Steve Stebbing

Breaking down all things pop culture

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Apr 30

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April 30, 2020

New On VOD:

Blood Quantum – Soaked in blood and dripping with style, writer and director Jeff Barnaby follows up his astoundingly great Indigenous film Rhymes For Young Ghouls with this zombie horror that feels familiar only in the basics of its mechanics. The film takes place outside the isolated Mi’gMaq reserve of Red Crow when the dead start to rise, observed first as a gutted salmon resurrects. Soon everything spirals out of control leading the survivors to isolate in an impenetrable structure made from scraps that are barely holding together as arguments for leadership rage on. The story feels a little disjointed here ad there but I loved the execution of the plot points and the gore is beautifully slick. I’m excited to see what Barnaby does next as he is a great filmmaking voice in the indigenous community that has a real chance to leap to the mainstream.

Nose To Tail – This movie seems to be playing into the kind of movies I generally like as it all takes place in a five-star restaurant during a make or break night for the head chef. Aaron Abrams from Hannibal and Closet Monster plays Daniel, a pill and alcohol-fueled chef and restaurant owner who is as abusive to all of those around him as he is to himself, but, like most of these guys, is driven by his ego to a fault. As I said, this is totally my type of movie but the lead character is so immediately unlikeable and the snowball effect on that is far too quick to recover from because it really doesn’t get any better. I feel like the point of this movie is to see Daniel go down in a big ball of flames and feel justified in doing so. It just didn’t work for me.

Enemy Lines – I’m always a sucker for a World War II film and when any of them get pushed my way for release I will generally check them out but this movie raised red flags right away. A story about a crack team of allied commandos sent on a deadly mission behind enemy lines to extract a rocket scientist from the hands of the Nazis, the film should check all the boxes of a great war film but the fact that it stars Ed Westwick, an actor who after sexual assault accusations is low on the employability list made me work and for good reason because it isn’t good at all. The plot feels easy and almost paint by numbers with our heroes easily skirting through any problem up until our third act where it all hits the fan and the effects are some of the worst I have ever seen and I watch Canadian films regularly. Do not be duped by this movie on your VOD screen, it’s not even worth ten minutes of your time.

Tammy’s Always Dying – Felicity Huffman is an actress that has been getting a lot of publicity over the last year or so and it is not in a good way at all but instead wrapped up in that whole university admissions scandal. The whole debacle even stopped her from promoting this new movie, one that needed the star’s help due to the low budget of it. Huffman plays the alcohol addled mother of a woman who is the direct result of being raised by someone like that, quick to anger, constantly making bad decisions and on a slope to personal ruin. Even through all of this, she is there to save her mother from jumping to her death every month like clockwork. I will say right here that for me Huffman’s over the top performance is what soured this movie for me and made me feel distant from it starting with her opening moment on screen. It feels like she’s in a play on the subject when everyone else is in a more grounded drama and I couldn’t shake that notion. That said, this is quite the debut in the director’s chair for former Power Rangers star Amy Jo Johnson and I look forward to what she does next.

Blu-Ray:

The Rhythm Section – Ryan Reynolds can’t be the only ass-kicker of his family as his wife Blake Lively makes her leap to the action genre. Yes, I know we already saw her take on a shark in the thriller The Shallows but this film sees her in hand to hand combat and firing a gun and looking a bit less awkward than I expected for the former Gossip Girl. In the film, she plays a woman looking for revenge after her family is murdered during a terrorist plot. Kind of leaning into that cliche a bit, she arms her self up and goes into training to destroy those who took her loved ones but the film looks a bit grittier than your standard Taken film and it has Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown to do some heavy lifting as well. This film, produced by James Bond executive Barbara Broccoli, tried to carve a new niche of female-led action films for itself but failed to pull it off as the pacing really dogs this movie constantly and felt a little half baked at times.

Guns Akimbo – After seeing his debut film Deathgasm at the Vancouver International Film Festival a few years ago, I’ve been waiting for the bigger budget and more notable cast led follow up from New Zealand director Jason Lei Howden and this hits the spot in the genre of loud, brash and bloody action films. Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving star in the darkly comedic story of a tech employee who must throw caution to the wind when he wakes up after trolling the dark web with guns fixed to his hands and bloodthirsty killers looking to kill him while trying to save his ex-girlfriend from the same people who put him in this situation. Unfortunately, Howden killed all momentum for this movie by using the film’s twitter account to publicly attack female critics who gave it low marks. Brutal.

I Wish I Knew – A new documentary from the director of last year’s beautiful Chinese gangster flick Ash Is Purest White, filmmaker Zhangke Jia gives an intimate vision of Shanghai and its history but most importantly the voices of those who know it deeply, have never left or have tried to escape it and those whose journeys brought them back to it. This film, with a serene and calm demeanour, portrays a city that has been founded on industry and on the backs of its workers but has also captured the imaginations of the local storytellers, filmmakers and actors as well as the international community like acclaimed director Michaelangelo Antonioni who went there to make a documentary in the 1970s but seemed to glorify that which the residents thought set their culture back. This documentary may feel too sombre at times and may bore those who need more flash.

Spongebob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom Bash – When this brand new compilation of episodes hit my mailbox from my friends at Paramount I looked at it and said “sure, why not?” because, for those who don’t know, I love Spongebob Squarepants and actually own a lot of it already, a show which I consider, along with being a successful kids show, a really great source of stoner viewing. With this grouping of five episodes, we get classic stories like Spongebob’s birthday party, the hilarious beach party episode “Sun Bleached”, the Slumber Party and more. This is great for the kids and just as good for the immature big kids like me.

Steve’s DVD Geekout:

Criminal Minds: The Final Season – After fourteen seasons on the air and a couple of spinoffs that were pretty great but didn’t rope in that targeted market, one of the creepiest police procedurals finally came to an end with the ten-episode finale season. Led by their stalwart leading man Joe Mantegna and featuring the consistent nerd heartthrob of Matthew Gray Gubler, this show always flushed out a character study week to week of some of the most depraved and evil serial killers that the writer’s room could come up with, whether they were figments of these people’s imaginations or inspired by a real case. The final season was really interesting though as it involved our cast more directly into the story like an evil genius targeted the squad themselves. I got into this way late and am just binging it all now on CBS All Access and, well, I should have joined this party before. It’s a procedural that consistently works! Imagine that!

Television:

Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels (Crave) – A pretty sizeable fan base is very excited to get the spinoff to the popular Showtime series that started back in 2014 and ran for three seasons. While the original series followed explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, American gunslinger Ethan Chandler, scientist Victor Frankenstein and medium Vanessa Ives as they combated supernatural threats in Victorian London, this series goes ahead in time to a late 1930s Los Angeles at a time that city expansion was aggressive and pushing out the Latino community and the rise of the Nazi ideals were taking hold in the city. The kick is that an evil and godly entity is responsible for pushing the weaker-minded humans into furthering the agenda of the destruction of humanity. The show stars Game Of Thrones alum Natalie Dormer, Nathan Lane and It Follows and Don’t Breathe actor Daniel Zovatto and I loved episode one. Looking forward to what’s next.

Upload: Season 1 (Amazon Prime) – After the mind-twisting darkness of Devs, Amazon Prime is going for a lighter approach to the online gaming world with this new 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 series 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. I’ve been seeing trailers for this everywhere for months and I really hope it is as good as it looks.

Murder To Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (Netflix) – After all of the true-crime documentaries I have been watching about horrible people who don’t get what they deserve, wrongfully convicted people and inmates that have been used and abused by the system, it was pretty refreshing to actually get into a story of redemption, even if the execution of the whole thing lends to the viewer being manipulated. The story of Cyntoia Brown is anything but simple, convicted as an adult at the age of sixteen for the first-degree murder of a man she alleges had picked her up hours earlier in a Nashville parking lot intending to pay for sex. Given a life sentence that would see her released somewhere within her sixties, Cyntoia begins a journey to improve her condition, change her life and hopefully earn herself a chance of clemency or parole. My biggest issue with this movie is that the interviews feel framed to only give the feelings that the filmmaker intends rather than leaving the onus on the viewer which I think is best in these films. I don’t need this and a swell of music to blur the lines, we have enough of that on Twitter every day.

Betty: Season 1 (Crave) – A couple of years ago I fell in love with a little New York shot indie story from writer and director Crystal Moselle called Skate Kitchen about a teenager new to the area that falls in with a group of skater girls. It’s really great that HBO feels the same way I do, if not more, as they have produced, with Moselle directing, a new six-episode series putting us right back into the skatepark and I am very excited for possibly the most underrated shows of 2020 that will hopefully get some eyes on the original film.

Hollywood (Netflix) – Ryan Murphy seems to have the stranglehold on Netflix during this whole pandemic as we get no only the two documentaries over the last couple weeks but this brand new scripted series that brings us to the golden era of post World War II Hollywood. The movie focuses on a bunch of aspiring actors, actresses, writers and directors who are desperate to make their big break into the industry at any cost to their soul. The show features a great young cast including American Crime Story’s Darren Criss, Spider-Man Homecoming’s Laura Harrier and Ready Or Not’s breakout star Samara Weaving as well as veterans like Holland Taylor and Dylan McDermott who is no stranger to Murphy’s world. Racy and always pushing the envelope, this series has the stuff to make it big, see, it’s gonna be a star!

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Apr 23

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April 23, 2020

New On VOD:

Run This Town – When the walking disaster known as Rob Ford was in his position of mayor, his story, especially that of his arrest and then basic dismissal of his crimes so he can keep running the city was a major story internationally we knew this would be made into a movie. Guess what? It’s here and Homeland star Damian Lewis plays the juicy role in a large fleshy fat suit that kind of makes him look like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers and he is just really the subject that all the characters revolve around as this is mostly seen through the eyes of young staffers at city hall and a new idealistic young reporter at The Recorder looking to make his big break on the ground floor of this 2013 political scandal emerging. The film features The Politician’s Ben Platt, Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev and veteran actor Scott Speedman in the debut film from writer and director Ricky Tollman who’s inexperience kind of shows through as this movie seems to be more filler than it is substantial. I felt frustrated with the film’s continued focus on superfluous banter to make characters painted in black and white strokes than to the furthering of any journalistic intrigue. Very disappointed.

Blu-Ray:

Bad Boys For Life – It’s been seventeen years since we last saw Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s characters of Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett and after so much teasing and collapses of this third film it is now finally here without Michael Bay behind the camera and even though this is pretty much the only franchise I have love for some “Beyhem” in, this movie still worked the same with fresh blood behind the camera. This film teases the two cops’ “last ride” as they confront their ageing into different roles of law enforcement and the creation of their own squad which gets put to the immediate test with the emergence of a new enemy, Armando Armas, the vicious leader of a Miami drug cartel. This is the big-budget debut of the directing duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and they bring that same frenetic action bombastic craziness we have come to expect every time Lowrey and Burnett take on a case. If you liked the previous movies you will definitely like this one.

Like A Boss – I really wanted to have good thoughts heading into this movie as it has Rose Byrne, one of my favorite comedic actresses, and Tiffany Haddish, someone who I think is funny in real life, taking on Salma Hayek, an actress that always brings it in comedy. The problem is that Haddish’s track record theatrically speaking is spotty at best and this storyline is so lame with Haddish and Byrne as joint owners of a beauty company but with massively different ideals in how they run the business. Their friendship is put to the test when they try to go into business with a successful businesswoman who decides that she would rather gut the company. The story is so minimal in this and it’s really all about the dialogue and delivery by the cast that keeps the laughs coming, especially with the supporting cast of Billy Porter and Jennifer Coolidge. That said, Salma feels like the lady version of Willy Wonka as so many weird choices are made with her character. If you seriously want to shut the brain down for some laughs, this is a good bet.

The Gentlemen – Writer and director Guy Ritchie has returned to the roots of the type of cinema that got him popular, the gangster flicks like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. For this film, he grabs a huge cast with Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell and more for the story of a drug lord looking to get out of the game and sell of his empire to the highest bidder which sets off a bloody war in the London underworld, a place that Ritchie knows as well as he knows himself. This movie probably won’t draw in a new audience but will satisfy the hordes of fans of this genre he made famous, all of us salivating for him to do another movie with great dialogue and loud gunfights, all of which he brings for this. Got to hand it to him that he can make all of these already cool actors to an even higher level of coolness. That is some serious talent there.

The Turning – Adapting the classic Henry James novel The Turning Of The Screw, this is a modern telling of the darkly gothic horror thriller about a young nanny who is hired by a rich estate who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the deaths of their parents. The film stars one of my favorite actresses, Blade Runner 2049’s Mackenzie Davis and two young stars in Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard and The Florida Project’s brilliant lead Brooklynn Prince, but as stylish as the movie looks it seems to constantly get lost in leaving misconstrued clues, plot threads that go nowhere and setting up jump scares that constantly muddy the waters of a very cliched horror film. It is directed by Floria Sigismondi who follows up her only other feature film The Runaways with this one, which lends to the stylish nature of the movie, but the whole thing feels very undercooked and served to us in a sheepish” here you go, I guess” way.

The Last Full Measure – Let’s head back to the Vietnam War for this new film from writer and director Todd Robinson, a filmmaker usually known for documentaries. Starring Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Plummer and Peter Fonda in his final onscreen performance, this is the story of a Clinton era Department of Defense intern on the rise who, on the way out the door to bigger and better things, is given the file of Airman William H. Pitsenbarger, Jr., also known as “Pits”, who left his ship and gave his life to aid the ground platoons in a failed attack but was not awarded the Medal Of Honor the nation’s highest military accolade. As he investigates the file, he develops a deeper connection to the case through the people he meets until the culmination which I felt came off a bit overdone and sappy. I felt the script was a bit weak in places and it showed when some of the members of the cast when aren’t veterans delivered it.

Ip Man 4: The Finale – Donnie Yen closes out his martial arts franchise as Master Ip, the teacher of the legendary Bruce Lee and founder of the Wing Chun style. This film brings him right back into the story of his most famous pupil as Bruce’s publishing of the ways of martial arts has ruffled the feathers of the entire community in America forcing the master to make a trip to a very new and foreign land, the United States in the 1960s. After a really lackluster third installment, it’s really great to see this series close out with some of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen Donnie Yen do. At fifty-seven years old, Yen is still absolutely flawless in his execution and his climactic battle with Scott Adkins at the end of the film is awesome. The acting around our star is on par of what you remember about this genre but the story is Master Ip is fascinating.

Party Hard, Die Young – A film that has been streaming for a bit on the horror service Shudder as one of their originals, this movie comes from Croatia, a first for me with this country’s cinema, and takes place during a rave at sea. Freshly graduated and looking for a week of alcohol-infused debauchery, a group of friends find themselves at the mercy of a smiley face masked killer who is picking them off one by one. There isn’t a lot of new ground being broken in the slasher genre with this movie and there isn’t a lot of on-screen kills or very memorable gore but the frenetic style keeps the movie afloat. If you’re looking for a quick horror film to pass the time there are worse movies out there than this.

Why Don’t You Just Die! – In my experience with modern Russian cinema a lot of it is over the top hyper frenetic and in your face from start to finish and with a title like this, you know it fits right into that category easily. The set up is simple, a man knocks on the door of a ruthlessly violent police detective bent on bludgeoning him to death with a hammer he is concealing behind his back. Why? Because the detective’s daughter had told this man, her boyfriend, that her father abused her and, well, that’s just the tip of the twists that cascade from the start. Bloody and absolutely off the rails, this movie is not for the faint of heart at all and hits Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino like crescendos and then tops them like breaking through a glass ceiling. This movie is totally relentless and I really loved it for going so balls out.

Looking For Alaska – Teen dramas usually skate a fine line between being annoying or cheesy and totally sappy but it seems that author John Green has the adolescent voice hammered down because, in my opinion, the previous adaptations of his work, The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns, are pretty damn good. Now, in a longer series format for Hulu, his first book Looking For Alaska gets the adaptation treatment, following a guy named Miles who has enrolled in a private school in the woods called Culver Creek Academy, a decision that will change his life and hopefully give him a deeper perspective on life. Not a popular kid at his previous school, Miles immediately strikes up a friendship with his roommate known as “The Colonel” who then introduces him to Alaska Young, the girl of his dreams. This young cast, including rising star Charlie Plummer and new faces like Kristine Forseth and Denny Love, give this show a charisma that intrigues me and characters I felt like I immediately cared about and that has to be due to it being shepherded to the screen by The OC’s Josh Schwartz.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Lost River – After working so closely with Nicholas Winding Refn on their movie Drive, Ryan Gosling got bitten by the directing bug hard and wanted to carve a little piece of cinema out for himself and five years ago this week he did with this weirdo story that borrows some of that neon glare from his aforementioned director friend and casts that light on a pretty David Lynch feeling story. Starring Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD’s Iain De Caestecker, Saorise Ronan, Christina Hendricks, Matt Smith and Gosling’s wife Eva ended, this is the tale of a teenager that finds a road to an underwater town nears his sleepy small town while his mother slips into the madness of a dark underworld. This movie is very strange and definitely commands a very open cinema mind but I really love it and the soundtrack from Portland’s electro pop ground the Chromatics in one of my favorites in the last ten years.

The Salvation – An actor with charisma in every smouldering look and intrigue in the enigma of his gaze, I could watch Mads Mikkelsen star in pretty much anything so when it came to him starring in a Danish made western you better believe I was all in. Celebrating its fifth anniversary this week, Mikkelsen plays a peaceful settler living in 1870s America who is put on a path of bloody revenge when a ruthless gang leader kills his entire family. This is a searing story of a one-man army that comes from Kristian Levring who helped develop the Danish filmmaking style of Dogme95 with Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in the mid-nineties. Co-starring Eva Green, this is a forgotten about western that unfortunately never got a wide enough release to make a mark.

Kung Fu Hustle – From writer, director, producer and star Stephen Chow, the easiest way to describe this movie lies in a pull quote on the cover as it really is “Looney Tunes meets martial arts”. Celebrating its fifteenth year, this is an incredible action film that seamlessly blends fantastical CGI into a story that was massively ahead of its time, just like everything else Chow has done it needs that gestation time to hit the full capacity it deserved. The story is kind of simple, a wannabe gangster living in Shanghai, China in the 1940s aspires to join the notorious “Axe Gang” while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf from this same gang wanting full control over the city. This film commands a great home theater set up as it is a mindblowing experience for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Trust me, this is a must-see.

The Basketball Diaries – Reaching back into the beginning of an Oscar yearning Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, this is a movie I still think of when it comes to all the outstanding work the Academy Award winner has done. Based on the memoir of Jim Carroll who Leo plays in the film, this is the story of an inner-city teen who has aspirations of becoming a professional basketball star who’s life is thrown into chaos when he descends into the crippling addiction of heroin. Co-starring Mark Wahlberg and Lorraine Bracco, this is one of the best films of the nineties and is powerfully biting every time I see it. I find it fascinating that director Scott Kalvert only made this and Dueces Wild seven years later before dying just over five years ago. This film should have earned so much awards acclaim.

Ex Machina – With his brainchild Devs currently blowing minds on FX, it’s cool that we can look back on writer and director Alex Garland’s first official time behind the camera, the techno-thriller Ex Machina starring Domnhall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander. For those who don’t know, the film follows a young programmer who is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I. created by his recluse employer. The movie, released five years ago this week, earned Vikander the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and was meticulously crafted in every way, these three actors working so incredibly well of each other. It may seem grandiose to say but this is among my favorite sci-fi films ever made and it continues to blow my mind every time I watch it.

Television:

Middleditch & Schwartz (Netflix) – Capturing three nights of their North American tour, this show gives you the brilliance of comedic actors Thomas Middleditch, a native of Nelson, British Columbia, and Ben Schwartz as they do hour-long shows completely made up on the spot with just a few suggestions from the audience. With the kick-off episode entitled Parking Lot Wedding, the pure brilliance of these two is fully on display as I was laughing my butt off from beginning to end. The callbacks, memory gaffs and motions to the audience all combine to hopefully elevate the hilarious improv that these two pull off. I definitely want more episodes added as three doesn’t feel anywhere close to enough.

The Willoughbys (Netflix) – An animated film without the backing of a huge company like Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks or Illumination, I hadn’t heard of this movie until it landed o my pre-screening row on the Netflix bar and I have to say that I was completely blown away by it. Featuring a great voice cast including Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, Terry Crews and Ricky Gervais, this movie follows the Willoughby children, a quartet of kids that are convinced they’d be better off raising themselves and hatch a sneaky plan to send their selfish parents on vacation or death, whatever comes first. This is a movie that hilariously hugs the line fo being darkly comedic and a sweetheart story that is bursting with rainbows. So many moments had me laughing so hard and the fact that Gervais narrates as the neighborhood cat is just the cherry on this sundae.

After Life: Season 2 (Netflix) – Whenever I hear the name Ricky Gervais I am automatically interested, especially in series form, as this is the man who brought us The Office, Extras and Derek, plus the countless other things he has been a part of. This series might be my favorite he has ever done as it comes from deep in the heart and soul but sheds away the humanity of saying whatever the hell you want to people and, although it looks like it will play on some heavier themes like his last one, I think it has broad appeal. The series follows a man that goes from Mr. Nice Guy to social terror with a don’t give a shit attitude when his wife dies. A good cast around Gervais with The Strain’s David Bradley playing his father, It’s All Gone Pete Tong’s Paul Kaye as his therapist and his Extras co-star Ashley Jensen as his father’s caretaker.

Extraction (Netflix) – Chris Hemsworth leads this film that was produced from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame filmmaker’s The Russo Brothers limited comic series Ciudad, a phenomenal book. Led by new director Sam Hargraves, this is the story of a black market mercenary named Tyler Rake who is employed to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord in an extraction that is definitely a suicide mission. This movie is pulse-pounding action from start to finish with bloody violence, bullets flying, explosions booming and fight scenes that will quicken your heart rate. This movie kicks ass almost constantly and I loved every second. If you dig movies like John Wick, you will love the hell out of this one.

Circus Of Books (Netflix) – Yes, I’m bringing a documentary yet again this week but the subject matter on this one is so interesting I couldn’t resist. Produced by Ryan Murphy, this is the story of Karen and Barry Mason who, in 1976 Los Angeles, had fallen on hard times and were looking for a way to support their young family. They answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times for Larry Flynt who was seeking distributors for Hustler Magazine which led to their becoming fully immersed in the LGBT community as they took over a local store, Circus of Books. A decade after that they had become the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US and the community grew immensely for years after that. This documentary is a sweet human interest story that has a great message to it and some loveable people at the center. This is one of my favorite releases this week.

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Apr 16

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April 16, 2020

Blu-Ray:

Just Mercy – Short Term 12 director Destin Daniel Cretin returns to form after The Glass Castle with this well-acted true story about civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard law school graduate who moved from Delaware to Alabama to give death row inmates proper legal representation, played in this film by Michael B. Jordan. I really thought awards season was definitely going to contain talk of this movie after getting its wide release and not just for Jordan who turns in another great performance but for Jamie Foxx who gives a blistering portrayal of a wrongly convicted small-town Alabama man that was made a target by a brutal sheriff in his county. I will say that this is a powerful movie that maybe didn’t need the additional character played by Brie Larson who just seems a bit lost in the shuffle. I enjoyed this when I saw it at the film festival and it still holds up half a year later.

Underwater – Being buried in the first month of the year, any horror or action movie is usually something the studios want to bury as they’re generally not very good and that’s what happened to this one. Hell, we didn’t even get it here in Penticton. The story is about a crew of aquatic researchers who have a desperate struggle to get to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory but, worse than that, something has been released from the cracks underwater that starts to pick them off one by one. So, let’s get this out of the way. Yes, it’s got Kristen Stewart in it and, yes, I’m a big fan of her post-Twilight work, hate me for it if you want. The movie was directed by William Eubanks who made the awesome sci-fi thriller The Signal, a film I stumbled upon and absolutely fell in love with and this movie is satisfying on the level of “Hey, I’d love to see a sort of mash-up between The Abyss and Alien” which it kind of ends up being. The creature design looks really cool and I will take scowling KStew in a tough as nails survival film any day. Enjoy this one for what it is.

Hell On The Border – This is one of those movies that duped me in so many ways and I didn’t realize my error until a half-hour into it. The film is a western, boasting the stars Ron Perlman and Frank Grillo who also acts as an executive producer on it. The story has Cloud Atlas actor David Gyasi playing Bass Reeves, a black man that finds himself deputized as the first of his race to be deputy marshal west of Mississippi and was the basis of The Lone Ranger. Sounds interesting but everything about this movie is terrible. The acting is awful, the direction is aimless, te blocking is truly dreadful and the music comes in with early 80s television-quality at the absolute worst times. This was a total chore to work my way through but I did it so I could tell you not to do the same. This is a horrible shame of a western that needs to be forgotten.

Final Kill – The easy give away of the calibre of this action thriller should have been immediate when the main notable star of it is former UFC champion Randy Couture because I really have no idea who Ed Morrone and after watching this, I don’t care to. The plot follows Morrone as an ageing protection specialist who takes on one last job before retirement, protecting a couple who stole eight million dollars from a ruthless crime family. The saving grace of this movie is the few scenes that feature a scenery-chewing Billy Zane but everything else is just corny tough-guy bravado talk followed by totally goofy action sequences that feel lazy and thrown together. Damn, this is kind of a rough week for new releases.

Chichinette: The Accidental Spy – A fascinating documentary about an astounding human being I hadn’t known about beforehand, this film gives insight into a woman with a strong resolve and one whose actions were pivotal for the fight against Nazi Germany, one she waged from within the belly of the beast. Told in snippets as she makes her way across Europe giving speeches about her experience, Marthe Cohn tells her remarkable story, fighting against the Nazis as a spy in the French Army during World War II. At the time of filming her tour and interviews, Marthe, which she implicitly tells the audience is pronounced “Mart”, now is just celebrating her 100th birthday this week and is still feisty with a dry sense of humor and a need to still educate and deliver a message. This was a short but wholly enjoyable documentary that told a brave tale.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek-Out:

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project – This is a fascinating documentary about a driven obsession with information through the visual media of televised news. Marion Stokes was an activist being groomed to become a communist leader in America who decided that her crusade would be to expose the truth of unfiltered media in what could be assembled into a comprehensive library of documented history. With everything that is currently going on in America and the media, this movie is an engrossing look at the path that led us to this point with Stokes herself making some very bold predictions of the future back in the 1970s that are chillingly coming to fruition today. A great movie for documentary fans.

Television:

Chris D’Elia: No Pain (Netflix) – One of my favorite stand up comedians of the last decade returns with a brand new set that I seriously can’t miss and will chase away your quarantine blues. This show, recorded in Indianapolis, Indiana, has D’Elia coming to grips with the notion that improving as a stand-up comedian is making him a worse human being in public, his vendetta against a mall baby and the fact that he had too much of a good upbringing to capitalize on any hardships for comedy. D’Elia’s comedy always feels so directly relatable which is one of the main reasons I always laugh to the point of hurting myself every time I watch one of his sets. So, I guess the title is a lie because there will be some pain.

Outer Banks (Netflix) – A brand new mystery for the tweens and twenty-somethings to get behind, this show centers around a group of teenagers in the beach vacation destination of the Outer Banks of North Carolina known not so affectionately as “The Pogues” and I don’t mean the Irish band. A hurricane descends on the town and in the wreckage, this group discovers a sunken boat that contains clues to the possible existence of buried treasure. With corrupt police, slimy business owners and ruthless gangsters on their trail, the intrigue is really well told in this show that, honestly, wouldn’t have a lot of eyes on it if it weren’t for this lockdown. I’m really enjoying it so far but I can’t say there is any star of note in it.

The Innocence Files (Netflix) – True crimes docuseries have been the hotness everyone has been raving about on Netflix for a few years now and although it doesn’t have the trashy allure of Tiger King, I really feel like this series should be on peoples radars. Told in three hour-long episodes, this series details the personal stories behind eight cases of wrongful convictions that the Innocence Project and organizations within the Innocence Network have worked to highlight and overturn. The set up to this show is brilliant, as the first episode covers the wrongful conviction of two black Mississippi residents who are thrown into life sentences on the shakiest of evidence. This show with have you shaking your head in disbelief over how the justice system can be so flawed that basic logic has been thrown out the window in favor of opinion. Riveting stuff.

#blackAF (Netflix) – A massive rising star behind the scenes, Kenya Barris is a name that may be a little unfamiliar to you but you have guaranteed seen or heard of his work. The creator of shows like Blackish and the two spinoffs, producer of Girls Trip and other films and the main executive on the Tyra Banks reality show America’s Next Top Model, this show has Barris going the mockumentary route with his “family” as the series has his daughter trying to document her family as a video application for NYU. The show has that definite Curb Your Enthusiasm quality as Barris constantly struggles with the notion of being rich, famous and black with the various pitfalls there. The highlight of this show is without a doubt Rashida Jones who plays his enabling wife. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.

What We Do In The Shadows: Season 2 (FX) – Following up a hilarious movie with the first season of a heavily anticipated series that delivered on all levels, we have been not so patiently waiting for the return of our favorite vampire roommates. Created by the star of the original film, Jemaine Clement, this show follows a different cast, led by the brilliant Kayvon Novak and one of my favorite current British comedic actors Matt Berry, the story simply follows three vampires and their night lives living on Staten Island, their home for a century. This is by far one of the most clever new comedies on television and their return is so welcome at this crazy and unpredictable time.

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Apr 9

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April 9, 2020

New to VOD:

Trolls: World Tour – One of the release casualties of COVID-19, this animated sequel is getting the “direct into you home for the kids” treatment, almost like Universal is now giving back to the base demographic in these tough times. I fully expect there to be another Justin Timberlake song like “Can’t Stop The Feeling” for the kids to dance all over the living room but as a rock and metal guy myself I kind of love that the villains for this movie are the “Rock n Roll Trolls” bent on obtaining all of the magical musical strings to make everything rock forever. It doesn’t seem like a problem to me but in this world, it would mean the destruction of everything, whatever. A great voice cast in this one includes the returning Anna Kendrick along with JT, Ron Funches and Kunaal Nayar as well as the additions of Rachel Bloom, Sam Rockwell, Ozzy Osbourne and more. I really hope this is fun.

She’s Allergic To Cats – I’m all for seeing messed up movies, a big part of cinema I enjoy, and experimental cinema can really be hit or miss but I have to say that this one tossed me through a loop and not in a good way. The film is about a struggling filmmaker who moves to Los Angeles to pursue the dream but finds himself instead working a dead-end job as a dog groomer and living in a dingy rat-infested apartment. Things start to spiral out of reality when he wins the affection of the girl of his dreams, putting all of his hopes into their first date, just the beginning of their collective nightmare. This movie was a total fail for me, the narrative tissue of the story being almost nonexistent and they didn’t even seem to know how to end it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the supporting madness from comedian Flula Borg I would have zero accolades to praise this for.

Why Don’t You Just Die? – In my experience with modern Russian cinema a lot of it is over the top hyper frenetic and in your face from start to finish and with a title like this, you know it fits right into that category easily. The set up is simple, a man knocks on the door of a ruthlessly violent police detective bent on bludgeoning him to death with a hammer he is concealing behind his back. Why? Because the detective’s daughter had told this man, her boyfriend, that her father abused her and, well, that’s just the tip of the twists that cascade from the start. Bloody and absolutely off the rails, this movie is not for the faint of heart at all and hits Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino like crescendos and then tops them like breaking through a glass ceiling. This movie is totally relentless and I really loved it for going so balls out.

Blu-Ray:

Little Women – Louise May Alcott’s book is an iconic story that has been read to many and adapted a few times as well, three times in the last twenty-five years to be precise, including this one. So, why is Greta Gerwig’s version of this story so important? It’s because Gerwig seems to encapsulate the consistent marginalization and generic rut of the female species and show it as the handcuffing of personal growth, free-thinking and creation that it really is. Featuring a stellar cast including Saorise Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Timothee Chalamet and Tracy Letts, this feels like the definitive screen version of the story, a beautifully created piece of cinema that shows the growth of Greta as a filmmaker between Lady Bird to now while her cast brings such life to a wonderful script, in one of my favorite ensembles from last year.

Dolittle – Its been a long time coming for this brand new version of the Rex Harrison classic and unlike the Eddie Murphy version and its sequel the producers went with a more traditional route. Starring the charismatic Robert Downey Jr. in the title role, the basic story is then you remember it, as it follows the veterinarian with the ability to speak to animals as he comes out of a state of deep seclusion after the death of his wife to save the Queen by retrieving a mythical cure for her ailment. This would be an interesting film as it comes from Syriana writer and director Stephen Gaghan who steps out of his gritty wheelhouse to do the same on this family film, shot by Pan’s Labyrinth cinematographer Guillermo Navarro but the movie is a horrendous mess in every way with zero redeemable qualities. It reeks of producers arguing over the plot, shoehorning in weird modern lines and a meandering final vision with a performance from Robert Downey Jr. that feels completely nuts and terrible in execution. For the first act of the movie I thought he was being dubbed by someone else and then I couldn’t tell if his accent was Scottish, Welsh or Jamaican. This is a true waste of time, don’t do it.

Cats – Speaking of don’t do it, this horrifying mess is now available. For those who don’t know, this terrifying-looking movie is another Andrew Lloyd Webber original musical getting the big-screen treatment for who knows what reason. Yes, I get that we would have people skipping around in cat-like leotards if it weren’t for the CG look but oh man is the final result unsettling. The cast is a huge ensemble that features Idris Elba, Dame Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson, Jennifer Hudson and, yes, the main attraction is probably Taylor Swift in her film debut but this feels bloated, expensive and massively unnecessary throughout its hour and forty minutes run time and if I hadn’t watched it with my wife, constantly riffing like we were on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I don’t think I would have survived. I have heard the word “Jellicle” way too many times and it offends me now.

Camp Cold Brook – Coming from the Scream Factory side of the Shout Factory system, this movie feels like a lampooning of those inane ghost hunter shows that appear on the Discovery Channel or History network but it plays kind of well as if has the cynicism of creating this type of programming hanging above its head. Chad Michael Murray plays the host and producer of one of these types of shows who promises the biggest show in the history of the program when he is threatened with cancellation. This leads him and his crew to Camp Cold Brook, a summer camp that has been abandoned after a tragedy killed many of the kids and counsellors years earlier. The formula is kind of obvious but it mostly works and it has child actress turned scream queen Danielle Harris in it, although the low budget is woefully on display.

The Night Clerk – Tye Sheridan has been a star on the rise if you are looking in the right spot and, yes, the big-budget film involvements like Cyclops in the X-Men franchise or the lead in Spielberg’s Ready Player One didn’t get as much good attention as it should’ve, but Tree Of Life, Mud and Joe paved the way to get these roles. This new film has him in a proper role as well as playing the lead, a hotel clerk who suffers from severe Asberger’s Syndrome and has a voyeuristic penchant for recording the guest’s rooms which lands him in trouble when a woman is murdered in her room. Featuring a solid cast including Helen Hunt John Leguizamo and Knives Out actress Ana De Armas, I really enjoyed this film as a solid character tale and Sheridan is so great in it. I’m excited to watch his career evolve.

Madam Secretary: The Final Season – From what felt like a very divisive premise meant to almost be a sort of love letter to the Secretary of State at the time, Hillary Rodham Clinton, this show evolved past its thin feeling premise to be a show that actually had some merit to it, tackled some real-world politics and actually had a voice with something to say beyond political statements. Starring Tea Leoni as the lead character, the show started with her character being shoved into the position as a favor to the current president, played by one of my favorites, Keith Carradine. The premise has her trying to balance her work life with her family life which includes her husband, played by Tim Daly, and her smart college-age daughter and two younger kids and all the scandal she needs to protect them and herself from. Now that this show has come to an end it’s a good time to catch up with it on CBS All Access, free now for sixty days.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Salesman – This one has me feeling a bit melancholy as it is probably the last Criterion Collection film that I will receive for the foreseeable future as the company’s offices in New York City, so hopefully everyone is safe there. This is quite the film to take a hiatus on though, a joint effort by three different directors, master filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, crafting this documentary about four relentless door to door salesmen and the constant rejection, homesickness and inevitable burnout as they go across the country selling very expensive bibles to low-income Catholic families. A fascinating look into one of the older professions in twentieth-century America, this comes from a place of experience as both Maysles brothers worked in the profession themselves.

The Passion Of Darkly Noon – Another deep cut from Arrow Video, reaching back to the mid-nineties for this film starring Brendan Fraser, Ashley Judd and Viggo Mortensen and, just for context, this would be at the height of popularity for Fraser, the same year as Heat for Judd and the same year Viggo played Lucifer in The Prophecy. This is a mysterious film that follows an abandoned man who drifts into the woods after the deaths of his strict and religious parents. Discovered by a trucker and his wife who live in the forest, they take him in and the action starts a deadly sexual obsession in the young man’s mind that starts to drive him insane. After watching this film, I’m really surprised that this is the first I’m hearing about it as I thought it was fascinating and well-acted. It also comes from writer and director Philip Ridley who does have a huge body of work but has made interesting films like Heartless in 2009.

Television:

Brews Brothers (Netflix) – An example of the lower budget side of Netflix and the inclusiveness of its programming, this show is definitely not something that will appeal to a wide audience but those who love things like Super Troopers and the like will definitely find the humor. The story follows a man who’s craft brewery is facing tough times due to his indecisive nature and bad marketing with his line of beers leading him to reunite with his nemesis, his own brother, for an attempt to sell a large batch of beer to a rich restauranteur. There are no stars of note besides guest star Steve Rannazzisi from The League playing the client to impress but the chemistry is good and even though all of the jokes don’t land there are some real gems in there. It’s a quick watch but I enjoyed it.

Tigertail (Netflix) – Parks and Recreation producer and Master Of None co-creator Alan Yang makes his feature directorial debut with this movie that he wrote as well. Starring Vancouver based actor Tzi Ma, this movie moves through the life of Grover, a Taiwanese born American citizen who is going through the motions of grieving for his recently deceased mother, the template for the man he became, a former factory worker who achieved the immigrant’s dream. This lineage has been passed onto his daughter, a life long overachiever who now wants to follow her heart more than what is expected of her. The performances in this film are powerfully felt through how muted they are in what they aren’t saying and Tzi Ma shoulders the majority of it beautifully. Also, as a Twin Peaks fan, it was an incredible treat to see Joan Chen in this movie.

Love Wedding Repeat (Netflix) – Something totally unexpected, I had no idea that this was a comedy I needed right now. Written and directed by the guy who brought us the hilarious Death At A Funeral in 2007, Dean Craig, this is another farce comedy about the wedding of a young woman to her Italian fiance in a picturesque location in Italy that is teetering on the edge of completely falling apart if her brother can’t keep all the moving pieces from ruining everything. Featuring a stellar ensemble cast including Sam Claflin, Olivia Munn, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aisling Bea and Joel Fry, this movie had me laughing hard from start to finish. Start your weekend right with this comedy, trust me.

The Main Event (Netflix) – The theme of this week seems to be WWE collaborations with Netflix as The Big Show Show debuted earlier this week but this one is a series featuring many of the current WWE and NXT roster members. The story is about an eleven-year-old boy named Mason who discovers a magical luchador mask that grants him strength and unbelievable skill. So, what does he do with that? He obviously becomes a WWE superstar just as you thought he would! This movie looks lame but for a wrestling nerd like myself, I will watch it just so I can see stars like The Miz, Beth Phoenix, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston and more. Yes, I’m a mark but at least I own it.

The Good Fight: Season 4 (CBS All Access) – I definitely consider myself a fan of the CBS series The Good Wife, a show that got me from the get-go with great characters and compelling storylines so when it was announced that a spin-off would be made with big wig partner Diane Lockhart leading the way I was excited and I think this show has satisfied in every way. The show picked up where the other series left off, Diane readying for retirement when her investment banker is arrested for fraud and she is left penniless. Now years in at her new firm, she is just as ruthless as you remember but the supporting cast of Delroy Lindo, Audra MacDonald and Game Of Thrones alum Rose Leslie this show is stellar with that same character work as well as making good use of the no rules CBS All Access platform. It may go heavy on the anti-Trump message, which may turn other viewers off with its heavy hand, but I totally love it.

Your Guide To Self Isolation – Apr 3

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April 3, 2020

As heard on The J’Lyn Nye Show on 630 CHED in Edmonton, here’s a breakdown of the things to get you through at least the weekend!

Television:

Ozark: Season 3 (Netflix) – This is definitely a hugely anticipated new season, especially now during the lockdown, and it returns with one of the most explosive and fast-paced episodes yet. In case you haven’t dug into the show yet, Jason Bateman plays Marty Byrde, a financial advisor in Chicago who is unknowingly been fudging numbers for the cartel, something his business partner hasn’t clued him in on until the finality of being murdered in from of him by the leader of this deadly group. A quick thinker under pressure Marty is able to convince him to spare his life by moving to the remote Ozarks to clean millions for his new boss, presenting an all-new set of problems for him, his wife who is played by the great Laura Linney and his two kids. The show is so phenomenally well done and Bateman himself directs a handful of episodes. Highly recommended if you have immersed yourself in it yet.

Dark Side Of The Ring: Season 2 (Vice) – Vice continues their look into an industry that I have a deep love for, and always have, professional wrestling. Beyond that, this season focuses on a log misunderstood and tragic happening in the mid 2000s, the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family. Narrated by close friend Chris Jericho, widely regarded as the greatest of all time, this series will dispel the rumors and myths that have been attributed to this case as well as shine a light on the possible causes of Benoit’s psychosis that leg to this horrifying act. I’m so happy to see this available on YouTube and am deep in the binge already myself. Totally recommended even if you aren’t a wrestling fan.

Devs (FX) – Coming from the mind of one of the greatest science fiction writers via grounded and real science, Alex Garland running a limited series is really going to turn some heads and from what I’ve seen so far this could be one of the best shows we get this year. The series centers around Lily, a computer engineer who starts an investigation into the secretive development department within her employer when her boyfriend, a fellow employee, disappears. The lead star, Sonoya Mizuno, isn’t exactly a household name, aside from some great work on Cary Fukanaga’s Netflix show Maniac but the mystery of Nick Offerman’s character as the CEO Forest should have everyone watching this.

Feel Good: Season 1 (Netflix) – In a lighter way but heavier on the addiction side, this new series reminds me a bit of Fleabag but without that great Phoebe Waller-Bridge edge. The show is about stand up comedian Mae Martin, a Canadian transplant now living in London. When a regular audience member asks her out on a date, Mae finds herself on a whirlwind romance with the girl of her dreams until the crushing reality of her addiction problem comes to light. This show is definitely a sardonically funny show about damaged people and really revels in it in a great way. I hadn’t heard of Martin before this show but now I’m pretty keen on checking out a full set.

Tiger King (Netflix) – This is one of those too crazy to be true stories but I will let you know right now, it’s all true and I know someone who knows someone that knows this guy. I know! Crazy! This is a docuseries about a gonzo rivalry between big cat eccentrics that takes a dark turn when Joe Exotic, a controversial animal park boss with a glorious blond mullet that would make Hulk Hogan and Dog The Bounty Hunter shake in their boots, is caught in a murder-for-hire plot. This show will make you slackjawed in amazement that people like this actually exist. I felt myself giggling and laughing throughout this bat shit show and I know it has caught on with the world because it is everywhere you look. I highly recommend it!

Westworld: Season 3 (HBO) – After a two year absence we finally get the next piece of this incredible mysterious show that emanated from a 70s Michael Crichton movie. The favorites are all back including Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores, Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard and Thandie Newton’s Maeve as well as newcomers Aaron Paul and Kid Cudi but what is this season about? Well, showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are keeping everything secretive but what we do know is that Bernard and Dolores have been rebuilt outside of the facility so we get to see what this future looks like and I am damn excited for that.

The Plot Against America (HBO) – In a time of heightened and emboldened racism in the U.S. and, heck, around the world, we get this brand new “what if” historical drama from one of the great creators of television today, HBO. Starring Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan, John Turturro and more, this series follows an alternate timeline America that lives in a world that saw Roosevelt defeated in the 1940 race for presidency by Charles Lindbergh, a man who has strengthened ties to Nazi Germany. A six-episode limited series, this show has great creators behind the camera with The West Wing’s Thomas Schlamme directing the lion’s share and The Wire’s David Simon and Edward Burns writing it. This could be the best miniseries of 2020 so I’d give it a look.

Dirty Money: Season 2 (Netflix) – Master documentarian Alex Gibney’s executive produced docuseries returns for another series of episodes that will raise your blood pressure and have you screaming at your television before directing angry tweets at big businesses. Just me? I doubt it. This series takes aim at corporate frauds that are designed to milk excessive amounts of money out of the general public and largely the lower class. Season one took on scandals like Volkswagen’s “clean” diesel and the gross empire of payday loan companies and this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an important series to binge through, trust me.

I Am Not Okay With This: Season 1 (Netflix) – It Chapter 1 and 2 stars Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff reunite for this new teen series that has the actress playing a teenaged outcast trying to navigate her life of high school cliques, two-faced friends, potential love interests and a complex family life. Things spiral even more for her when she realizes that she isn’t just dealing with the pitfalls of puberty changing her body but she also has new and unexplained powers to contend with. Coming from the producers of Stranger Things, I dug into this series right away because the angsty nature of the writing really appealed to me and I love creator Jonathan Entwistle’s previous work, The End Of The Fucking World.

Hunters: Season 1 (Amazon Prime) – Jordan Peele executive produces this new show that has a secret group of people who are dedicated to hunting down Nazi war criminals in the seventies and I am so very excited to check it out, something I have been waiting for ever since I saw the first trailer. The cast is phenomenal, led by the Academy Award-winning Al Pacino and featuring Fury’s Logan Lerman, Lena Olin, How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor and more, this might be that new Amazon series that catches fire like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or Jack Ryan. Don’t quote me on this but the show looks awesome enough to hook a large audience.

Movies:

Slay The Dragon (VOD) – During this time of self-containment and quarantine, it’s a time where we are binge-watching all different television series and catching u on movies but it is also an opportunity to learn and expand our minds which is exactly what this documentary did for me. The film tells the story of the Voters Not Politicians party that was started in Michigan for the express purpose of ending gerrymandering in America, a political strategy of grouping voters into districts that would ensure victories for the Republican Party GOP. I learned some of the basics of this democracy shredding act on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver but this film brings it home in a way that shows how this directly affects every working American and the generations to come. In my opinion, this is a massively important film that should be mandatory in the education of the whole nation especially heading into an election.

Vivarium (VOD) – This movie is totally something geared to my twisted likes as it feels like one of those nightmare Twilight Zone episodes and I ate up every second of it. Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg star as Gemma and Tom, a sweetheart couple looking to purchase their first home together. Stepping into a condo sales store, they have a very unsettling meeting with a salesman who implores them to get in their car to follow him to the neighborhood itself. Guided into a disturbingly uniform community that looks like it was designed on a computer, the salesman disappears, abandoning them in a maze of condos they can’t leave and that’s just the setup. Poots’ performance in this film is astounding as she starts to crumble with the reality around her and the direction from Lorcan Finnegan is fantastically striking all the way up until the end. This may be a total niche movie but I thoroughly loved it.

The Hunt (VOD) – The movie that got the right all riled up before anyone had ever seen a single frame of it finally gets its release day after getting removed in September of last year and the ad campaign seems to be taking advantage of that as its tagline is “The Most Talked About Movie of the Year is One That No One’s Actually Seen”. Perfect. The movie stars GLOW’s Betty Gilpin, Blockers’ Ike Barinholtz and a slimed down Ethan Suplee in a story about twelve strangers who wake up bound and gagged in a clearing, the fodder for a manhunt in which the rich elite will kill each of them for sport. Kind of like a big version of the Ice-T action flick Surviving The Game from the mid-nineties, Compliance director Craig Zobel’s latest seemed to tickle the offended nature of the Fox News crowd and I doubted that we’d ever see it.

The Invisible Man (VOD) – The Dark Universe from Universal Pictures may have died a dismal death after the failure of Tom Cruise’s The Mummy but from the ashes of that mess this property was floated over to Blumhouse and they put filmmaker Leigh Whannell, one-half of the minds behind Saw, at the helm of it and the final result is absolutely fantastic. Elisabeth Moss stars as the survivor of an abusive relationship who believes the news of her ex’s suicide is a hoax and this is reinforced when she realizes that she is being hunted by an unseen force. This movie is awesome, thrilling, unpredictable and always able to get under your skin by simply panning over to an “empty” side of the room. Whannell is quickly rising up the ranks of must-see filmmakers and it is so deserved.

Onward (Disney+) – Disney and Pixar are back with their next most likely award-nominated feature, pairing the very likeable duo of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in the lead roles. Set in a world where fantasy elements like orcs, gnomes, unicorns and other mythical creatures exist in a modern world, this story follows two brothers who find a mysterious magical staff that belonged to their late father. After a spell cast through the staff resurrects the bottom half of Dad, they must embark on an adventure to find the real magic still remaining on the world to bring their family back together. This movie is really funny and has some great world-building, as Pixar needs a new franchise to put its hat on, and the heart of this story is displayed prominently on its sleeve. The whole family is going to love this movie and it definitely needs a rewatch for all of the “easter eggs” to be found.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (VOD) – I really wish I had seen this movie at the Vancouver International Film Festival or at least before the end of the year as it definitely would have made my “Best of 2019” list because this movie is an absolutely astounding film and has a final scene that will resonate with me cinematically for the rest of my life. The film takes place at the end of the eighteenth century and follows Marianne, a painter employed to do a portrait of the daughter of a rich aristocrat. As the sessions go on, the two women fall in love with each other, a forbidden secret that could destroy both of their lives. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel are incredible together in this film, a clinic in how just one glance can say volumes.

Daniel Isn’t Real (Shudder) – Coming from director Adam Egypt Mortimer, the filmmaker who did the highly entertaining “New Year’s Eve” segment of the anthology film Holidays, this movie is one I’m hearing some great buzz about. Based on a novel of the same name, this film is about a troubled college freshman who suffers a violent family trauma and brings back his childhood imaginary friend Daniel as a coping mechanism. The film stars Halloween and Blockers actor Miles Robbins as the lead character, Patrick Schwarzenegger as the title character and the great Sasha Lane in a supporting role and is just the kind of genre film that intrigues me greatly. The movie is described as a slick mind twist of a thriller that is well pieced together and totally stylish.

This Is The End (Crave) – Probably a little dark to bring a movie like this at a time like now but it’s one of the greatest satire comedies ever made in my opinion, taking pretty much everyone you’ve ever loved that worked for Judd Apatow and a few others and throws those actors into a global apocalypse playing themselves. There really is nothing better than that. Our main group of Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride all find themselves partying at James Franco’s house when holes in the earth start opening up and people start falling to their deaths in hell leading this sextet on a mission of survival as the last stragglers on Earth. I saw this movie twice in theaters so I definitely had to pic this blu-ray up which features commentary, alternate lines and a gag reel which is gold from these guys but, hey, it is streaming for everyone else!

Mustang (Criterion Channel) – One of the greatest international films from the last decade, this is a movie that is begging to be seen and heard. Guaranteed to drain every tear out of your body, as it did a friend of mine who I brought to the original screening, this is the story of five orphaned Turkish girls who are sold off in marriage by their guardians. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking film of sisterhood and the destruction of innocence, a movie that will leave its mark on you like a belt lashing. This movie was nominated for an Oscar but ultimately lost to Son Of Saul in a year of incredibly tough competition. The release was bobbled badly here in Canada so this is a great opportunity to check it out.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix) – I have made it no secret that I adore everything Aardman puts out. Just like Laika Studios, their films have an original charm to them that I love on a consistent level and I know that extends to my kids as well because every time I put on one of the movies they are immediately captivated. One of the favorites is Shaun The Sheep, the television series being a big hit and that last movie is absolutely adorable. Now we get the return to the big screen of Shaun and his farm friends, this time the gang encountering an alien with amazing powers who crash-lands at their home and pushes everyone to go on a mission to shepherd the intergalactic visitor home before a sinister organization can capture her. This is exactly everything the trailer sets it up to be, nothing more, nothing less, but damn it looks enjoyable.

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Apr 2

stevestebbing

no comments

April 2, 2020

New on VOD:

Slay The Dragon – During this time of self-containment and quarantine, it’s a time where we are binge-watching all different television series and catching u on movies but it is also an opportunity to learn and expand our minds which is exactly what this documentary did for me. The film tells the story of the Voters Not Politicians party that was started in Michigan for the express purpose of ending gerrymandering in America, a political strategy of grouping voters into districts that would ensure victories for the Republican Party GOP. I learned some of the basics of this democracy shredding act on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver but this film brings it home in a way that shows how this directly affects every working American and the generations to come. In my opinion, this is a massively important film that should be mandatory in the education of the whole nation especially heading into an election.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always – After the infuriatingly blind and misinformed faith-based film Unplanned was released last year and then screened by churches for most of 2019, I’m really happy to see this new movie, produced by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, getting its release even if it is only directly to video on demand. The story follows Autumn, a rural Pennsylvania teen who is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, a secret she keeps from her family and something which is only known to her best friend. With her help, the two take a trip to New York City to an abortion clinic and find more maturing in their lives as they are left to live off of the streets for the time they are in the Big Apple. Both actresses, Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder are phenomenal in this film and keep the story so grounded in reality which definitely comes from writer and director Eliza Hittman who astounded me years ago with her film Beach Rats. This is a fantastic film and I hope it gets some love in its release.

Blu-Ray:

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker – The end to the whole original saga, one that has almost formed a new religion since it’s inception in 1977, is finally available for us to watch in the comfort of our own quarantines and has taken us on a total emotional journey as part of the fandom and the new movies have definitely divided us. Say what you want about Rian Johnson’s previous installment The Last Jedi, a movie I very much enjoyed, but now J.J Abrams and the cast are sort of throwing him under the bus a bit to appease the slighted fans and it really bothers me that the creator solidarity isn’t there. That said, there are pieces I enjoy in this movie and the rewatch has opened up brand new things to me but I’m ultimately still feeling like the easy route was taken and after ambitious movements that The Last Jedi had taken, this movie moves back into a predictable rut.

The Current War: Director’s Cut – Coming off such a loved film like Me, Earl And The Dying Girl, a movie that had critics and audiences in agreement about how thoroughly charming it was, a lot of people were wondering what director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon would do next and the battle for the patent of the lightbulb I’m sure wasn’t on anyone’s list but here we are. Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon play Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, two of the innovators of electricity who were in an escalating war to get their products into the World’s Fair first. Think about the war between Microsoft and Apple and you have a good idea of what this looks like. Honestly, it’s a good thing that Gome-Rejon makes this movie so dynamic and interesting to look at, using It cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung’s eye-popping work, because the story feels painfully dull above both actor’s impeccable character work and yes, Edison is just as unlikeable as you think he is. Also, I’m unsure of why “director’s cut” is so implicitly stated as I’ve seen no other cut of this movie in circulation.

The Assent – Some exorcism horror for your at-home viewing hits the shelves this week with this film starring Pacific Rim’s Robert Kazinsky and a usual John Carpenter staple, the greatly underrated Peter Jason. Kazinsky plays the single father of a young boy that is both struggling to make ends meet and is faltering mentally with the day to day struggle. When he feels an ominous presence in his house that starts to appear in his son, he begins to believe that a malevolent danger is set to destroy his little family and this causes him to turn to a trained exorcist, enter Peter Jason. This movie oozes atmosphere and has great production design and incredibly creepy creature effects which keeps everything on track even if it feels a bit cliched and predictable. Kazinsky’s descent into despair has all the great qualities of a Lovecraftian madness and Jason chews the scenery in such a solid way that I really found myself enjoying this and even got caught by a couple of jump scares.

Munster, Go Home! – Taking another classic kooky and spooky television comedy family’s big-screen debut and throwing it to those geniuses at Shout Factory for an all-new collector’s edition, I can now introduce my family to the Munsters, the iconic monster brood with Ed Gwynne as the patriarch, Herman Munster, a Frankenstein’s creature as well as the loving father of a werewolf son and Lily, who I’m not sure what she and her mom were supposed to be. Vampires? Anyways, this is the 1966 movie that was made which sent Herman and the family to England when he discovers he’s the new Lord of the Munster Hall leading to classic television antics in a whole new environment. I used to watch the show all the time as a kid so I feel really nostalgic about this one.

Tommy Boy – One of the greatest comedies of all time celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this week and gets the great honor of being the newest Paramount steelbook, a glorious way to collect blu-rays. Starring one of the best comedic duos ever, Chris Farley and David Spade, this movie, if you didn’t know, follows the fat and lazy son of an auto parts tycoon who teams up with a bitchy accountant to go on a cross country trip to save the company after his dad passes away. Farley and Spade are so iconic in this movie and Rob Lowe, the Saturday Night Live movie resident bad guy, is so great and villainous in this film, doing it all for the love of Tommy’s stepmom, Bo Derek. This is one of my favorite movies of the 90s and one that still makes me laugh hysterically every time and, to be honest, that’s exactly what we need right now.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Lost In America – Without anything being sent to me on the regular like usual, I have to rely on different ways to pick my geek-outs and anniversary films are an easy pick and I love that I’m starting out with this Albert Brooks classic. Co-starring Airplane’s Julie Haggerty as his wife, the two play a couple in their thirties that decide to quit their jobs on a whim and drive their Winnebago across America to realize the quintessential American dream. Directed and written by Brooks, this hilarious film turns thirty-five this week and it is available on a beautiful Criterion edition that was released during the summer of 2017.

Tank Girl – One of my favorite movies of the 90s for totally cult reasons, this movie was made in a time that comic book adaptations were a total gamble and were basically hated by studios. Enter Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare’s director Rachel Talalay and lead star Lori Petty to take on Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett’s post-apocalyptic madness into this brash and colorful action film that is crazy fun from start to finish and totally pulpy the whole way. Unfortunately, streaming services haven’t locked this movie down yet but there is a beautiful blu-ray and DVD combo that Shout Factory put out in 2013 that is available to order and I highly recommend it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Now that we’re all in lockdown with the family and kids it’s a great opportunity to show them all the nostalgic things from your childhood including this classic from 1990, a live-action big-screen version of one of the greatest Saturday morning cartoons ever made in my opinion. This is the first of two times they got the Ninja Turtles correct, Judith Hoag was a great April O’Neal and Elias Koteas is the best and most badass Casey Jones that we have seen, all apologies to Stephen Amell who was decent in Out Of The Shadows. The great news is that this and the two sequels are in a blu-ray three-pack easily available on Amazon.

While We’re Young – Now after all the attention around the Netflix released Noah Baumbach film Marriage Story has died down a bit this is a great opportunity for people to check out a film he did five years ago that paints another portrait of a directly relatable time in life for everyone, that transition from being young and hip to older and out of touch. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts play a middle-aged couple who find themselves socially attracted to a young bohemian couple played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. The wife and I saw this film just before it came out and absolutely loved it, another great script and a well-executed microcosm of a story from Baumbach. This one is easily available at your fingertips on Netflix and I totally recommend you checking it out, especially for the acting debut of Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz.

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter – A relatively unheard of independent film that was one of my favorite films of 2015, this lockdown is a perfect chance to check out this zany drama featuring an incredible performance from Pacific Rim actress Rinko Kikuchi. She plays a trouble Japanese woman who is convinced that her VHS copy of Fargo contains a treasure map to a buried fortune in Minnesota prompting her on an insane journey halfway across the world. Directed by David Zellner and co-written by his brother Nathan, this movie is always so grounded in the human experience while being a story of a complete oddity that keeps the movie in an ever-changing shift of inspiration and total tragedy. Order this one on Blu-ray, it is totally worth it.

Television:

The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show (Netflix) – After releasing a few stand up specials on the world’s most popular streaming service, comedian Iliza Shlesinger was been given her own show to do whatever the hell she wants and, to be honest, just like her comedy, some works and some definitely does not. Shlesinger and her cast take on subjects like gender politics, dating dynamics and airline pries and policies just to name a few and while the nectarine board room skit did nothing for me, the “Female Jackass” has me laughing as instead of stunts they would have girls confront ex-boyfriends or be the awkward uninvited guest at a house party. Don’t expect anything highbrow but there are some great moments to be had.

Nailed It!: Season 4 (Netflix) – Comedian and host Nicole Byers returns with a brand new season of her insane baking show which takes everyday home bakers and puts almost impossible looking tasks in front of them, mostly involving cake sculpting and fondant crafting usually to hilarious and sometimes horrifying results. Yes, the point of this show is to “nail it” without actually doing it. Alongside her trusty sidekick, master baker Jacques Torres, and the helpful hand of her trusty stagehand Wes, Nicole welcomes a plethora of brave guest judges to help her find out the true chef who really nails it to hilarious results. This woman is truly a gift to comedy and I’m sometimes surprised that she is able to keep herself PG on this show. That said, my seven-year-old daughter may be the biggest fan I know of this and probably Byer’s youngest fan.

Tales From The Loop: Season 1 (Amazon Prime) – A streaming service that I touch on every now and then, Amazon is coming through this week with probably my most anticipated new series this week and mostly because I love weirdo sci-fi. Featuring a cast that includes Rebecca Hall, Paul Schneider and Oscar nominee Jonathan Pryce, this series follows the townspeople who live above something called “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe, experience things previously consigned to the realm of science fiction. Weird, right? The trailer has a whole bunch of “WTF” moments in it that just ramp up the intrigue of this show for me and it comes from the mind of Nathaniel Halpern who wrote on the FX Marvel mind trip Legion and the excellent murder mystery series The Killing, which is must-see and on Netlfix if you haven’t seen it yet.

Dolphin Reef (Disney+) – Usually around this time isney would be gearing up to release their yearly nature documentary as Earth Day is just around the corner on April 22nd but with this year being all but cancelled they are instead rolling out not one but two of them and they’re all premiering on their streaming service which has been quite busy in the last few weeks. Accompanying the Megan Markle narrated Elephants is this new film dives under the sea to play with some of the planet’s most engaging and intelligent mammals, dolphins. Narrated by Natalie Portman, the story to it centers around a dolphin named Echo, which makes me geek out on a Sega gamer level. With schools out right now, this is a helpful and educational movie to plunk the kids down in front of and feel no guilt.

Coffee And Kareem (Netflix) – This looks like a bit of a low bell to ring, doing the “Odd Couple” action movie pairing, and the director of this film, Michael Dowse, just did one kind of like this with the Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista underrated comedy Stuber but still I feel pretty on board with this. The story follows twelve-year-old Kareem Manning who hires a criminal to scare his mom’s new boyfriend, police officer James Coffee, but it backfires, forcing Coffee and Kareem to team up in order to save themselves from Detroit’s most ruthless drug kingpin. The story seems dumb but the cast is great, featuring Ed Helms, GLOW’s Betty Gilpin and Taraji P. Henson which makes me think that it will be some mindless entertainment but the keyword there is “entertainment”.

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home – Mar 26

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March 26, 2020

New On VOD:

Vivarium – This movie is totally something geared to my twisted likes as it feels like one of those nightmare Twilight Zone episodes and I ate up every second of it. Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg star as Gemma and Tom, a sweetheart couple looking to purchase their first home together. Stepping into a condo sales store, they have a very unsettling meeting with a salesman who implores them to get in their car to follow him to the neighborhood itself. Guided into a disturbingly uniform community that looks like it was designed on a computer, the salesman disappears, abandoning them in a maze of condos they can’t leave and that’s just the setup. Poots’ performance in this film is astounding as she starts to crumble with the reality around her and the direction from Lorcan Finnegan is fantastically striking all the way up until the end. This may be a total niche movie but I thoroughly loved it.

Blu-Ray:

1917 – A Golden Globe winner for Best Picture and Best Director, we finally get the chance to check out this World War I epic from director Sam Mendes in the comfort of our own homes, shot by one of the greatest cinematographers ever to get behind the camera, Roger Deakins. The story follows two young British soldiers who are given an impossible mission to deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, including one of the soldiers’ brothers, from walking straight into a bloodbath. The film is comprised of two single-take shots, put together with invisible and seamless cuts much like Birdman was, and, although it is early in the year, this is one of my favorite films of 2020 and one of the greatest war films of all time. This was totally warranted for it’s Best Picture Oscar nomination, although I’m convinced that the right film won.

The Song Of Names – With two names like Tim Roth and Clive Owen leading the film, this melodrama should be an absolute home run and pairing with The Red Violin filmmaker Francois Gerard and Game Of Thrones cinematographer David Franco just makes that pot sweeter. The film is about an Englishman who finds himself obsessed with finding the whereabouts of a violin virtuoso that was adopted into his family at a young age. Based on a novel by Norman Lebrecht, the story starts out very interesting, following the two boys in World War II London during the blitzkriegs of Nazi Germany but the interest seems to falter as the film continues to a lackluster ending. As much as I love both of these actors, the performances were so understated that it left nothing for me to actually care about.

The Grudge – We are now in the cycle of horror where we try out the Japanese waif ghosts again and if you remember, this didn’t work out too well when Paramount tried to reboot The Ring with Rings, a limp and frightening nudge to a story audiences had largely forgotten about. This movie does have so bright points to it as director Nicolas Pesce is behind this as well as the screenwriter and with original films like The Eyes Of My Mother and Piercing on his belt, this would be the first movie of his to fail the genre if it’s bad. I love the cast in this, which includes John Cho, Lin Shaye, Demien Bichir and Andrea Riseborough but being the only movie dumped on the first release date of 2020 feels suspect.

Clemency – Coming out in theaters just a week after the death row drama Just Mercy, this film featured two blistering lead performances that will leave you breathless by the end credits. The story has Alfre Woodard as the warden of a prison that carries out death sentences for inmates, each one taking a little piece of her soul as she dutifully does her jobs. Still reeling from the last one, a procedure that went wrong causing the inmate to spasm brutally until his death, the lead up to her next execution causes her emotions to rise and her life to slowly deteriorate. On the other side of that is that inmate in question, played with incredible nuance by Aldis Hodge, a man who hasn’t let the imminence of his death hit him yet, still deep in a well of hope that his life will be spared. While it lacks some of the pomp that Just Mercy has, the movie’s stillness is its strength. This movie is worth checking out just for the powerhouse performances alone.

The Wizard – One of the absolute childhood staples, this is a movie that is very special to me and, judging by the massive volume of likes and comments that my post got when I received it, a lot more people feel the same way. Fred Savage stars as the older brother of an autistic savant with the knack for video games who run away from home and hitchhike across America with the help of a girl they meet to compete in the ultimate video game championship. Co-starring Beau Bridges and Christian Slater as their father and older brother hot on their heels, this movie is iconic and not just because it was the first place we ever saw Super Mario 3 and the Power Glove. This movie holds up to multiple viewings and is perfect to watch with the family.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

The Climbers – Some more exhilarating adventure and action from Well Go USA is on my geek outs this week with this brand new film that features House Of Flying Daggers star Ziyi Zhang. The film follows four members of an expedition to the summit of Mount Everest as a part of the China Everest Climbing Commando unit. As the climb becomes more and more difficult, the four must contend with deadly force winds, plummeting temperatures and the depletion of physical energy as they struggle to survive. The film comes from filmmaker Daniel Li, directing this film under his Chinese name Rengang Li, who has great movies like Black Mask and Three Kingdoms, which are both highly recommended martial arts movies.

Television:

Ozark: Season 3 (Netflix) – This is definitely a hugely anticipated new season, especially now during the lockdown, and it returns with one of the most explosive and fast-paced episodes yet. In case you haven’t dug into the show yet, Jason Bateman plays Marty Byrde, a financial advisor in Chicago who is unknowingly been fudging numbers for the cartel, something his business partner hasn’t clued him in on until the finality of being murdered in from of him by the leader of this deadly group. A quick thinker under pressure Marty is able to convince him to spare his life by moving to the remote Ozarks to clean millions for his new boss, presenting an all-new set of problems for him, his wife who is played by the great Laura Linney and his two kids. The show is so phenomenally well done and Bateman himself directs a handful of episodes. Highly recommended if you have immersed yourself in it yet.

Unorthodox (Netflix) – Between last week’s release of Feel Good and this it seems like I keep picking up on Netflix’s lesbian programming as this is another story of a young gay woman but if a far different context and genre. Shira Haas plays Esther Shapiro, a young ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage and religious community to start a new life abroad in the United States. Little does she know that her estranged fiance and a gruff investigator from the Hasidic leaders are hot on her tail to drag her back to be wed. This show tells Esther’s story in two parts, the introduction and courtship of her arranged husband as well as her current awakening to the new feelings she can freely explore and it is so fascinating. Haas has an ability to be wanton, yearning and reserved all in the same breath and it is a sheer joy to watch. She is worth checking it out for alone.

Daniel Isn’t Real (Shudder) – Coming from director Adam Egypt Mortimer, the filmmaker who did the highly entertaining “New Year’s Eve” segment of the anthology film Holidays, this movie is one I’m hearing some great buzz about. Based on a novel of the same name, this film is about a troubled college freshman who suffers a violent family trauma and brings back his childhood imaginary friend Daniel as a coping mechanism. The film stars Halloween and Blockers actor Miles Robbins as the lead character, Patrick Schwarzenegger as the title character and the great Sasha Lane in a supporting role and is just the kind of genre film that intrigues me greatly. The movie is described as a slick mind twist of a thriller that is well pieced together and totally stylish.

Dark Side Of The Ring: Season 2 (Vice/YouTube) – Vice continues their look into an industry that I have a deep love for, and always have, professional wrestling. Beyond that, this season focuses on a log misunderstood and tragic happening in the mid 2000s, the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family. Narrated by close friend Chris Jericho, widely regarded as the greatest of all time, this series will dispel the rumors and myths that have been attributed to this case as well as shine a light on the possible causes of Benoit’s psychosis that leg to this horrifying act. I’m so happy to see this available on YouTube and am deep in the binge already myself. Totally recommended even if you aren’t a wrestling fan.

Devs (FX) – Coming from the mind of one of the greatest science fiction writers via grounded and real science, Alex Garland running a limited series is really going to turn some heads and from what I’ve seen so far this could be one of the best shows we get this year. The series centers around Lily, a computer engineer who starts an investigation into the secretive development department within her employer when her boyfriend, a fellow employee, disappears. The lead star, Sonoya Mizuno, isn’t exactly a household name, aside from some great work on Cary Fukanaga’s Netflix show Maniac but the mystery of Nick Offerman’s character as the CEO Forest should have everyone watching this.

What The Hell Should I Watch At Home? – Mar 19

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March 19, 2020

New to VOD:

Canadian Strain – Using the backdrop of the recent cannabis legalization in Canada, this comedy capitalizes on the confusion over the rollout of this new freedom as well as the endless red tape that the existing stores were wrapped up in. Starring Letterkenny actress Jess Salgueiro, this film follows a cannabis grower and distributor that finds herself in a lawless panic when the decision is made that government stores are to be the method of sales and the already existing stores are to be prohibited. The film centers more on the characters spiral down as she tries to maintain her morals at the same time as keeping herself from destitution and I felt that it let down the general theme that it started out with, the government marginalizing the citizens of the country again but this time in an industry that they have no idea about. It took the bite out of this movie and it’s unfortunate.

Blu-Ray:

Jumanji: The Next Level – The fans cried foul when it was announced that The Rock would be rebooting Jumanji but the end result turned out to be a pretty entertaining movie with the great continued chemistry between The Rock and Kevin Hart. Now the whole cast has returned including Karen Gillan and Jack Black for the Next Level in which Danny DeVito and Danny Glover have now inhabited the bodies of Rock and Hart and it works again as a totally action-packed and funny adventure. All the characters are able to bring something a little different to their performances, being inhabited by different “players” throughout the movie and Rock and Hart get some really great moments of emotional dialogue that actually work really well. I had middling expectations for this movie that were definitely cleared.

Black Christmas – Blumhouse is making a pretty nice little horror niche for itself by picking up older properties and rejuvenating them, sometimes with bad results, but sometimes they come out great. This is one that is close to my heart as the original 1974 movie is a Canadian classic from the legendary director Bob Clark, who also made A Christmas Story (wrap your head around that) and it was already botched in remake land in 2006. This movie though, I really don’t know how I feel. It is a massive departure from the original story and the first trailer released for it seems to give it all away, so much so that I am refusing to summarize it in this write-up. Just watch it below to see what I’m talking about.

Richard Jewell – Clint Eastwood continues his real-life story adaptations with this film about a security guard that saved thousands of lives at the 1994 Atlanta Olympics from a bomb who is then smeared by the press claiming he was the terrorist who planted it. I really like that Paul Walter Hauser, a standout in I Tonya and Blackkklansman, finally getting a lead role in this film, although billed last on the poster but Clint hasn’t been on a real hot streak with his films recently this movie suffers from that even if it has Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates in it and the performances are phenomenal. Eastwood paints this story in such a stark black and white that you feel his right-wing bias with every clunky piece in the message of this film. That coupled with the serious character assassination of journalist Kathy Scruggs was a real issue for me.

The Courier – There’s a brand new direct to video action film available this week and even though Bruce Willis is nowhere to be found sleepwalking through this it is still most likely garbage. Starring Olga Kurylenko, a star recently diagnosed with COVID-19, and Gary Oldman, this is a simple plot following a courier in London who discovers that one of the packages she’s transporting is a bomb. Playing the bad guy and sporting a killer eye patch, Oldman is probably the biggest draw to this film but it all just looks so hoky ad I’m not even including anything from Zackary Adler’s back catalogue.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Mind Games – A pretty unknown little thriller from the late eighties, this b-grade film gets the full Blu-Ray treatment with this beautiful new collector’s edition from MVD Visual. Starring Empire Records own Rex Manning, Maxwell Caulfield, this is a film about a frustrated wife who takes their son camping only to be terrorized by a hitchhiker they helped along the way. The film was directed by Bob Yari, who is now a prominent film producer with his own studio making movies like the Best Picture winner Crash and The Illusionist, this being the first of two movies he had made personally, the second one made in 2015. Caulfield is uber-creepy in this movie and coming off of Grease 2, that was probably the most unsettling part.

Warriors Of The Nation – More Asian martial arts from Well Go USA, an absolute treasure trove of great action films. There are no internationally known actor in this film and the director hasn’t made anything that made any box office marks outside of China but the story is pretty interesting but definitely a bit convoluted at times, centred around the White Lotus Society, a religious and political movement that rose up in the 1330s. If you love movies like the Jet Li series Once Upon A Time In China then these movies are definitely your movie jam this weekend. I know I love ancient Chinese films like this unless they’re done by Americans. I’m looking at you, Matt Damon.

Television:

Feel Good: Season 1 (Netflix) – In a lighter way but heavier on the addiction side, this new series reminds me a bit of Fleabag but without that great Phoebe Waller-Bridge edge. The show is about stand up comedian Mae Martin, a Canadian transplant now living in London. When a regular audience member asks her out on a date, Mae finds herself on a whirlwind romance with the girl of her dreams until the crushing reality of her addiction problem comes to light. This show is definitely a sardonically funny show about damaged people and really revels in it in a great way. I hadn’t heard of Martin before this show but now I’m pretty keen on checking out a full set.

Self Made: Inspired By The Life Of Madam C.J. Walker (Netflix) – Octavia Spencer and Tiffany Haddish star in this brand new limited series that tells the story of a trailblazing African American woman who rose up from nothing to become the entrepreneur known as Madam C.J. Walker who built a haircare empire that made her America’s first female self-made millionaire. The cast looks great around these two including Blair Underwood and Carmen Ejogo but I do find it weird that Spencer is playing Haddish’s mother in this as the two are only seven years apart.

Tiger King (Netflix) – This is one of those too crazy to be true stories but I will let you know right now, it’s all true and I know someone who knows someone that knows this guy. I know! Crazy! This is a docuseries about a gonzo rivalry between big cat eccentrics that takes a dark turn when Joe Exotic, a controversial animal park boss with a glorious blond mullet that would make Hulk Hogan and Dog The Bounty Hunter shake in their boots, is caught in a murder-for-hire plot. This show will make you slackjawed in amazement that people like this actually exist. I felt myself giggling and laughing throughout this bat shit show and I feel like it will really catch on with people. I highly recommend it!

Westworld: Season 3 (HBO) – After a two year absence we finally get the next piece of this incredible mysterious show that emanated from a 70s Michael Crichton movie. The favorites are all back including Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores, Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard and Thandie Newton’s Maeve as well as newcomers Aaron Paul and Kid Cudi but what is this season about? Well, showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are keeping everything secretive but what we do know is that Bernard and Dolores have been rebuilt outside of the facility so we get to see what this future looks like and I am damn excited for that.

The Plot Against America (HBO) – In a time of heightened and emboldened racism in the U.S. and, heck, around the world, we get this brand new “what if” historical drama from one of the great creators of television today, HBO. Starring Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan, John Turturro and more, this series follows an alternate timeline America that lives in a world that saw Roosevelt defeated in the 1940 race for presidency by Charles Lindbergh, a man who has strengthened ties to Nazi Germany. A six-episode limited series, this show has great creators behind the camera with The West Wing’s Thomas Schlamme directing the lion’s share and The Wire’s David Simon and Edward Burns writing it. This could be the best miniseries of 2020 so I’d give it a look.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Mar 12

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March 12, 2020

New Releases:

My Spy – Dave Bautista’s career must be going in a good direction as he has hit the point of his action hero career where he does the obligatory family film just as all the greats have before him, most notably The Rock and John Cena recently. For this film, he plays a CIA agent that has angered the higher-ups with his shoot first and ask dead bodies questions afterwards approach and has one last chance to prove himself. It all goes awry when he is found out by a mischievous nine-year-old girl while he is investigating her family. This movie was originally supposed to be released in the summer of last year but after Bautista’s film, Stuber disappointed at the box office this one was shelved until a better time. Coming from comedy director Peter Segal, I want to believe that this ill be entertaining but the studio worries are a bit contagious. (Not opening in Hamilton)

Bloodshot – Sony and Valiant Comics kick off their own cinematic universe with this new violent action film with a character that I honestly think is tailor-made for lead star Vin Diesel. The Fast And Furious action-heavy stars as Ray Garrison, a marine that is resurrected as part of a secret black ops program with nanobots in his blood that repair him as he is shot, stabbed, contused and everything else. In short, the dude is now totally invincible but was he brought back for good or to dispatch those who get in the way of the shadowy organization that created him? The film is the feature debut for visual effects supervisor Dave Wilson and hopefully it’s a good enough start for Valiant to expand on their cinematic universe as there are some really cool characters to be made into a big studio franchise. I’ve been a fan of this comic company for a while so I’m already on board.

The Hunt – The movie that got the right all riled up before anyone had ever seen a single frame of it finally gets its release day after getting removed in September of last year and the ad campaign seems to be taking advantage of that as its tagline is “The Most Talked About Movie of the Year is One That No One’s Actually Seen”. Perfect. The movie stars GLOW’s Betty Gilpin, Blockers’ Ike Barinholtz and a slimed down Ethan Suplee in a story about twelve strangers who wake up bound and gagged in a clearing, the fodder for a manhunt in which the rich elite will kill each of them for sport. Kind of like a big version of the Ice-T action flick Surviving The Game from the mid-nineties, Compliance director Craig Zobel’s latest seemed to tickle the offended nature of the Fox News crowd and I doubted that we’d ever see it. Well, the advance word is very good so I’m pretty ramped up for this now, barring another uprising. (Not opening in Kamloops)

I Still Believe – We made it into March before getting the first weepy romance of the year but this film has the double distinction of being a faith-based inspirational movie as well. Starring Riverdale’s leading man K.J. Apa and Tomorrowland’s Britt Robertson, this is the true story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp Melissa Lynn Henning-Camp, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer shortly before they married. I never have anything great to say about these Christian studio releases as none of them have been any good and seem to be more driven in getting the message across than to make a good movie. I expect this to be the same. (Not opening in Hamilton, Kamloops or Oshawa)

First Cow – Writer and director Kelly Reichardt continues her deeply somber character tales with this frontier western film that is an absolute arrival of lead star John Magaro. The film opens with Alia Shawkat unearthing two skeletons in modern days while out walking her dog before we get into the real story. The main plot follows a former cook turned fur trapper in the settler days of Oregon and trade that he’s always felt on the outside of, hated by his peers. This changes when he finds friendship with a Chinese immigrant and the two collaborate on a successful business. Beautifully shot and punctuated by two fantastic performances, this is definitely on the shortlist of my favorite films this year. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Wendy – Writer and director Benh Zeitlin was a fresh new name that blew onto the scene in 2012 with his film Beasts Of The Southern Wild about a bayou girl named Hushpuppy which put his name on a shortlist of the best new voices in cinema. Now, eight years later, we get his sophomore film which is quite a mountain to climb in subject matter as it involves an iconic story, Peter Pan. Told from the point of view of the studious Wendy, this film is the story you know but with a narrative slant to it. This is the debut of young actress Devin France, continuing Zeitlin’s trend of using non-actors in his main roles. I loved Beasts so I’m excited to see the imagination of this new film. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Hope Gap – A twice nominated writer for his work on Gladiator and Shadowlands, William Nicholson sits in the director’s chair as well for this powerhouse drama involving the complications of family. The story follows a couple’s visit with their son which takes a sad turn when the father tells him he plans on leaving his mother and with Bill Nighy and Annette Bening playing those roles you know this movie has so much depth of character. Based on a play he wrote himself, Nicholson describes this film as mid-point between “Brief Encounter” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ which is such an intriguing way to frame it. For me, it was just great to see Nighy and Bening on screen together. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

The Whistlers – This slow-burn crime mystery from Frace felt like it was taking a really long time to reveal it’s hand and even now as I sit down to give my thoughts on it I’m unsure if it ever did. The film is from multiple points of view but the main thread follows Christi, a French policeman who finds himself on both sides of the law and under constant surveillance by his own people. Looking for an exit to the subterfuge, he pairs with a femme fatale named Gilda for a high stakes heist that employs a new method of communication, a complex whistling code. Beautifully shot, this film is a weaving story of corruption, treachery and deception that culminates in a final scene that is gorgeous but open-ended. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Beanpole – One thing that will always be evident from every frame of this film is that it is very much a Russian movie in every way, a country’s history infused into every frame at a time of sorrow and recovery. Taking place after World War II in a bombed-out Leningrad, this film follows two women who fought in the war and now return home to try and resume their pre-conflict lives, both working in the local hospital still dealing with casualties. Each woman has their very person damage, the towering Iya, who has debilitating trances due to the concussive blasts she faced during the war and Masha grieves the death of her son and is compelled to fill the void he left. Both actresses, Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina give incredible performances in this colorful but bleak film, their first-ever roles on film. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Brotherhood – Lots of Canadiana hitting theaters in a limited release this Friday including this film that is both an inspiring character drama and a survival film wrapped up in the same story. Starring former WB Network heartthrob Brendan Fehr and hard-working local actor Brendan Fletcher (a tale of two Brendans?) this film has the two playing camp leaders at the Long Point Camp in the summer of 1926, charged with giving a band of teenagers the adventure of their lives. While out the lake in the night, a freak storm capsizes their canoe and forces all of them to fend for their lives in the middle of the water with no indication of where the shore is. This film is a story of heroism against an unknown backdrop and the ultimate sacrifice that a lot of these men had to make. The movie never shakes that low-fi Canadian feel but the story shines through poignantly with a stellar performance from Fletcher. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Red Snow – The debut film from indigenous writer and director Marie Clements, this is a film that moves side by side with a tragic love story and a harrowing tale of survival in a foreign land. The story follows a Gwich’in-Canadian soldier named Dylan Nadazeau who is captured by Taliban soldiers during an ambush that kills the rest of his squad. Defiant from a young age Dylan regresses in his mind to the romance he had with a girl when he was sixteen years old to find the answers he needs to spiritually rise above his situation. The cinematography of this film is flighty and full of metaphor which makes some of the narrative movement a little ethereal but I feel Asivak Koostachin’s performance as the adult Dylan drives the film as the character opens up to the viewer and the final moment of the movie is so triumphant and redeeming. This is a special movie for the indigenous community and I highly recommend it. (Only opening in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver)

Blu-Ray:

Bombshell – Charlize Theron is at the top of her game and almost completely unrecognizable in this new film that tells the story of the fall of Roger Ailes from the mantle of Fox News for sexual harassment. Leading a stellar cast including Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and John Lithgow, Theron is an absolute powerhouse in her performance, punctuating a story that I think we all paid attention to pretty closely. The only issue I had with this movie is that it never went any deeper than information we already knew about this scandal, other than punching up some dialogue to pad out the plot. In the end, I didn’t feel like I learned anything, I just saw a glossy treatment of a scandal.

Spies In Disguise – Will Smith has had a run of really bad box office failures over the years and Gemini Man and this animated feature definitely did not help matters. In this film he plays a super spy whose skills are put to the test when a nerdy tech agent accidentally transforms him into a pigeon and the two have to work together to deal with a global threat. Smith is great in this, his first animated role since A Shark Tale fifteen years earlier, and his chemistry is really great with co-star Tom Holland, which seems to be the norm so maybe Holland is just a great actor? All of that aside though, the film feels a bit bland like it’s missing something to truly set itself apart from the other animated movies which feels like a bit of a blow to Blue Sky, the makers, who have always delivered solid work.

Charlie’s Angels – On the outside, this movie feels like a bit of an impending disaster because we’ve had two feature films already made from this 80s television property and, if you’ve given them a rewatch recently, they’re kind of glossy and dumb, they only surviving thing that has any marginal coolness being the Destiny’s Child song. This new film has promise when you look deeper as Elizabeth Banks is on board to direct as well as play Bosely, a bit of a fan favorite from directing the last couple of Pitch Perfect movies. The winning piece of this for me is that Kristen Stewart being one of the angels, as I am a huge fan of her work, post Twilight of course. This might be hit or miss.

Trauma Center – It feels like the time of getting excited for a Bruce Willis was so long ago as the at one-time A-list action star has found himself the selling point of totally lackluster action thrillers for almost a decade now, a new direction that has seen him phone in performances for just as long. This one is no different as it has him playing a cop who is protecting an injured young woman who witnessed the murder of his partner. To hide her he nonsensically houses her in an inexplicably abandoned hospital which these bad guys find immediately. This movie hasn’t a shred of brains to it whatsoever and the acting is absolutely painful. Probably one of the worst movies of this year.

A Quiet Place – Just a week ahead of the release of the sequel, Paramount released this mondo steelbook of the 4K version of this film that is an integral piece of the best horror in 2018. Directed by John Krasinski who stars as well opposite his wife Emily Blunt in the story of a family living in a world that has been invaded by monsters that kill based on sound. This film is a masterpiece of tension and creating deep fear in the absence of sound, something that I had rarely if ever experienced before, a mostly silent theater. This edition doesn’t feature anything different other than the format but the packaging is awesome.

The Ten Commandments – We’re getting biblical this week as classic Hollywood is showcased in this new box set that has both the original film made in 1923 and the more popular remake starring Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price made in 1956. I feel like most people have seen some iteration of this movie, maybe on television, but this film has been completely restored to high definition levels and the remake features commentary by a biographer of the film, Katherine Orrison. A showcasing of the golden age of Hollywood, this was definitely a cool movie to receive.

Masked And Anonymous – Bob Dylan has only made the crossover into acting a few times but the final one was seventeen years ago in this film that was the debut as a director for Borat filmmaker Larry Charles. The story, written by Dylan under the name of Sergei Petrov, has him playing Jack Fate, a singer whose career has gone on a downward spiral forcing him to make a comeback to the performance stage for a benefit concert. A heavy cast surrounds this legendary singer and songwriter including Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, John Goodman and Jessica Lange plus the Shout Factory blu-ray features an all-new interview with Charles and a making-of featurette. The film didn’t score great reviews at the time of release but I think it’s aged nicely.

The Affair: The Final Season – With the first couple of seasons earning huge critical acclaim and earning the stars Maura Tierney, Dominic West and Ruth Wilson award nominations and even a win in Tierney’s case, this show seemed to end it’s run with a bit of a whimper rather than a fanfare finish. For those who don’t know, the show is a multi-angle told story about a struggling novelist and a young waitress who strike up an extramarital relationship that promises to forever change the course of their lives and that’s just the opening of the first season. Murder, other affairs and years have passed since then and many had thought this would have come to a close sooner. The selling point on this season for me is the inclusion of new cast member Anna Paquin who always makes things much more watchable.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Dragonheart: Vengeance – Universal seems to love dragging all of their properties out of the archives, dusting them off and sending them on an all-new direct to blu-ray adventure because we get another nineties film getting an update but without the lead stars of Dennis Quaid and the very retired Sean Connery. The fourth film to be made after the hit original, this film follows Lukas, a young farmer whose family is killed by savage raiders in the countryside who sets out on an epic quest for revenge forming an unlikely trio with a mercenary named Darius and a dragon voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, the reason for me to have any interest in this movie. Let’s face it, these never turn out to be any good but with the memories I have of this franchise, I just want to believe in it.

Museo – Toplined by Gael Garcia Bernal, this is a film I hadn’t heard of until it was sent to me but based on the accolades it has received alone I really feel like I should have. Winner of the Silver Bear for screenplay and nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Picture at the Berlin Film Festival, this is the true story of the biggest heist in Mexican history, the looting of its sacred Anthropology Museum orchestrated by a couple of veterinary school dropouts. The reviews on this movie are really stellar and critics as director and co-writer Alonso Ruiz Palacios is now being touted as a filmmaker on the rise even though the film didn’t even get anywhere near a wide release.

A Little Romance – I really love receiving all of these Warner Archive classic movies as it’s quickly putting me in the know on great golden age Hollywood films that have otherwise flown under my radar and this one is a special one as it stars the legendary Sir Laurence Olivier, one of the towering shadows during that era. This film, made in 1979, stars a young Diane Lane in her debut as a teenager living in Paris who meets and falls in love with a dreamy Frenchman played by Thelonious Bernard, an actor with only this film to his credit. The film was made be bigger than life filmmaker George Roy Hill who had The Sting, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid and Slapshot under his belt by this point. It should also be noted that this is an Oscar-winning movie, picking up a statue for Best Original Score.

Television:

Lost Girls (Netflix) – Getting their indie movie slate rolling for 2020, this new offering has a great cast leading it with Thomasin McKenzie, fresh off a fantastic performance in Jojo Rabbit, Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan and Gabriel Byrne. Ryan plays the mother of a girl recently reported missing who, frustrated by the lack of police activity on the case, drives her own investigation into the gated Long Island community where her daughter was last seen which leads to discoveries in a series of cold cases involving sex workers. This is the narrative debut for director Liz Garbus, who is usually a documentary filmmaker, responsible for films like What Happened, Miss Simone? and Bobby Fischer Against the World but this is a ground shattering movie to kick off this facet of her career.

The Pale Horse (Amazon Prime) – Featuring British stalwart veteran actor Rufus Sewell, this new Prime original miniseries has the added fun of being adapted from an Agatha Christie novel. The story follows a dying woman who gives her last confession to a Catholic priest, but along with her confession, she gives him a list of names and a terrible secret but before he can take action he is struck dead in the fog. As the police begin to investigate, headed by Sewell’s character Mark Easterbrook, a young hero played by the great Kaya Scodelerio begins to piece together evidence that sets him upon a converging path. For those fans of Midsommer Murders and the like, this will definitely appeal to them.

Kingdom: Season 2 (Netflix) – Many times Drex and I have talked about the zombie genre and how it consistently needs that fresh breath to keep it from decaying. I mean, let’s face it, even The Walking Dead is nearing the end of its popularity. The freshness is what makes this new series so great as its taking that zombie stuff and throwing it back to the medieval Joseon period in Korea. Adapted from a webcomic, the adaptation was put together by the acclaimed director of Tunnel and is right up my alley of South Korean film. Those who were all over Train To Busan, this is an easy binge for you.

Marc Maron: End Times Fun (Netflix) – Spare yourself the hysteria of a COVID-19 obsessed outside world and instead dig into this brand new stand up from one of the best neurosis driven comics working today, Marc Maron, who also happens to be one of my favorite podcasters too. This set is so funny as Maron relates how he is only popular with one out of three people, he takes aim at the Trump Administration so MAGAts need not apply and even has a spiritual moment for Mike Pence at the end that you will not forget. Check it out, it’s highly worth it.

Dirty Money: Season 2 (Netflix) – Master documentarian Alex Gibney’s executive produced docuseries returns for another series of episodes that will raise your blood pressure and have you screaming at your television before directing angry tweets at big businesses. Just me? I doubt it. This series takes aim at corporate frauds that are designed to milk excessive amounts of money out of the general public and largely the lower class. Season one took on scandals like Volkswagen’s “clean” diesel and the gross empire of payday loan companies and this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an important series to binge through, trust me.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Mar 5

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March 5, 2020

New Releases:

Onward – Disney and Pixar are back with their next most likely award-nominated feature, pairing the very likeable duo of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in the lead roles. Set in a world where fantasy elements like orcs, gnomes, unicorns and other mythical creatures exist in a modern world, this story follows two brothers who find a mysterious magical staff that belonged to their late father. After a spell cast through the staff resurrects the bottom half of Dad, they must embark on an adventure to find the real magic still remaining on the world to bring their family back together. The trailer is really funny for this and I’m really hoping for some great world-building as Pixar needs a new franchise to put t’s hat on. I have good feelings about this movie.

The Way Back – Ben Affleck definitely felt some catharsis in this new drama, directed by the director of one of his last movie The Accountant, the very capable Gavin O’Connor. Affleck plays a former high school basketball star who’s life has deteriorated from alcoholism and bad choices who finds his redemption in returning to his former school to coach the current team, one with potential but no winning push to it. The trailer for this movie is big and full of emotion, giving me the feeling that Affleck put his whole soul into this portrayal so for this reason alone I am looking forward to it. The script comes from writer Brad Ingelsby and if the dialogue is anything close to his work on Out Of The Furnace we could have something special here. (Not opening in Hamilton)

Run This Town – when the walking disaster known as Rob Ford was running for mayor, and then subsequently became mayor, his story, especially that of his arrest and then basic dismissal of his crimes so he can keep running the city was a major story internationally we knew this would be made into a movie. Guess what? It’s here and Homeland star Damian Lewis plays the juicy role in an almost chameleon-like fashion from and center in this investigative journalism story seen through the eyes of young staffers at city hall and a local newspaper just as the 2013 political scandal was emerging. The film features The Politician’s Ben Platt, Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev and veteran actor Scott Speedman in the debut film from writer and director Ricky Tollman who seems almost completely inexperienced. Kind of gives me hope for a future in the film industry myself. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Sorry We Missed You – Being a huge fan of Ken Loach’s since I saw The Wind That Shakes The Barley in my video store days, his films have come to be the ones I love forward to most at the festival and this one didn’t disappoint and refused to let me leave without shedding some tears. The film is about a lower-class family living in Newcastle and struggling to get back to a position of being able to buy a home. The father has just got a new job as a parcel delivery service, but one you have to buy into, causing them to sell his wife’s car that she uses for her job as a home care nurse. As the two parents struggle in their fourteen to sixteen-hour workdays, their kids suffer as their older son begins to lash out as a vandal. Loach always gets to the heart of the everyman’s plight against the system and it’s always heartbreaking. (Opening in Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary and Vancouver. Opens in Edmonton on March 13th)

Lie Exposed – Always for a low budget and aimed at giving this art form a higher platform to get noticed on, stage play adaptations can be a tricky transition as they can either work or show you how different the two mediums really are. Coming from writer and actor Jeff Kober, who costars in this film in a largely silent performance, this story follows a recovering alcoholic who is given a devastating diagnosis that causes her to leave her longtime husband for a Los Angeles photographer and relapse into her addiction. Upon returning home to the aftermath of her choices, she and her husband put together a photography show that gives their close friends an introspection into their own lives that could make or break their relationships. Produced and starring actress Leslie Hope, this movie really is a showcase of her immense skill but kind of leaves everything else a bit cold o the lighted stage. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Emma. – I guess it’s time to revisit some Jane Austen and maybe get the Gwyneth Paltrow version off our palate while also showing some of those nineties kids where Clueless came from. One of my favorites, Anya Taylor Joy plays the lead in this film, an intrusively nosey and selfish socialite who prides herself on being the matchmaker for all of her friends for better or worse. I feel like a lot of us already know this story so any other description moves into redundancy rather than spoilers so I will instead mention that this is the feature debut of director Autumn De Wilde, known previously for her work on music videos for Florence + The Machine, The Raconteurs and Beck so the look of this movie feels very fresh and new again the history of the story. I have hopes for this movie. (Not opening in Hamilton, Kamloops or Oshawa)

Greed – Writer and director Michael Winterbottom brings another facet of his biting satire with this new film that puts his usual leading star Steve Coogan in a handbag looking tan with some bright white veneers as the patriarch of a ridiculously rich and powerful family. Showcasing all the awful qualities of vapidly bullheaded billionaires and the effects of money, Winterbottom gives this movie a scattered feel that all meet up in the end but the journey feels very disjointed along the way. Infusing the movie with the refugee crisis and the evils of sweatshops in Middle Eastern countries and underpaid workers, making a comedy that feels like a little tickle with a hell of a slap. That said, the third act of this movie was so unpredictable that I couldn’t believe it was happening. (Only opening in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver)

True Fiction – Isolated horror stories are something that always seems to strike like a hot iron of paranoia and delirium and we get not one but two this week with this film and the one that follows on the list. Actress Sara Garcia plays Avery, a struggling writer who is given the job interview of a lifetime, to be the assistant to acclaimed but reclusive writer Caleb Conrad, a master of his genre that no one has ever seen before. Driven to a snowy cottage and relieved of her phone, Avery finds out very quickly that she is at the center of Caleb’s new book in a sinister experiment to see how she will finish the story and it would all have been so awesome if the plotting and execution of this movie didn’t feel so horribly dumb. As the paranoid premise constantly flip flops in who the viewer is to believe the “crazy person” is the logic rapidly is thrown out the window culminating in a very ho-hum ending. I expected more. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

The Lodge – It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz to follow up their incredible debut horror thriller Goodnight Mommy and did they ever come through with their first English language film, a movie that can now be included in the “holiday horror” pantheon, as it does take place just before Christmas. The story follows two kids and their soon to be stepmother who find themselves snowed in at a remote holiday lodge. As the days pass, she finds herself more and more paranoid as strange things start to transpire and the evenings get more and more sleepless, drudging up things in her mind of her tumultuous and brutal past as part of a cult run by her father. Riley Keough’s performance in this film is absolutely riveting, perching you on the edge of your seat throughout. This isn’t your most conventional horror story but it will definitely leave a mark. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Blu-Ray:

Queen & Slim – This film came out of nowhere, gathered some great buzz along the way and then was totally forgotten during award season, an absolute tragedy. Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith lead this drama about a black man and woman who find themselves on the run together after a deadly incident when they are pulled over by the police. The director of Beyonce’s Lemonade video Melina Matsoukas makes her feature debut with this movie and it’s shot by Tat Radcliffe who did Yann Demange’s ’71 as well as Pride the same year and everything about this film works in a breathtaking fashion. Kaluuya and Turner-Smith have a chemistry that burns up every frame they’re in as we gradually see these characters come together in a connection that culminates in out of the most beautiful love scenes I have seen in a long time. I love that grain and shade that Mantzoukas infuses throughout this film, a total feast of cinema. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Dark Waters – Mark Ruffalo has a knack for picking the hard-hitting movies about important stories and acts of horrendous injustices, especially being somewhat of an activist himself, and this film plays right into the same things that he stands up against. The masterful director of Carol and Far From Heaven Todd Haynes helms this story of a corporate defense attorney who takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that in turn exposes a lengthy history of pollution. An interesting connection with Ruffalo’s involvement is that along with being another attempted kick at an Oscar this is the second film he has been in that relates to the DuPont family after Foxcatcher which got him nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Playmobil: The Movie – When Lego came together (get it?) to create a massive blockbuster film and multiple spin-offs it seemed to have shot a flare into the studio sky saying that all of the toy properties were now possibly lucrative for big-screen adventures. That said, I’m really thinking this one is a dud as it takes a toy meant for a much younger audience and crafts a story that may go over the target market’s head. The plot that they’ve made is basically a James Bond-esque spy actioner that has a cocky secret agent, voiced by Daniel Radcliffe, who takes it upon himself to rescue two kids from the multiple dimensions of Playmobil’s world. Lots of supporting cast in here including Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Meghan Trainor and Adam Lambert but the trailer leaves me with little interest and the movie was yanked from theaters after only a week. Ouch.

Ne Zha – An animated film from China, this film’s style is the biggest saving grace because it is absolutely gorgeous and, at times, comes off like a more well rounded Dragonball Z animation. Unfortunately, the story is a bit of a ho hum, been there done that as it follows a young boy infused with the powers of a demigod a birth that must fight the demons that attack his land even though the people he is protecting fear him as much as the dangers around them. Really, the best part for me about this was the action sequences.

Kansas City – Some more cinema from the classier side, Arrow Academy, this movie definitely isn’t as old and classic as the films I usually get from this distributor as it is a sort of forgotten Robert Altman crime story from 1996 set to a jazz beat. Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, Dermot Mulroney and Steve Buscemi, this film follows a pair of kidnappings that expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City. The biggest acclaim this film got at its time of release was a nomination for the Palme D’or at Cannes but it has all the great tropes of this master filmmaker, including beautiful long crane shots, a pinpoint focused score and beautiful cinematography, this one done by Oliver Stapleton, fresh off working with Stephen Frears on The Van.

Steve’s Blu-Ray and DVD Geekout:

Insidious – James Wan is now one of the top names when it comes to horror, the creator of the Saw series and now the whole Conjuring universe is under his eye. This movie came before we were freaked out by The Conjuring, a massive hit coming at a time when Wan was failing a bit with his last two efforts, Ded Silence and Death Sentence. The story is very simple, a family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further and the movie is infused with creepiness, jump scares that fit the plot and story and moments of horror that will live with the viewers forever. I’d like to think that it was the repairing with writer Leigh Whannell that rejuvenated Wan’s filmmaking but he wrote Dead Silence as well, a movie I really like. Maybe I just want to celebrate Whannell more because Invisible Man was so amazing.

This Is The End – One of the greatest satire comedies ever made in my opinion, this movie takes pretty much everyone you’ve ever loved that worked for Judd Apatow and a few others and throws those actors into a global apocalypse playing themselves. There really is nothing better than that. Our main group of Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride all find themselves partying at James Franco’s house when holes in the earth start opening up and people start falling to their deaths in hell leading this sextet on a mission of survival as the last stragglers on Earth. I saw this movie twice in theaters so I definitely had to pic this blu-ray up which features commentary, alternate lines and a gag reel which is gold from these guys.

16 Bars – An inspirational documentary that attempts to take a bad situation and make something good and artful out of it, this film is a look into some very human stories locked away in the prison system of the United States, Virginia to be exact. The movie follows a rehabilitation program that encourages inmates to write and record original music with the help of Grammy award-winner Todd “Speech” Thomas of the group Arrested Development, a hip hop outfit that I definitely listened to a lot in the 90s. I mean you’re probably humming Everyday People in your head right now. Films like this really get the emotions going and the fact that it runs against something so creative as hip hop is very intriguing to me as well.

The Point – A story that seems just as psychedelic as the time it comes from, this animated film is a brainchild from mind of Academy Award winner Fred Wolf, a guy that had his hands in the making of the Flintstones, as well as songs and a story tread written by Grammy Award-winning artist Harry Nilsson. This little film also has the added fun of being narrated by one of the greatest drummers of all time, Ringo Starr, who also was, if you remember, a conductor on Shining Time Station. So, he did way more for the kids than you ever thought. It’s kind of hard to break down the story of this film other than saying it’s about the land of the Point. Why is it the land of the Point? Well, because everything comes to a point in this land and that’s just how it was animated so smoke a joint and get to the Point! This vague write up was brought to you by cannabis.

Television:

Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter Life Crisis (Netflix) – A comedienne I had never heard of before getting the advance screener for her special, I warmed up to Taylor’s comedy pretty quick as she becomes the most relatable twenty-five-year-old I’ve seen in this format and, even better, she made me feel a lot better about ageing even if, again wat she says, I don’t have it figured out in my thirties either. It’s easy to believe that this Southern California born and raised stand up has been doing this for almost a decade as she seems to glide around the stage and handle herself with a veteran’s ease which, as the viewer, gets us way more into a new comic. Apparently, I should have watched Last Comic Standing because from what I hear she killed on that.

Spenser Confidential (Netflix) – Another big bad action movie original for Netflix as this one stars Mark Wahlberg and also features a bad guy role for Post Malone, his first acting role and probably the beginning of more to come as his popularity rises. Heck, I think even at this moment he still has six to ten songs on the Billboard Top 100, which is crazy. Coming from Wahlberg’s usual collaborative director Peter Berg, this movie follows ex-cop Spenser as he teams up with his roommate Hawk, played by Winston Duke from Us, as they investigate the brutal murder of two Boston police officers. This movie was written by Brian Helgeland, who has written such gems as Man On Fire and L.A. Confidential but has made such stinkers like The Order and Legend, so all bets are kind of off but hopefully, this isn’t like 6 Underground which was so disappointing on so many levels even with the involvement of a charismatic lead star.

Dave: Season 1 (FXX) – Comedic rapper Lil Dicky gets his own series with this show that is produced by Scooter Braun. who is probably not high up on the likeability chain right now, but also Kevin Hart and Greg Mottola who also directs all eight episodes of the show. Co-created by Curb Your Enthusiasm writer Jeff Schaffer, the show follows a mid-twenties suburbanite whose neurosis has convinced him that he is going to become one of the greatest rappers of all time, a totally misguided journey. Those who know Lil Dicky’s work, like his song he did with Chris Brown called Freaky Friday, will be into this and as much as I hate Brown that song is damn catchy. Why did I put it on this list? Well, I guess I’m just kind of interested in Little Dicky and what he’s going to do next.

Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC) – AMC seems to keep making interesting strides in all the shows that they put on their network as all of them seem to be original ideas aside from any of The Walking Dead spin-offs and this one is testing all new waters as it seems to play at an odd competition-style setting within a scripted series. The show follows four people who have a nagging feeling that there’s something missing in their lives when they stumble onto a mysterious program called “Dispatches From Elsewhere” which gives them challenges to open their eyes to the possibility of something beyond this world. Featuring Andre Benjamin and Sally Feild, this series may seem too flighty and mysterious for a mainstream audience to get behind so it may be a gamble but those that are looking for something to expand their mind in an intriguing narrative I would say continue with this show that just started on Sunday.

Breeders: Season 1 (FX) – One of my favorite British comedic actors, Martin Freeman, once known as the original “Jim from The Office” Tim, gets his own American network show to hopefully raise his awareness internationally better than the unmediated on Hobbit trilogy. Freeman pairs with actress Daisy Haggard as the parents of two kids who try to keep their sanity ad love life intact against the constant barrage of their children. This darkly comedic series is almost like holding a mirror up to any parent’s plight and is infinitely relatable immediately. Created by Freeman, Veep’s Simon Blackwell and The Lab Rats’ Chris Addison, I really hope this show connects with the audience as I’m really liking it so far and want additional seasons.

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