightforward. Debuting on the Britbox streaming platform, In the debut feature from two brand new filmmakers, this is a unique historical chronicle of the enduring love affair between The Beatles and India that started more than half a century ago. Rare archival footage, photographs and eye-witness accounts, along with location shoots across India, bring alive the fascinating journey of George, John, Paul and Ringo from their high-octane celebrity lives in the West to a remote Himalayan ashram in search of spiritual bliss, a time that inspired an unprecedented burst of creative songwriting. This is the first serious exploration of how India helped shape the evolution of the iconic band, and how they helped bridge two vastly different cultures. As a huge fan of this band and their effect, not just on music but the entire zeitgeist, I’m always interested in seeing all I can about them. This time I wasn’t duped into experiencing someone else’s journey along the way.
Fistful Of Vengeance – We get a couple gifts from the martial arts movie gods this week and one of them comes through the conduit of a Netflix release but, be warned, it’s not on the same level of a film like The Night Comes For Us, and if you haven’t seen that yet, fix that now. This one does feature the genre cred of having The Raid star Iko Uwais who always delivers jaw-dropping fight scenes so that is the draw immediately. Also starring Mortal Kombat star Lewis Tan, the story follows Uwais as Kai Jin, a young Chinatown chef in present-day San Francisco, who becomes entangled with the Chinese Triad’s pursuit of deadly ancient powers known as the “Wu Xing. Interestingly, the film doesn’t come from any martial arts director but the man they got is a bit action-heavy as Netherlands born filmmaker Roel Reiné has done episodic television like Black Sails and Wu Assassins as well as a string of direct to video action sequels like The Condemned 2, 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded and The Man With The Iron Fists 2. Not to say any of those are great or even good but keep in mind that this is our chance to check him out before his episodes of Halo air later this year.
Too Cool To Kill – The second martial arts film of the week has quite the title to live up to but has no bankable stars in it so it really is an attempt from the ground up. The film is made by first-time filmmaker Xing Wenxiong who manages to make a comedy-infused fight-action-heavy production that Jackie Chan would smile at knowingly. It follows Wei Chenggong, a normal dude with a dream of becoming a comedian that receives an invitation from famous actress Milan to play her leading man, “Killer Karl.” However, unknown to Mr. Wei, the new gig has landed him directly in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy and, as the brutal truth inches closer and closer, he is left to rely on only his good luck and (somewhat questionable) acting skills to survive. The creator of this film obviously has some deep love for all the action tropes that got the genre there as it feels, at times, like a satire on indie flicks like Robert Rodriguez’s debut film El Mariachi as well as a lot of John Woo homages, the master of high octane Hong Kong action thrillers. I was very surprised by this movie but I think it won’t land with a lot of people in theatres.
Blu-Ray:
Eternals – It’s sad to say that this ambitiously made origin story of a new hero group in a hugely stacked Marvel Cinematic Universe got some of the worst reviews that have come out of this franchise in its over ten-year run but here we are. I have to say that I don’t really agree with it and many of them are frustratingly based on its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters but it comes from Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao and, if anything, all of her films have something deeply fascinating about them and are always so beautifully shot. The film directly follows the events of Avengers: Endgame when an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants. The cast of this movie is damn solid with two Game Of Thrones cast members in Richard Madden and Kit Harrington, who really only bookends the film, Atlanta’s Bryan Tyree Henry, the brilliant Barry Keoghan, the now totally jacked Kumail Nanjiani and the iconic Angelina Jolie and that’s definitely not everyone. I will definitely concede that there are aspects that drag in this film and it does seem quite bloated in its run time but the things that it sets up, the charisma of some of the stars and the sweeping vision of Zhao keep me coming back to the positives of this big and pivotal MCU story piece.
Wolf – It’s insane to think that actor George MacKay isn’t already a huge megastar like Timothee Chalamet or Tom Holland because the guy knocks it out of the park every time, like his performances in the Viggo Mortensen drama Captain Fantastic or the one-shot World War I epic 1917 but this arthouse film likely won’t get his name at the poster just due to its niche quality. That said, writer and director Nathalie Biancheri’s sophomore feature gives MacKay a new complexity to work with and he totally runs with it. He plays Jacob, a young man who fully believes he is a wolf trapped in a human body and eats, sleeps, and lives like one, much to the shock of his family. When he’s sent to an experimental clinic, Jacob and his animal-bound peers are forced to undergo increasingly extreme forms of ‘curative’ therapies. However once he meets the mysterious Wildcat, played by Lily-Rose Depp, their friendship blossoms into an undeniable infatuation and he is faced with the decision to renounce his true self for love or to give himself fully over to his baser nature. This movie is beautifully shot but all hinges on the performances of MacKay and Depp as well as their oppressor, the cold and surgical Zookeeper played by Paddy Considine. I was absolutely astounded by this film.
Monday – Sebastian Stan is on a lot of people’s minds right now due to his current series Pam & Tommy running on Disney+ right now but this little film that slipped under the radar in theatres might do well on Blu-ray and video on demand. As far as mainstream marketing goes, he is the big draw here as co-star Denise Gough hasn’t quite landed internationally, at least until the Star Wars spinoff Andor debuts, and writer and director Argyris Papadimitropoulos hasn’t hit it big international but he really knows how to film his home country of Greece beautifully. The story follows two Americans in their mid-thirties living in Athens, who meet in the heat of summer one whirlwind weekend. When Chloe’s time in Greece is drawing to a close, she decides to give up her high-flying job back home and explore whether one weekend’s passion can stand the reality of the inevitable Monday. Stan is absolutely incredible in this film, as is Gough who makes a memorable turn in this, but the characters are written very inconsistently and the payoff is nowhere near as good as the setup. The film is a little bogged with diminishing returns on viewer investment and, as gorgeous as everything looks, the romantic chemistry feels really strained for a large stretch of the movie. It’s almost like they knew it was a one-weekend stand before the audience did. a bit disappointing.
Seobok: Project Clone – If you follow these write-ups regularly, you know my deep love for South Korean cinema so when Well Go USA hooked me up with a brand new one I was pretty giddy about it. Even better, it is a dramatic sci-fi story involving clones so it’s going to be overly stylish, overly emotional and definitely unpredictable. The story follows ex-intelligence agent Ki Heon who is tasked with safely transporting Seo Bok, the first-ever human clone, who holds the secret of eternal life. Several forces try to take control of Seo Bok to serve their own agendas because the robotic clone holds the secret to immortality. I found this movie deeply fascinating because it refuses to be held down by the genre pitfalls and actually has something to say beyond the bare plot and even gets a bit philosophical from time to time. Writer and director Lee Yong-Ju is a new voice to me in South Korean film and I really can’t wait to see what he has in store next. Again, hook me up Well Go USA!
The Three Musketeers – Time for some classic Warner Archive this week as I was given their sole release and it is even more classic and iconic in a literary sense because it is also an early adaptation of the most famous work of Alexandre Dumas. Yes, D’Artagnan and his musketeers ride high in a blockbuster of the late forties featuring a renowned cast including Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Angela Lansbury and, a personal favourite, Vincent Price as the villain. For those who don’t know the Musketeers and their story, it follows the hectic adventures of D’Artagnan, a young provincial noble who came to Paris to become a Musketeer and forms the indestructible friendship with the three other Musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis as they thwart the plans of Cardinal Richelieu to usurp King Louis XIII’s power. This was a big thing for these actors at the time as it went on to be Kelly’s favourite non-musical performance as well as Turner’s first time in a colourized film but it was also the first time that the Dumas novel was adapted in its entirety rather than just cherry-picking snippets from it. Of course, we would get some great Musketeer adaptations that all stem from this cinematic first and we, as movie lovers, are grateful for it. On the other hand, we did get 2001’s The Musketeer and the 3D debacle of Paul W.S. Anderson’s version so there is a rough trade-off there.
Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:
Over The Top – Sylvester Stallone takes his son on a road trip across America, wrestling people for money and the love of a truck and it was directed by the man behind Cannon Films, a guy that spent way too much movie on movies that turned out to be garbage. This all sounds like a made-up farce of a tale but this one is a real movie and it is celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary this week and I’m ashamed to say that I watched this one a lot when I was growing up and had my mom rent it numerous times and that for which I am very sorry today. Even Stallone didn’t want to do this movie, even though he wrote it, but Menahem Golan, the director, kept offering more and more money until Sly couldn’t fathom turning it down. Man, the eighties must have been an insane time fueled by cocaine and bad decisions and looking back at this trainwreck now I can’t even imagine what about it was appealing. At best, this is a fun movie to mock alongside your friends and if you don’t believe me there is a fantastic episode of How Did This Get Made that commands to be listened to.
Factory Girl – This movie and the subject herself, Edie Sedgewick, both suffer from the same malady of not being appreciated at the time of their peak and even worse Sienna Miller gives a career performance that absolutely flew under the radar of the mainstream. Playing Sedgewick, the one-time muse of artist and pop culture icon Andy Warhol, this film tells the story of her rise to socialite level and the sad decline into drug addiction as all those friends around her slowly abandoned her. As good as Miller is in this movie, Guy Pearce gives an incredible turn as Warhol, a role that has so many eyes of the idiosyncrasy of that very real character. The film was directed by George Hickenlooper, a filmmaker with a really original eye that sadly passed away just a few years after the film’s release. I think he would have been one of the top a-list filmmakers today and that this was merely just a jumping point. As far as biopics go, this is a real gem.
Super Troopers – Broken Lizard arrived on the scene with this pretty simple concept comedy and quickly cemented themselves as the new comedy troupe on the block and one to take note of and then we just sort of abandoned them on their next feature, Club Dread, which I think is just as good if not better but I digress. Twenty years ago this week five Vermont state troopers hit the big screen to terrorize those on the road for their own enjoyment, give us new catchphrases but most of all introduce us to a group of great and dedicated comedy character actors. The story is an easy lay-up, a station house that is forced to save their jobs and outdo the local police department by solving a crime, something they’ve never managed to do. This movie still holds up comedy-wise today and still has me almost on the floor with laughter
Television:
LOL: Last One Laughing Canada (Prime Video) – This one feels like the reason it is on this list is that it is hosted by my friend Jay Baruchel but there is more to it than that because I think the concept is really great and it’s already been done internationally, gotten great reactions and now we get our own Canadian version of it. This six-part competition series pits ten of the best comedic talents against each other in a showdown where anything can happen and this cast is a mind-blowing mix of the best Canadian funny people alive like Colin Mochrie, Tom Green, Jon Lajoie, Debra DiGiovanni, K. Trevor Wilson and so many more. I’m usually not into reality competition shows but this one seems to be playing directly into things that I love. It could prove me wrong and not come through with the hype but I doubt it.
Space Force: Season 2 (Netflix) – Who knew that a joke created from a very real announcement and creation of an outer space military by a buffoon of a president should gain so much weight but this Steve Carell and Greg Daniels created comedy series survived it’s debut season and now gets its follow up. Carell stars in the lead amidst a great cast including John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome, Jimmy O. Yang and more and, to be honest, it hits as much as it misses sometimes. The show follows Carell as General Mark Naird, a disgraced lifelong military man who is given one last chance to achieve legendary status to his peers by commanding the Space Force, a sect in the defensive forces that is aimless at best. I think I dedicated to watching the first season to see the final performance of Fred Willard, who plays Carell’s dad in this, as when the first season came out he had just passed away. Now that he isn’t in it anymore I hope that the second season can play a bit better than the first did because if you are expecting The Office calibur writing you will be sorely disappointed.
Severance (AppleTV+) – For the people that love quirky and weird storytelling, like all my fellow Twin Peaks fans out there, it looks like Ben Stiller and lead star and producer Adam Scott have a little gift for you on AppleTV+. From the mind of new showrunner Dan Erickson, this series is unlike any I’ve seen and it makes me appreciate the streaming platform even more as they seem to be giving ideas chances that would never exist anywhere else. The plot follows Mark, an employee for the mysterious Lumen that leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs and if they can escape the disgruntled feelings they have while they’re in the workplace to reconcile them in the real world. I don’t want to give any more away about it than that but the first episode is a wild ride of reveals hurtling towards a cliffhanger that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I’m unsure if this is a limited series or part of something bigger but I loved every second of it.
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (Netflix) – As much as I don’t want to celebrate this very smart and gifted artist that is going through a massive mental health crisis that goes unchecked, unmedicated and totally unbalanced day after day but there is a morbid curiosity about it that I can’t shake. The guy definitely has kept himself in the public light with his very front page divorce from Kim Kardashian, his social media attacks on her new boyfriend Pete Davidson and his other weird feuds that he’s trying to start with Billie Eilish and Kid Cudi so the fact that he has a Netflix docu-series isn’t that surprising. Obviously told in three episodes, the show follows the life of Kanye West in an intimate portrait as he builds his way from singer to businessman and becomes a global brand. Kanye gives a crazy amount of access to the filmmakers on this but I think it may also guard the viewer against his more obsessive tendencies so it doesn’t really tell the whole story. Even still, it is a fascinating and totally engrossing watch and the series is done before you know it and your evening’s gone.
The Marvelous Ms. Maisel: Season 4 (Prime Video) – After crashing through the first three seasons in quick fashion, both my wife and I have been not so patiently waiting for the new season to debut. We have such a huge cliffhanger at the end of the last season with a massive falling out between Midge and her friend, boss and popular recording artist Shy Baldwin that may affect her rising comedienne status. For those who have yet to jump on board to one of the crown jewels on Prime Video, this show is an award-winning story about a wife, mother and busy New Yorker who has a dream to be on the stand-up stage in the 1950s. Created by Gilmore Girls Amy Sherman Palladino and Daniel Palladino, the show is well cast with Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shalhoub, Alex Borstein, Michael Zegers and more but also has a script that flies so fast that you’re just recovering from one great laugh and the next one hits you. Sometimes the hyped shows don’t live up to the word of mouth but this one is a rare exception. Friday can’t come soon enough!
