Steve Stebbing

Breaking down all things pop culture

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Oct 17

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October 17, 2019

New Releases:

Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil – We are now at the point of these Disney live-action re-imaginings that we are headed in the sequels to these films as the one to kick it off, a version of Sleeping Beauty that focusses on the villain, now sees an expansion to their story. Angelina Jolie returns in the title role, now godmother to Aurora played again by Elle Fanning, Maleficent finds herself at odds with the family of Aurora’s soon to be husband. Feeling threatened, she starts to unleash her full powers again, wreaking havoc in another special effects extravaganza. The film is made by Joachim Ronning who made the astounding films Kon-Tiki and Max Manus: Man Of War but then proceeded to make the kind of ho-hum Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales so hopefully this will be a sort of return to form but with this type of film he just may be acting as a studio director.

Zombieland: Double Tap – Ten years ago from just a couple of weeks back I was sitting in the theater laughing my ass off at the debut of director Ruben Fleisher, Zombieland, a fresh and funny rejuvenation of the zombie genre the kickstarted the undead for another couple of years. Written by a then-unknown Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, seven years before Deadpool would catapult them to where they are now, they gave us the characters of Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock who return to the screen after ten years of survival in the post-apocalypse, planning a more permanent move into America’s heartland but dealing with a new threat of evolved zombies. More survivors join the pack, with new cast members Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, Avan Jogia and Zoey Deutch and the latest trailer features a hilarious scene with Thomas Middleditch. I’m excited for this one.

Jay And Silent Bob Reboot – As an uber fan of Kevin Smith I am game for anything the writer and director is going to put out and, strictly speaking, this is just a movie for fans like me because he’s dusting off the classics for a new adventure and I am so here for it. To follow up on their last solo adventures in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, this movie has Jay and Silent Bob returning to Hollywood to stop a reboot of ‘Bluntman and Chronic’ movie from getting made with so many different celebrity cameos and favors called in from Kevin as well as a villain played by Chris Jericho. This is like all of my worlds colliding around the guy who inspired me to be here in the first place. Very cool. (Not opening in Hamilton, London, Kamloops or Oshawa)

By The Grace Of God – I will start right off the bat by saying that it’s a good thing I watched this film in the form as a screener at home because I had a very visceral knee jerk reaction of anger at this film, a story about pedophilia in the Catholic church. The film follows three men who were close friends in Scouts as children, where the were preyed on by the priest who ran the camp. Slowly the movement grows as more come forward and the lies, manipulation and cover-ups begin to be revealed in a public light. I found myself yelling at my television, unable to hold my disgust with the reveals in this film, which is director Francois Ozon’s best since 2003’s Swimming Pool. The film is maybe a tad too long but it definitely plays like the French version of Spotlight. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Lucy In The Sky – When I saw Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley’s name attached to this movie as director and screenwriter of this brand new drama starring Natalie Portman I was really excited as he is one of the best television storytellers working today but apparently that only translates to the long-form of episodic work. Portman plays astronaut Lucy Cola who returns to Earth after a life-altering experience during a mission to space and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too contained for the changes she is going through. Unfortunately, the reviews are very tepid on this film, some calling it too confused and jumbled despite a stellar performance from Portman, which kind of goes back to my comment about Hawley working better in a longer format. I’m still very curious about the film myself. (Only opening in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver)

Monos – This movie is an example of an indie film where I was left in awe of, foremost for its production design and execution. Seriously, how did they make this? The film is an ambiguously set story of eight kids with guns who are watching over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow on a mountaintop and it is one of the most gorgeous things I have seen this year. Director Alejandro Landes crafts a mesmerizing tale that is a sort of adaptation of William Goldman’s Lord Of The Flies with incredible feats of realism throughout. I’m still perplexed about how the scene in the river rapids was done. Mystified. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Before You Know It – I knew nothing about this little film from writer and director Hannah Pearl Utt before watching this new dramedy, a film that features her in the lead role alongside co-writer Jen Tullock. The story follows two sisters coping with the death of their recently passed away father, a once-famous playwright. With the New York theatre and apartment above being in his name, the two are surprised to find out that the building is in the name of their mother, someone they were told was dead but is actually a famous soap actress. This movie manages to be poignant and funny with the relationship of these two sisters but can still come crashing down with the emotional beats. I really liked this one. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Immortal Hero – This movie is a mysterious one to me as it just crossed my desk and I have little information on it. The film is Japanese and follows a highly successful Japanese author and publisher who starts making more grandiose choices in his life after a near-death experience forces him to reevaluate his existence. Feeling reborn, he commits his life to share the wisdom he receives believes to have been received from the spiritual realm as doubters and detractors, including some of his own family, challenge and question his new-found enlightenment. This film looks like it will fit in with the fans of stories like The Celestine Prophecy or The Secret, appealing to those who seek more spiritual centred content in their films. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Blu-Ray:

Stuber – I feel like that who have enjoyed the Guardians Of The Galaxy or Infinity War know that Dave Bautista has some great comedy chops so, on the outside, this looks like an immediate win by pairing him with the hilarious Kumail Nanjani known for his role in Silicon Valley and the brilliant comedy The Big Sick, one that he wrote as well. The story has him as Stu an Uber driver who picks up what he assumes to be a normal customer. Unfortunately, the guy he picks up is Vic a reckless detective looking to make a dent in some crime. This movie, while being a bit formulaic and predictable, is a lot of fun because of the two stars and their chemistry and the action is frenetic and stylized making sure there isn’t a wasted moment.

Crawl – Judging this movie by its basic plotline and poster, this movie would look like your standard survival thriller fare we our main characters battling the elements to predictable results. I’m happy to report that this movie is directed by Hills Have Eyes and Horns director Alejandre Aja so this movie goes anywhere but the beaten path. The film has Maze Runner and Pirates Of The Caribbean star Kaya Scodelerio as a woman attempting to rescue her father after a category five hurricane from a sinking house and to make matters worse they are being hunted by a group of alligators. The bonus to having such a cool director in a story like this is that Aja ramps up the gore, something he has consistently brought to all of his movies, and his style is uniquely disturbing sometimes as I’m still reeling from at least one kill per movie and that’s not a joke.

The Art Of Self Defense – Filmmaker Riley Stearns follows up his incredible debut film from 2014, Faults, with this dark comedy about a socially awkward accountant named Casey who finds himself looking for answers after being brutally beaten during a mugging. He believes the next step in his life is martial arts, taught by the enigmatic “Sensei” who takes a special interest in him. This movie is absolutely wild, unpredictable in its story and containing reveals that will have you laughing hysterically and gasping in surprise. This is possibly my favorite movie this year and one that is seriously going to knock a lot of people through a loop.

The Haunting Of Hill House – Based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, this story has been made a few times before but not by Mike Flanagan, a horror director at the top of his game and the perfect fit for this series that took in many of Netflix subscribers. Now it’s on Blu-ray and the difference is that all of these episodes have been extended in a director’s cut of this first series, a precursor before The Haunting Of Bly House, which is currently filming in Vancouver, hits Netflix next year. Keep in mind that every single shot in Hill House has a hidden ghost in it so get this release and happy hunting, everyone!

Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love – I’ve been waiting patiently for a documentary to come out about the late and great Canadian singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen so leave it to the year 2019, the time where music and film have come together to make some beautiful babies, to give us another stellar movie in this vein. This film is an in-depth look at the relationship between Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen, made by accomplished filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the recent Whitney Houston documentary as well as Battle For Haditha, an intense Iraq War movie.

Night Hunter – Henry Cavill leads this new thriller alongside Sir Ben Kingsley who plays a weathered Lieutenant who finds himself tangles up with his own police force and a local vigilante in the investigation of a recently arrested, troubled man who’s linked to years of female abductions and murders. The film also features Stanley Tucci, Alexandra Daddario and good Canadian kid Brendan Fletcher doing his great psychological work as the suspect in question but this film is getting horribly panned by critics, being called totally contrived and cliched throughout. This is very disappointing as I really like Cavill’s work and I feel like I haven’t seen him since Mission: Impossible: Fallout.

Killer Nun – Arrow Video arrives this week with a total weirdo film that is part insane murderer movie and part sex romp with blood. Yes, totally out of this world in the description but the film has a bit of a cult following. Made in 1979, the film is pretty simple to make a synopsis about as it a demented nun that is drifting through morphine addiction into madness, lashing out in acts of lesbianism, torture and death, endangering the staff and patients around her in the general hospital she practices at. This movie is absolutely bonkers and deserves to be watched with a group of friends to truly appreciate the “Rifftrack” quality of this insanity. This was Italian director Giulio Berruti’s second and final film as he walked away from the industry entirely afterwards. Once you’ve made gold I guess you have to walk away, right?

Spongebob Squarepants: Season 10 – I’ve definitely said this before on the show but I don’t need my kids to be around to watch my favorite underwater seas sponge because I will watch this insane show at any time because I believe the show is funny no matter if you’re a kid or an adult and it is especially funny if you are a stoner like I am. This is a little bittersweet as creator Steven Hillenberg passed away just late last year, but he was fully present for this season that aired from October 2016 to a year later, and his touch was always amazing with these characters. This season also brought back the recurring voices of Ed Asner and Seinfeld’s John O’Hurley as well as guest stars like J.K. Simmons, Steve Buscemi and Joe Pantoliano. This is definitely a box set I can get lost in.

Star Trek Picard: Movie & TV Collection – With the Picard series set to launch on CBS All Access at the end of January, Paramount has put together this collection which includes pivotal pieces of television with the episodes The Best Of Both Worlds and Chai Of Command, the best featuring the iconic captain, as well as Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis, films I’m pretty happy to have Blu-ray copies of now. This is a great boxset for any Trek fan, although many may own these already, but to have them in a focused set about Jean Luc Picard is pretty damn cool.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekout:

Malevolence Trilogy – These movies showed up to me out of the blue as part of a horror trilogy released by director Stevan Mena’s own releasing company Mena Films. The story is pretty interesting to start, with a bunch of bank robbers heading to a remote farmhouse they believe to be abandoned and, of course, it’s not. Inside is a bloodthirsty serial killer looking to dispatch everyone. Interestingly enough, the first film is actually the middle piece of the main story as the second film Bereavement serves as the origin story of our killer and the third movie is the finale. Either way, as far as B-movie horror goes you are definitely going to be entertained by the three movies because this guy takes his horror damn seriously.

This Magnificent Cake! – I love the title to this movie but that’s all the enlightened attitude you will get from this stop motion animated short film as it is going to depress you with its subject matter. The movie is about the 18th century colonial Africa told in five separate tales, one about a king with a serious dilemma, the next about a pygmy who works in a swanky hotel, followed by a down and out businessman on a life building trip, a luggage handler who has lost his way and, finally, a young soldier who went AWOL from his mission. The forty four-minute short is gorgeously done but it will leave you feeling a bit disturbed.

Diamantino – I love the storyline for this film, about a really dim soccer player who fails out of his career in grand fashion at the World Cup and that’s just the beginning of his problems. In his quest for a new purpose, he ends up getting involved with an alt-right anti-EU hate group, crazy eugenics and even more deep state madness through an Italian filter. The movie has been described as an Adam Sandler movie run through the lens of Passolini which is an insanely hilarious way to approach it and to throw you through an even bigger loop, this movie was inspired by the works of David Foster Wallace. How’s that for messed up?

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me – Here’s yet another stellar music documentary in 2019, this one about R&B legend Teddy Pendergrass who arrived via being the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes putting out hits like “The Love I Lost” and, the secondary title of the movie “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and became a massive solo star after leaving the group in 1976, releasing five consecutive platinum albums from 1977 to 1981. In 1982 he was in a horrific car wreck the paralyzed him from the neck down and didn’t return to sing until an incredible performance at Live Aid in 1985. The movie feels like a true representation of the singer, who passed away at the beginning of 2010, including interviews with his one-hundred-year-old mother as well as close friends and back up singers.

Television:

Living With Yourself: Season 1 (Netflix) – So let’s get this straight. Paul Rudd starring in a movie where he clones himself in an experiment gone wrong and has to take his family back from a new and improved version? I’m way into this concept and I’m even more excited that this is a limited series with eight episodes. I really hope that the other cast members like the fantastic Aisling Bea will get something good to work with The show’s reviews are trending pretty well and the consensus is that if you like some Rudd then double Rudd in this comedy will do you nicely.

Eli (Netflix) – I have an aversion to horror which can probably be obvious in these write-ups but I will also give horror filmmakers second chances with films and that is what I’m doing here as Ciaran Foy’s Sinister 2 was an unfortunate rehash of a great movie that never really went anywhere. With this film, he tells the story of a boy who is receiving treatment for his auto-immune disorder that discovers the house he’s living in isn’t as safe as he thought and is filled with malicious spirits. The movie features a capable supporting cast with Kelly Reilly, Lili Taylor and Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink and from who I’m hearing the third act in this is crazy.

The Laundromat (Netflix) – I’m really excited about this one as it is made by the great Steven Soderbergh, based on a book from Jake Bernstein and written by Contagion and The Informant! writer Scott Z. Burns, but, holy crap, this cast gets me excited too. Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Jeffrey Wright, Matthias Schoenaerts and so many more star in this film about a widow who does a deep dive on a fraudulent insurance claim that leads to a pair of Panama City law partners that are exploiting the world’s financial system. The reviews aren’t hugely favorable for the film but the cast and filmmaker will always ensure that I will check out the validity of the movie for myself and I encourage you to do the same.

Modern Love: Season 1 (Amazon Prime) – I’m so excited about this series as it was created by the man behind Once and Sing Street, John Carney, one of my favorite Irish filmmakers. The show has a big cast including Anne Hatheway, Tina Fey, Catherine Keener, Dev Patel, Andy Garcia and so many more in a mosaic story about love as a concept whether it’s sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, or self-love. I also find it pretty interesting that former Shameless star Emmy Rossum directs one of the eight episodes of season one.

Wounds (Netflix) – I’d have to say the one of the hottest up and coming stars right now is Zazie Beetz, with her roles in Atlanta and Deadpool 2, but recently this year with Joker. She co-headlines this film with Armie Hamer and Dakota Johnson about a bartender in New Orleans who’s reality becomes to be unhinged when he takes home the cellphone left behind at his work. The film comes from writer and director Babak Anvari who’s film Under The Shadow creeped the hell out of me. This is going to be terrifying I’m sure and I love the cast that’s involved.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Oct 10

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October 10, 2019

New Releases:

Gemini Men – The premise of this movie looks really interesting, Will Smith playing a hitman who keeps getting foiled and duped by a younger assassin who turns out to be a younger clone of himself in a twist that is given away in the trailer. The movie looks cool, with the star power of Smith in a long gestated project from producer Jerry Bruckheimer that was at one time in the hands of Curtis Hanson and Tony Scott. This movie has me on the fence as Ang Lee is the director on this, a filmmaker who is pretty hit or miss with me, but with his faster frame rate of 120 frames per second it could be pretty interesting or it could be a glossy mess.

The Addams Family – Its been around twenty-five years since Barry Sonnenfeld brought the classic television family of The Addams Family to the big screen so why not get a reboot but in animated form this time. The voice cast is pretty impressive for this film, featuring fan-favorite and requested Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Charlize Theron as Morticia, Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday, a pivotal role, Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley and Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester, which is a hilarious connection to the directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan who made Sausage Party their last time out. I want to have faith in this movie because I really love The Addams Family.

Jexi – Remember when Spike Jonze made the movie Her, a love story between Joaquin Phoenix and a computer program voiced by Scarlett Johansson set in the near future? Well, we get a more conceivable movie this time around as Workaholics star Adam Devine plays a man who falls for the voice of his smartphone with the vocals provided by the uber funny Rose Byrne. Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the guys behind the Hangover movies, this looks like a ridiculous plot but still a very relevant one given how obsessed we are with our own phones, myself totally included. (Not opening in Kamloops)

Dolemite Is My Name – Eddie Murphy makes a triumphant return to feature films with this fantastic biopic, directed by Hustle And Flow’s Craig Brewer. Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, an ageing performer who made the big move from Arkansas to Los Angeles but hasn’t found any success whatsoever. His big break comes when he decides to gather the tall tales of a bunch of nearby hobos and packages them in a new larger than life pimp character named Dolemite, which leads to huge success in his self pressed album and a growing ambition that eventually has him wanting to make movies. Murphy is incredible in this movie but it’s the performance of Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin that floored me, a total game rejuvenation. Definitely see this one. (Only playing in Toronto and Vancouver. On Netflix October 25th.)

The Laundromat – I’m really excited about this one as it is made by the great Steven Soderbergh, based on a book from Jake Bernstein and written by Contagion and The Informant! writer Scott Z. Burns, but, holy crap, this cast gets me excited too. Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Jeffrey Wright, Matthias Schoenaerts and so many more star in this film about a widow who does a deep dive on a fraudulent insurance claim that leads to a pair of Panama City law partners that are exploiting the world’s financial system. The reviews aren’t hugely favorable for the film but the cast and filmmaker will always ensure that I will check out the validity of the movie for myself and I encourage you to do the same. (Only playing in Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver. On Netflix October 18th.)

Where’s My Roy Cohn – This documentary is absolutely chilling to it’s core, an engrossing look at attorney Roy Cohn, a man that got his first notorious start as part of the council employed by Joseph McCarthy to blackball supposed communists in America. A flamboyant individual who guarded his not too secret sexuality until the end of his life when he died of AIDS, something documented in Tony Kushner’s Broadway play Angels In America. Even more interesting, this film shows how much of Cohn’s personality was a blueprint for the tyrant in chief the States has currently in power, using moves that are all too familiar to us now. (Only playing in Toronto and Vancouver.)

Blu-Ray:

Toy Story 4 – When it was announced that a new Toy Story was being written, slated for release nine years after the third movie came out, I was a bit skeptical. I personally felt like Toy Story 3 wrapped everything up quite nicely in a beautifully made film but I can now say I was completely wrong because I fell in love with this movie just as hard as I did the other three. With the toys now with a new owner named Bonnie, gifted to her by Andy at the end of the last movie, they head on a road trip with a newly created pal named Forky who ends up getting lost. This leads Woody to go and bring him back to the family, to try and form some sort of connection with his new owner that he doesn’t have. This film forges a new direction for the Woody character, one that I didn’t see coming but it definitely fits in the growth of him. This movie again has all the emotional beats to shatter you emotionally so, you know, beware of that.

Annabelle Comes Home – I can’t believe we’re already at the third Annabelle movie but here we are. The series started horribly but Creation proved to be a really entertaining horror film so to up the ante this time Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s Lorraine and Ed Warren take left of center stage for this installment as the doll in question finds it’s way to their artifacts library where it wreaks havoc by waking all the other evil contained there. The movie, unfortunately, is a massive step down from the good trajectory of the last one and drags for the first twenty minutes before finding any sort of scares and then everything is a bit few and far between for my liking. This movie was kind of set up to be a culmination of a bunch of set pieces within the Conjuring universe and ultimately, it falls flat.

Midsommar – If there was a movie that I would put at the top of my list of anticipated films this year this would be number one with a bullet. The sophomore film from Hereditary director Ari Aster, the main details of this movie have been kept very under wraps, the trailer even giving a foreboding sense of mystery in a brilliantly bright wrapper. From what I can glean, the story is about a couple who travels to Sweden to visit a secluded town’s fabled mid-summer festival and what was thought to be an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult. From everything I’m hearing, this may be on par with the 1970s thriller The Wicker Man and, oh boy, does that excite me! I’m so disappointed that I still haven’t seen this as it didn’t come to my town and there’s even a director’s cut now!

Red Joan – Let me set this one up for you. Dame Judi Dench plays a woman in her eighties who is found to be a KGB spy who gave secrets of the British government to the Russians about their research into obtaining an atomic bomb. Intriguing, right? It’s just so unfortunate that director Trevor Munn made this film such a slog to get through making the story and its relationships so painfully dull. The worst part is that Dench puts on such a great performance but it is intercut with the flashbacks to her younger self, played well by the Kingsman’s Sophie Cookson, but with an absolutely painful on the sleeve script. This true story deserved better, although I really liked the ending.

Light Of My Life – Probably one of those “hey man, this movie is thematically problematic for you” but Casey Affleck has made a movie where he exists in a world with no women. Yes, you read that right and he not only stars in it but wrote and directed it as well but let’s take a deeper look. He plays a parent who must protect his 11-year-old child journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out half the world’s population. So, automatically if has that The Road feeling for me, which I’m completely on board for, but I get people’s trepidation with Affleck as the allegations are very damaging. I try to skirt away from this opinion but I still really enjoy Casey’s work but I feel in no way like a sort of Woody Allen apologist, I usually keep this kind of stuff to myself. I got a little revealing in this write up I guess.

Deadwood: The Movie – The long, long, long anticipated conclusion to the greatest western series ever made is now on blu-ray as we finally own the closure on the characters of Seth Bullock, Al Swearengen and all the other people in the infamous outlaw town. It’s bittersweet as I really wanted another series instead of a movie but creator David Milch was finally able to get his crowning achievement finished and out to the masses after years of building it up and his recent and tragic diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. This is going to be something truly special to behold and I can not wait.

Life With Lucy: Complete Series – I was weirded out by the cover of this boxset as I thought I would be receiving the original I Love Lucy series but what this is is the final series Lucille Ball ever did, broadcast in 1986. This show has Ball playing a widowed grandmother who inherited her husband’s half-interest in a hardware store in California, the other half being owned by his partner, widower Curtis McGibbon, played by longtime friend of Lucy, Gale Gordon. The show was not well received, earing Lucille Ball the worst reviews of her career and well cancelled after it’s first season. For nostalgia reasons and to see a comedienne that still had it up until the end, I found it entertaining.

Television:

The Walking Dead: Season 10 (AMC) – I can’t believe we are in double digits now for the length of this Robert Kirkman created series, based on a book that has now come to a close, but there is no end in sight for this show according to the showrunners and Fear The Walking Dead is going strong with yet another, at this point unnamed, spin-off series to come. Is there any signs of fatigue in this franchise? We may have seen some as the show has gone on but I think they’ve recovered quite well and they’ve been journeying on without original star Andrew Lincoln for a while now. Not many shows can make that claim.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix) – The long-anticipated movie follow up to Breaking Bad is now upon us and the great thing is that the trailer and synopsis released by Netflix and AMC is so fantastically ambiguous that there is really no hint to what this movie will be about except that Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman leads it. It should be noted that Badger, Mike, Skinny Pete and Old Joe are the only other characters listed in the cast list so contained cast means a smaller scope film but that could lead to a bunch of uncredited cameos just the blow away the viewer with surprise. It’s almost here, friends!

Fractured (Netflix) – A brand new film picked up by Netflix, this film is directed by Brad Anderson, the mind behind Session 9 and The Machinist, written by Alan B. McElroy, the guy who created the freaks of the horror franchise Wrong Turn as well as got Todd McFarlane’s Spawn to animated series form on HBO. This thriller is one of those “vanished” type mysteries, following a man and his family who go on a road trip and have to rush the daughter to a hospital after a fall. The father then falls asleep in the waiting room and upon waking his family has disappeared with no one having knowledge of having them check-in. Sam Worthington and American Horror Story’s Lily Rabe star in this and it’s getting some favorable reviews.

Rhythm & Flow: Season 1 (Netflix) – I’m usually not one for putting reality shows on this list or competition shows either but this one has me interested. The show is hosted by Cardi B, Chance The Rapper and T.I and is a talent search for the next hip-hop superstar, what Netflix sees as their answer to X-Factor and American Idol. The series will just be releasing the first four episodes, as they scour for undiscovered talent from Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, releasing the next batch of episodes on October 16 and then the final episodes on the 23rd. The show will also feature appearances from Snoop Dogg, DJ Khalid, Quavo, the late Nipsey Hustle and many more.

Batwoman: Season 1 (The CW) – I’ve been waiting a long time for a live-action onscreen version of Kate Kane aka Batwoman to be made and finally we’ve got it and I think the casting of Ruby Rose is kind of incredible as she already invokes many of the character traits right out the door. For those not in the know, Kane was inspired by Batman to use her own resources to fight crime in Gotham as well under the moniker of Batwoman, but is a woman of Jewish descent and is also a lesbian, something that was a hard pill to swallow for the mainstream. It’s great timing for her brand of vigilante justice to land on the CW now as Arrow is in its final season something is going to need to pick up the lead on that.

VIFF 2019 – Round 4

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October 7, 2019

Boyz In The Wood -Nothing makes me happier than a horror-comedy out of the United Kingdom with chavs as the lead stars. For those who don’t know, chav is a derogatory term for teens who dress in Adidas or Nike gear, have a filthy mouth and terrible attitude and are always bumming smokes of people, so you can equate that to a lot in North America. This film is great, capitalizing on those great character traits with a killer soundtrack including Run The Jewels and Danny Brown, around a story that puts these characters on a team-building exercise as they have to journey through the Scottish highlands from one side to the other but, unbeknownst to them, a couple of psycho residents are hunting them the whole time under the guise of “The Duke Of Edinburgh” and “the Queen”. This movie is fun, absolutely hilarious but ultimately pretty predictable.

NO TRAILER FOR THIS ONE.

Dolemite Is My Name – Eddie Murphy makes a triumphant return to feature films with this fantastic biopic, directed by Hustle And Flow’s Craig Brewer. Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, an ageing performer who made the big move from Arkansas to Los Angeles but hasn’t found any success whatsoever. His big break comes when he decides to gather the tall tales of a bunch of nearby hobos and packages them in a new larger than life pimp character named Dolemite, which leads to huge success in his self pressed album and a growing ambition that eventually has him wanting to make movies. Murphy is incredible in this movie but it’s the performance of Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin that floored me, a total game rejuvenation. Definitely see this one.

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.

Waves – Director and writer Trey Edward Shults has made an incredible film about the bonds of family across terrible decisions and seemingly monstrous actions and how far the notion of “unconditional love” extends. The film follows the story of a suburban African-American family, led by a well-intentioned but domineering father played by This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown, as they are thrown through the loop by the domino effect their son goes through when his college wrestling career is brought to an abrupt end. This is a movie that will stun you with its incredible realism and the performances throughout are dominated by these fantastic actors. This is a movie that has little clout right now but could be on Oscar ballots come next year. Take note of this one.

The Death Of Dick Long – I feel like any description I can give for this movie leads me down murky paths of either doing a complete injustice to the insanity of this movie that writer and director Daniel Schienart has created as well as being any semblance of spoilered because, in all honesty, the best way to go into this film is completely out of the loop. Taking on the immense task of following up his first feature Swiss Army Man, under the dual name of Daniels with fellow filmmaker Daniel Kwan, his solo venture is like a redneck satire on partying dumbasses who find themselves embroiled in a Coens-esque predicament and every moment gets crazier than the last. This movie is filled to the brim with cringe tension that ramps up to a reveal that is too crazy and jawdropping to even come to grips with. Seriously, I will be thinking about this one for a long time yet but I do know that I totally loved every minute of it.

VIFF 2019 – Round 3

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October 4, 2019

Paradise Hills – When this movie started out I was fully on board, a story following a girl played by Emma Roberts who wakes up on an island where girls are being reformed in a boarding school that looks more like a futuristic spa. What are they being prepared for and what happens to them when they are deemed “ready”? The premise is so intriguing, looking like The Prisoner if it was directed by Sofia Coppola but by the time we get to the third act the whole thing falls apart horribly, all it’s potential squandered.

By The Grace Of God – I will start right off the bat by saying that it’s a good thing I watched this film in the form as a screener at home because I had a very visceral knee jerk reaction of anger at this film, a story about pedophilia in the Catholic church. The film follows three men who were close friends in Scouts as children, where the were preyed on by the priest who ran the camp. Slowly the movement grows as more come forward and the lies, manipulation and cover-ups begin to be revealed in a public light. I found myself yelling at my television, unable to hold my disgust with the reveals in this film, which is director Francois Ozon’s best since 2003’s Swimming Pool. The film is maybe a tad too long but it definitely plays like the French version of Spotlight.

Jojo Rabbit – I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand how Taika Waititi is able to be such a deeply adorable man, even when he plays Adolf Hitler, but here we are. This is the story of a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany, enrolled in the Hitler Youth program, with designs on becoming the fuhrer’s best friend. All of young Jojo’s ego and courage comes from his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, played by the aforementioned Waititi in the most hilarious way possible. To truly enjoy this movie you really have to throw away any offended feelings you have because the film is the height of pure satire. That in mind, the performances from everyone are so top-notch, which includes Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Leave No Trace standout Thomasin McKenzie.

Little Joe – This movie is unsettling from the get-go, as soon as it’s oddly scrolling credits appear a high pitched squeal takes over the score, intermittently returning to unnerve you more. To be very minimalist about the description, the film Emily Beecham stars as Alice, a single mother and a senior plant breeder at a corporation dedicated to developing new species. Against company policy, she takes her prized plant home as a gift for her teenage son, Joe, a flower that is bred not to procreate but one that is, according to the research, sentient. Director and writer Jessica Hausner plays the mystery of this film with such a great subtlety that you never really can get a grasp on the reality of everything up until it’s chilling ending and its brilliant. She is also so impeccable in her production design and costuming, commanding me to rewatch this film to unlock more that I missed.

NO TRAILER FOR THIS ONE.

Sometimes Always Never – This one is a simple film, a story of a father and son, estranged for years, reconnecting to possibly identify the body of Michael, another estranged son who stormed out after a game of Scrabble. Now seemingly obsessed with the game, Nighy’s character is constantly lost in the pieces but is using it to connect with his obtuse son but also the open mind of his grandson. This is basically just a film for Nighy to chew the scenery, which he does brilliantly thanks to the script from Tristam Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story writer Frank Cottrell Boyce against some gorgeous and vibrant backdrops. Richard Stoddard’s cinematography is definitely the second star of this movie.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Oct 3

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October 3, 2019

New Releases:

Joker – After over a year of speculation of what this film would be, it’s connections to all the existing canon of DC Comics’ cinematic universe and really what the state of this Batman villain is going forward, this Todd Phillips directed film has arrived and Joaquin Phoenix is being praised for his performance in it, which doesn’t surprise me a bit. With zero connection to any pre-existing comic story or film, this is the story of how struggling comedian Arthur Fleck became the Joker, a criminal mastermind that terrorizes Gotham City. Looking at the film’s trailer, to me, it comes across as a gritty version of Martin Scorsese’s The King Of Comedy with a violent and clown-themed twist. It’s really hard not to have the bar raised high for this movie as this character is so revered but I think it’s going to astound audiences.

Blu-Ray:

Spider-Man: Far From Home – The first movie to follow after the massive changes that Avengers: Endgame brought to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this film is the story that brings closure to this phase, let’s us mourn Tony Stark and prepares us for what’s coming next. I want to keep this one really short as spoiler territory is a hard thing to avoid with this but the film is basically about the world trying to get back to normal after the dusting or what this film calls “the blip” when a new threat to the planet emerges with what may be a new hero in the form of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. The movie is the perfect blend of spectacle and laughs filtered into an awkward teenager rom-com, exactly what we needed after the dire consequences of Infinity War and Endgame. This film is a big movie experience in every way and demands to be seen.

Anna – French action director Luc Besson is back with another woman led ass-kicker movie. The film stars Sasha Luss, a relatively unknown actress who featured in Besson’s last movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in a predominantly CGI role, but she looks totally badass in the trailer. She plays the title character, a beautiful and deadly assassin and really that’s all I know about it and with this great action director, well, that’s all you need to know. The rest of the cast is solid too with Helen Mirren, Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy. If you’re looking for some brainless stuff and need some serious Atomic Blonde stylized stuff, this is your ticket.

Wild Rose – This seems to be a really great time for music in movies as we’ve recently received biopics of two of the greatest rock n roll acts of all time, Queen and Elton John, and had the high profile remake of A Star Is Born and the phenomenal indie film Teen Spirit. In this new film that is getting top-notch reviews, Irish singer and actress Jessie Buckley plays a Glasgow singer who is pursuing her dream of moving from Glasgow to Nashville to become the next country star. The movie comes from director Tom Harper, who has directed a slew of great British television and the Woman In Black sequel, so I know this film with have a visual style to go along with its music. This may be one of those hidden gem films.

Anna And The Apocalypse – It’s like this movie was made to get me riping out it out of the DVD packaging for both a musical and a Christmas movie, two genres that don’t have a high success rate with me. How do they do this? A zombie Christmas movie. Absolutely brilliant. Basically, a group of friends living in a small town in England have to survive a zombie outbreak during the holiday season and I feel like instant classic ensues. You see more of this genre-bending could go a long way to grabbing yourself some new fans against their will but all in all, the songs are catchy, the gore is a lot of fun and the production level is there. Plus, there is a musical sequence with the main characters completely oblivious to the chaos around them that rivals Shaun Of The Dead.

Framing John DeLorean – We all known the DeLorean as Back To The Future made it such a huge part of our pop culture that you really need to live under a rock to not know about it but is the rise and fall of the DeLorean Motor Company as common of knowledge? This film is the only film to be made on the man who had a dream and screwed everyone in the process to keep it alive as four different films were optioned but never came to fruition, one produced by DeLorean himself. This documentary takes a fascinating approach of being a linear story told about the rise of an idea, the execution and then the scandalous fall through bad deals and a cocaine bust with re-enactments starring Alec Baldwin. The final result is ambitious and engrossing, such an interesting way of telling a real story.

Doom: Annihilation – Look, the original Doom movie with Karl Urban and The Rock gets a really bad rap and while it’s nowhere near a good movie it’s pretty damn entertaining and has a sweet POV sequence that has only been done again in Hardcore Henry. That said, I really don’t feel this sequel or reboot was necessary and it’s haphazardly bad and not even in a fun “so bad it’s good” way, it’s just plain bad. The characters are cardboard cutouts only made to die and the effects slowly slide from bad to worse, even if they do some practical makeup stuff that could have been cool. This is just another obvious direct to video production looking for some video game money.

Itsy Bitsy – Well, I guess you can’t win them all as Shout and Scream Factory helped distribute this mess of a creature feature that I should have known was bad just based on the name alone. The story follows a single mother of two who is deeply grieving for her youngest child who was killed in a car accident. Moving them out of New York to a secluded mansion in a small town where she is to be the caregiver for an elderly collector suffering from MS. One of his relics happens to contain a giant spider within that terrorizes everyone. This movie is an absolute mess will pretty much no redeeming features besides a couple of cool monster effects. Not even worth a moment of your time.

The Addams Family & Addams Family Values – Anyone who is a 90s kid like myself will have a deep love for both of these movies and now they are both in one Blu-ray package together. With an animated film coming next week to theaters, relive the perfect big-screen live-action representation of the iconic Addams family played beautifully by the legendary Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, a very young Christina Ricci and the kid who played Pugsley, Jimmy Workman, who is actually the older brother of Modern Family’s Ariel Winter. This movie proved that they didn’t Tim Burton to make this movie creepy, kooky, spooky and ooky because director Barry Sonnenfeld did that quite handily. Also never forget that the second movie featured the hit M.C. Hammer song “Too Legit To Quit” but I know you would never let that slip your mind being such big fans and all.

Gunsmoke: Season 15 Volume 1 & 2 – When I was a kid my dad had me watching all the shows he grew up on like Bonanza, The Rifleman and this show about U.S. marshal Matt Dillon (not the actor), a man employed to keep his town of Dodge City peaceful and calm, which you know never happens. With six hundred and thirty-five total episodes totalling twenty seasons by the time the show wrapped up, it’s hard to tell you exactly what these two volumes are exactly about but the great thing about Gunsmoke is that you can drop in just about anywhere.

Tell Me A Story: Season 1 – A band new series from the creators of The Vampire Diaries, I had never heard of this show until it was sent to me by the people at Paramount but now I’m pretty excited about it as the fan base has really latched onto this show. If you are a regular reader of my piece here each week then you will know that I love a good horror anthology and that is exactly what this is. Created by the man who wrote Scream, this show takes classic fables like interweaves The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel and reimagines them in a modern setting with a cast of recurring characters played by The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley, Zoo’s James Wolk and Aladdin’s Billy Magnussen.

Charmed (2019): Season 1 – Everything that was old is slowly but surely becoming new again as this show about three witch sister, originally played by Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano then eventually Rose McGowan when Doherty was fired, gets brand new life again on the CW. Stepping into the roles now are Be Kind Rewind’s Melonie Diaz, Into The Badlands’ Madeleine Mantock and Shades Of Blue’s Sarah Jeffery who take the series in a darker direction which is maybe why some of the original fans of the series it was spawned from absolutely hate it. Progression is either forgotten or hated in these types of shows.

Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend Of Korra – The complete series of Avatar The Last Airbender was released on Blu-ray back in June but when I never received a copy of it, I was mighty upset. Now the show has been paired with its companion series in a new double set and I am so happy to have it in my hands. This is a massively popular anime series produced with the help of Nickelodeon that had both the fan support behind it from the beginning as well as some big critical acclaim. We just won’t speak of the M. Night Shyamalan garbage that was derived from it.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekout:

Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am? – In my opinion, the greatest saxophone player of all time gets his due in this documentary made eight years after his death. Clarence was known for his forefront role in the E Street Band, backing “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen, but this documentary digs deep into his life, showing the more intimate side of the musician, something no fan has ever gotten to see before. Full disclosure on my knowledge of Clemons, I was educated at a young age because he appeared in Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure as one of “The Three Most Important People In The World” and I had questions for my mom.

Who Saw Her Die? – Back to the giallo films from Arrow Video, a genre I have become increasingly fond of. This movie stars one time James Bond actor George Lazenby as a sculptor and the father of a young girl who is brutally murdered in a series of killings in France. Taking matters into his own hands, he and his wife start their own investigation into who may be the killer, putting themselves at risk as the body count rises. Being made in 1972, the movie is definitely cheesy due to the time period but still pretty entertaining and as wooden as Lazenby is, it kind of works in this one. This isn’t going to astound anyone but it’s pretty a pretty entertaining serial killer film.

Television:

Big Mouth: Season 3 (Netflix) – It’s time to get uncomfortable with our bodies all over again as this lewd, rude and massively crude animated comedy returns with all-new episodes. I adore anything that Nick Kroll and John Mulaney do and when you throw Maya Rudolph and Jason Mantzoukas into the mix than I am in love. For those who don’t know about this show, it is the awkward and sometimes brutal coming of age story of two best friends in the throes of puberty. Watch it at your own risk but keep it in mind that it is totally my kind of messed up.

Peaky Blinders: Season 5 (Netflix) – This massively popular BBC creation makes its anticipated return to the streaming site, featuring an incredible cast led by Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory, Anya Taylor-Joy, Aiden Gillen and Finn Cole in great supporting roles. The series is a gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England, a ruthlessly brutal gang who sewed razor blades in the peaks of their caps to take care of their enemies, led by their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, Murphy’s character. The new season has Tommy as the now the newly elected Labour MP for Birmingham South but dealing with new problems in the wake of a massive Wall Street crash. People are going to be all over this one.

Raising Dion: Season 1 (Netflix) – This is a show that I really just found out about this week but it looks pretty interesting. The show is about a widowed young mother whose life is thrown into disarray when she discovers that her son has superpowers and tries to figure out how to raise him safely and responsibly. The cool thing about this series is that it’s a family-oriented show so the whole family can get in on it but there are no recognizable stars in the show at all so the acting is a little lesser in quality.

In The Tall Grass (Netflix) – It’s really funny because I’m in Vancouver this week to cover the Vancouver International Film Festival and this movie actually played the fest but I was being bored to death at the time by Terrence Malick so I completely missed it. Now everyone can see it, the new film from Cube director Vincenzo Natali, based on a novella written by father and son duo Stephen King and Joe Hill. The film is about a sister and brother who venture into a vast field of tall grass in Kansas after hearing a cry for help. Quickly they discover that the have entered an endless maze and there is something hunting them down. This is totally my kind of movie and I really hope it washes all my bad feelings away about It: Chapter 2. You owe me, Steve!

Goliath: Season 3 (Amazon Prime) – This show became the most streamed show on the Amazon Prime service well before anyone knew about it, at least in Canada, so I expect this Billy Bob Thornton led sleazy lawyer series is hotly anticipated coming into its third year. The show has Thorton as a disgraced lawyer who has fallen so far down the ladder that he is now essentially an ambulance chaser. This all changes when he gets the opportunity to stick it to his former firm and earn some redemption with a special case that lands in his lap. Featuring a recurring role from William Hurt and created by television magician David E. Kelley, it looks to have all the makings of a great show.

VIFF 2019 – Round 2

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October 2, 2019

A Hidden Life – It’s been a long time since I loved a Terrence Malick film, the mid-nineties to be exact with his conscientious objector war film The Thin Red Line, and with his return to real narrative filmmaking with this film, I thought this would be the ticket back into his work and I’d be celebrating him as my friends do. Interestingly enough, this is another conscientious objector about Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer who refuses to fight for the Nazis. I feel like I was lied to about the narrative thing because this is still all flighty shots of water, fields and staring people with voiceovers. This guy is a serious junkie for repose and I’m bored with it.

Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played With Fire – An insightful documentary, this is a deep look at an author who made it internationally famous seemingly, in the world’s eyes, overnight and then was dead soon after. The deep dig of this film reveals a news writer, much like the one in his novels, who was dedicated to bringing the rise of the far right, white nationalism and nazi extremism to the media spotlight in Sweden and being condemned and having his life threatened by those he investigated. This is an interesting story of how the real events that shaped the author of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series to write his best work that he would never get the chance to enjoy.

Motherless Brooklyn – Edward Norton is back behind the camera for the first time in almost twenty years with this new detective noir drama where he plays a private investigator’s helper who takes it upon himself to unravel a mystery that gets his boss killed. It should also be mentioned that Norton’s character suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome, which is sometimes played for laughs. The film is an engaging film with a great script but no one in the film is particularly amazing, no standouts that I could see. The film is a little rough around the edges and could be trimmed down a bit, plus there was a bit of additional dialogue that felt a little tacked on.

Escher: Journey Into Infinity – W.D. Escher is a fascinating person who’s art can’t twist and blow the mind just on its first impression. For this reason, I was really looking forward to checking out this documentary, which approaches the subject by acting like he made the film himself, talking to us through the well known and appreciated tones of Stephen Fry’s voice. For me, the film was informative and concise, giving us both a deep look at the art as well as the man who created it but when it comes to his influence on modern culture and it’s uses I felt it get a bit silly in a “Bill and Ted” what’s this wacky thing going on here sort of way. Left me a bit cold.

NO TRAILER FOR THIS ONE

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.

VIFF 2019 – Round 1

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September 30, 2019

Parasite – What a great way to start out my coverage of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, some great Korean cinema from one of the masters, Bong Joon-Ho. In his return to all Korean film, he tells the story of a family of con artists who grift their way into a rich families lives as a chauffeur, housekeeper, tutor and personal assistant respectively. They think they’ve hit the big time until the former housekeeper shows them a deep secret that she’s been hiding in their employer’s house that blows everyone’s situation up. Joon-Ho crafts another incredible masterpiece of a movie that’s filled with twists, incredible cinematography and the amazing ability to tell stories within a story. He never relents in showing that he is not only one of the greatest Korean storytellers today but one of the best in cinema today.

Burning Cane – A hard film to derive anything out of it except a desperate feeling sorrow, this is a brutal and deeply emotional first feature from writer and director Phillip Youmans, a filmmaker that seems to have the eye of a director like Terrance Malick but without the same repose. The film is built around three characters, a mother who has deeply religious convictions that she wants to impart on those closest to her to a futile degree, her son, a father who’s systemic alcoholism completely drowned any potential he has as a man and a reverend who spits fire at the podium but drowns his demons in the drink whenever he is away from the spotlight. This movie is tragic and viscerally real but kind of left me a bit in the third act.

The Lighthouse – Ever since I saw The Witch at a press screening in 2015 I have been waiting rabidly for the new Robert Eggers film and he did not disappoint. Shot in black and white and in a 1.19:1 aspect ratio (basically a square on the movie screen), this is the story of two lighthouse keepers who arrive to run the light on a New England island in 1890. In two incredible and award-worthy performances, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe descend into isolated madness before your eyes and I’ve never seen anything like it. The description I’m trying to push to describe this film is it’s like if David Lynch wrote a sea shanty and put it on the big screen.

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. Awards season will definitely contain talk of this movie when it sees release in December and not just for Jordan who turns in another great performance but it’s more likely that Jamie Foxx will get the nomination as a wrongly convicted small-town Alabama man that was made a target by a brutal sheriff in his county.

Babysplitters – The premise of this movie started good, two couples that feel the need to have kids but are too worried about losing their freedoms in their work, recreation and romantic lives. Then a deal is struck. Due to the infertility of one of the ladies, it is proposed that the one husband knock the other wife up and custody of the baby would be shared between the four of them. Wacky plot, right? Community’s Danny Pudi plays the lead in a film that feels just as silly as it’s premise and goes through tremendous logic stretches to keep going and falls apart in an “alls well that ends well” sort of ending. Disappointing.

NO TRAILER FOR THIS ONE.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sept 26

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September 26, 2019

New Releases:

Abominable – After Warner Bros. made some middling money for their animated yeti movie Smallfoot, Dreamworks now throws their snow caked hat into the ring with this new adorable looking film featuring Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Chloe Bennet. The story has her character Yi discovering a magic yeti that she needs to get to its home before a wealthy businessman with the voice of Eddie Izzard and his zoologist sidekick can get their way. It would seem that the push isn’t very big behind this movie, one of the few big studio releases of this month, the reviews seem to be really backing it up and giving me the impression that this might be a film with some great original ideas and something the whole family will enjoy. The director previously did Open Season for Sony so she’s a winner in my books as I love that movie.

Judy – Ever since Rene Zellweger returned to the spotlight for her third Bridget Jones movie, I have been waiting for her to nab a juicy role that would put her back into the position of being an award hopeful like when she won an Oscar for Cold Mountain. Yes, I root for Rene and now I think she has landed in a movie that I think will garner the awards talk as the season kicks off. She plays the legendary Judy Garland in this biopic about the troubled and tragic actress from True Story director Rupert Goold, focussing on her series of sold-out concerts in London during the winter of 1968. Although this movie and Rene were publicly denounced by Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli, the word has been good and the film received a huge standing ovation at TIFF. I think this will be the one to look out for in the Best Actress conversation so make note of it now.

Blu-Ray:

Yesterday – Imagine a world where you were a musician that was the only person who could remember the existence of The Beatles and their music. That is the premise of this new Danny Boyle directed film starring Himesh Patel and the lovely Lily James and as a huge fan of the Fab Four myself I was really excited for it as it celebrates the music of one of the greatest bands to ever live but I wanted to keep my bar low to not be disappointed. I’m happy to report that the movie exceeded my expectations, a sweetheart of a story that’s just loony enough to be some ridiculous fun with a steadily beating heart underneath it. Patel’s performance is so earnest and kind of a star-maker so I hope to see more of him in the future.

Child’s Play – I really don’t know how to feel about this remake or reboot as I really enjoyed the direction that this Don Mancini created series was going with the comedy horror angle. Chucky, for me, is one of those iconic horror staples, especially with the voice of Brad Dourif but I’m willing to give this movie a shot, and not just because it was all shot in Vancouver. The “Buddi” doll in this new film is computer programmable, a gift that a mother (Aubrey Plaza) gives her son that gets possessed by an evil entity with the voice of Mark Hamill. That latter part is another reason I’m giving this movie a chance and, hell, the reviews were actually pretty good.

Shaft – In the attempt to reboot a franchise Shaft gets the whole grandfather, dad and son treatment with Richard Roundtree and Samuel L. Jackson reprising their roles as John Shaft I and John Shaft II respectively as they mentor John Shaft Jr., played by Independence Day: Resurgence star Jesse T. Usher. The twist is that Shaft Jr. isn’t a tough guy like his dad and grandpa but a cybersecurity genius and MIT graduate who must use his skills to solve the murder of a close family friend, prompting every cliched “what a pussy” moment to come flying out of Sam Jackson’s mouth. The film is directed by Barbershop and Fantastic Four director Tim Story and while this movie is more playing to his style of comedy, the real Shaft moments just come across as totally cringe-worthy to a degree that I wonder why Warner Bros. went ahead with this film based on its script alone. Also, the third act has a moment that reeks of a desperate attempt for the writers to scream “hey, we’ve got more!” I’m sure they do, just no one is interested.

The First King – It’s pretty rare for me to receive something from Well Go USA that isn’t an Asian film so it was surprising when I got this co-production between Italy and Belgium and, oh man, what a film it is. It is the story of Romulus and Remus, two brothers living in peace near the Tiber river. Remus believes that he is bigger than their God’s intentions for him and is meant to become king of a city he will create together with his brother. What ensues is a incredible journey that leads the two brothers to creating one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen, the Romans. This movie is bloody, visceral and horrifically violent but always entertaining with some incredible shots but beware this movie gets pretty gross.

In The Aftermath – More forgotten 80s stuff courtesy of Arrow Video, as this one features no one you know and is directed and written by a guy who has made nothing you’ve ever heard of and maybe because its one of those great Ozploitation films. This one is fascinating as it blends the end of the world with religious allegory as it follows the survivors in a post apocalyptic world who see a beacon of salvation when an angel descends from heaven. The story is a cool sounding one but there’s a twist to this film as it uses an animated element from the Japanese anime movie Angel’s Egg to help the film along, blending animation with the live action story in a move that feels absolutely crazy pills. This movie is so hidden in its history that there is pretty much no information on it to be found.

John Carpenter’s Vampires – Anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep love for the Master of Horror, John Carpenter, and when the collector’s edition for this movie was announced I was immediately stoked because I think this movie is one of his many underrated films. Starring James Woods in his most badass role ever, the film follows the leader of a group of vampire slayers after his entire team has been decimated by one of the most powerful vamps they’ve ever come up against, the deadly Jan Valek. In a last-ditch effort to save humanity, he must recover a Catholic relic that would spell doom for existence if the bloodsuckers got their hands on it. This movie was horribly panned when it was released but I think it is massively entertaining due to its western style approach and possibly the greatest James Woods performance ever. Trust me, this is a collector’s edition to get excited over.

The Major And The Minor – We’re heading back to the era of 1940s cinema with this new collector’s edition from Arrow Academy in a movie written and directed by the legendary Billy Wilder. Starring Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland, the story to this romance is very simple, a woman disguises herself as a child to save on a train fare and is taken in charge by an army man who doesn’t notice the truth, so, you know, your standard rom-com. This role was very close to Rogers as she used to pretend to be younger by rolling her stockings down and holding her old dolly to look like a young child in order to get a cheaper fare when she was part of her family’s vaudeville act. Honestly, the stories about this movie get crazier, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 – Back when Wes Craven was first scaring audiences for the first time with The Last House On The Left and The Hills Have Eyes, he wanted to make a sequel to the second movie, which he filmed the majority of before his star-maker A Nightmare On Elm Street was made and released. After that success, the producers wanted him to finish the movie, which wasn’t possible with what he had and with no more budget to rely on, he had to cut in pieces of the first movie to pad it up and hated the finished product and subsequently disowned it. Well, now that movie is a collector’s edition with Arrow Video and a perfect piece of any horror fan’s collection no matter what Wes thought of it. Plus it has the only flashback sequence from the point of view of a dog in cinema existence. How’s that for a selling feature?

Madam Secretary: Season 5 – A political drama which looks into the life of the Secretary of State as she tries to balance work with family. With a really great supporting cast that includes Tim Daly, Geoffrey Arend, Zeljko Ivanek and, a personal favorite, Keith Carradine, this show is a really solid political drama that plays off of some real-life happenings. Yes, this season picked some sides between the whole Trump versus Hillary debate, which was revealing when Hillary herself appeared on the show, but I really love that our art mediums are choosing to be transparent in this way with the writing. Between this and The Good Fight, we are really getting some fiery anti-Trump talk which is, in my opinion, completely warranted.

Billions: Season 4 – U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades goes after hedge fund king Bobby “Axe” Axelrod in a battle between two powerful New York figures. The battle of heavies played perfectly by Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti, two of the best character actors working, continues in this new season, as the tables turn on some of our characters and new alliances are formed for financial survival. For the first time, and in an uneasy way between Axe, Chuck and his lawyer wife Wendy form an uneasy alliance against a Russian billionaire played by John Malkovich, the COO of a rival investment firm, Rhodes former right-hand guy and the attorney general of the United States. The stakes are definitely high in this season.

Holocaust – Paramount reaches deep into the vault for this television event that originally aired on NBC in the spring of 1978. Starring the now high profile actors James Woods, Meryl Streep and former Law & Order leading man Michael Moriarty, this is a harrowing miniseries which recounts the events leading to the Holocaust from the perspectives of a fictional German Jew family named Weiss and that of a rising member of the SS, who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal. This movie got lambasted by critics when it was released, NBC themselves being accused of being exploitative and trying to commercialize the story of the holocaust. This was even with a companion show that would follow, featuring a panel of historians who answered questions from people phoning in, which seems like a great way to get some real information across after a series that features some embellishment and fiction. It’s good that audiences have softened now. Haha, just kidding.

Stephen King’s The Stand – When this adaptation originally aired in 1994, I was deliriously excited because this is my favorite book of all time, the ultimate battle of good and evil on the battlegrounds of a plague-ridden world. The series played really well for me and, although some dodgy special effects and television grade acting hamper it quite a bit, the four-episode miniseries holds up. This new restored Blu-ray edition looks absolutely gorgeous and features audio commentary as well as a featurette on the making of the show. This is a good tide over as the new adaptation is currently in production with filmmaker Josh Boone at the helm.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Ladyworld – This is one of those weird little films I’ve never heard of getting sent to me that is, out of nowhere, a pretty damn good watch. Featuring a cast of definite up and comers, this is the story of eight teenage girls who become trapped in an endless birthday party after a massive earthquake that triggers a time anomaly event and the girls’ sanity and psyches dissolve as they begin to run out of food and water. The young cast of this show is what grabbed me immediately, featuring Ariela Barer from Runaways and Atypical, Annalise Basso from Captain Fantastic, the always great Ryan Simpkins and the fast-rising star of Maya Hawke. Writer and director Amanda Kramer has such command over these actresses which shines through with the screenplay and this is only her second feature. I see big things in her future as well as all these gifted ladies.

Television:

Stumptown: Season 1 (ABC) – One of the best comics in the last ten years, Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s limited series was modern-day detective noir following a bisexual female private investigator with a gambling problem. I was very intrigued by a series adaptation of this, although I was hoping for a cable or streaming company to do it given the creative freedom, but as soon as Burnaby’s own Cobie Smulders was cast in the lead role I had more confidence in the show even though ABC would be making it. The supporting cast is solid too, with Michael Ealy, The Practice’s Cameron Manheim, who I feel like I haven’t seen in forever and The New Girl’s Jake Johnson plus Greg Rucka is the showrunner too as well as the original creator.

Creepshow: Season 1 (Shudder) – With my love of anthology horror being large as well as my adoration of the first two Creepshow movies, you best believe I am more than excited for a brand new series of disturbing horror stories led by The Walking Dead showrunner and gore specialist Greg Nicotero. First off, the list of directors on this show is insane, including David Bruckner, one of the guys behind another anthology film Southbound, for four episodes, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie director John Harrison for two episodes, the incredible new talent of Roxanne Benjamin, Makeup master Tom Savini and more and then the cast, holy crap. There’s a mix of older stars and new as we get people like Adrienne Barbeau, Tobin Bell and Jeffrey Coms as well as rappers Big Boi and Kid Cudi and fan favorites like David Arquette and Dana Gould. Oh man, this is going to be fun.

Crank Yankers: Season 1 (Comedy) – Remember that show from years ago that had prank phone calls recreated by puppets? Well, that show has returned to Comedy Central because, you know, whatever was old is new again, right? The original series, which took it’s final call about twelve years ago, featured the voices of Fred Armisen, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman and Dane Cook whereas this new season brings in the voices of Tracy Morgan, Adam Carolla and Aubrey Plaza or at least for the first episode. This show was a large part of my 2000s favorites alongside Wonder Showzen on MTV2 so I’m kind of hoping that the caliber of comedy is still there. Otherwise, why else even try this?

In The Shadow Of The Moon (Netflix) – A totally underrated filmmaker with great films on his resume like Cold In July and Stakeland, Jim Mickle returns with this off-kilter crime mystery with a sci-fi thread in it. Starring Boyd Holbrook, Michael C. Hall and The Last Man On Earth standout Cleopatra Coleman, this movie is about a Philadelphia police officer’s struggle with a lifelong obsession to track down a mysterious serial killer whose crimes defy any earthly explanation, causing him to look like the department quack. I love the atmosphere that Mickle has brought to all of his movies and the film features David Lanzenberg as the cinematographer who dropped my jaw with his work on the sci-fi film The Signal so I’m basically counting down to when this is on Netflix.

The Unicorn: Season 1 (CBS) – A brand new series with The Righteous Gemstones star Walton Goggins in the lead and its a sweetheart comedy? Oh hell yes, sign me up! This brand new show has him playing a widower who is eager to move on from the most difficult year of his life and try and meet someone new. He quickly realizes that he’s utterly unprepared to raise his two daughters on his own and at the same time equally unprepared for the dating world where he’s suddenly a very sought after guy. The show co-stars Rob Corddry and Omar Benson Miller, both from the HBO show Ballers, and was created by two of the guys behind 3rd Rock From The Sun. Wait, was that too old of a reference?

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sept 19

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September 19, 2019

New Releases:

Downton Abbey – Four years after the hit BBC series that captivated audiences all over the world finished its run, the residents and servants of Downton Abbey hit the big screen in this brand new and heavily anticipated feature film. The story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century, continues in 1927 as the household prepares for the imminent arrival of the Royal family to visit. The entire cast is present for this one, including patriarch Hugh Bonneville as well as Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern and Penelope Wilton and also features the return of audience favorite Maggie Smith. Full disclosure, I have not finished the entire series yet so going any deeper on this movie would put myself in the realm of spoiler territory.

Rambo: Last Blood – It’s Sylvester Stallone’s reportedly last time of stepping into the role of the bigger than life John Rambo, which is indicated by the movie’s title, and I have to say that this is kind of a nostalgic moment for me as these films were everything to me as a kid. Hell, even the last movie, released in 2008, was a kick-ass action piece that satisfied the audience’s bloodlust and gave a great reason for the hero to return to the screen. This film is a little more self-contained as it has Rambo making a last stand on his country farm against a threat from his past looking to snuff out his legacy. With a hard R rating once again, expect this movie to go balls to the wall in violence and to end this story, that started in Hope, B.C., with a deafening bang. I’m so excited.

Ad Astra – If you are an A-list star and haven’t been to space yet in one of your films are you really an A-list star? It’s a weird question but f you think of all the space films we’ve had over the last forty years it kind of makes sense. That said, this one is a movie that has been on my most anticipated list since it was announced, all because it teams Brad Pitt with acclaimed filmmaker James Gray. Pitt plays astronaut Roy McBride who undertakes a mission to journey across the solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the universe. The reviews have been absolutely stellar, skirting the line of being a compelling science fiction story with the emotional human drama of the connection between an estranged father and son. I knew this was going to be a solid film and the trailer really backs me up on that.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band – 2019 has been such an incredible year for music documentaries and retrospectives and it continues here with this look at the legendary Robbie Robertson and the group he led, The Band. Yes, if you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz you are very familiar with their work but instead of a focused concert, this tells the story of a group that went from backing up Bob Dylan to become one of the most influential groups of its era with a catalog of songs that are so beautifully written by a group of songwriters with unfathomable cohesion. With both me and my wife being huge fans of The Band, this movie was incredibly special to us. (Opens in Toronto and Vancouver. Opens in Calgary and Hamilton on Sept 27 and Edmonton on Oct 3)

Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool – To quote a line from Billy Madison “if peeing your pants is cool you can consider me Miles Davis”. I really don’t know why I placed that line in here, it just felt right, but this is a pretty definitive documentary about the gifted musician’s life and legacy. As a horn player, bandleader and an innovator, Davis was an absolute force of nature and the very embodiment of cool, something I’ve known for years thanks to my very music smart mother. The film explores archival photos and home movies shot by Miles and his colleagues, his manuscripts and original paintings all to give a glimpse into the man behind the music featuring interviews with Carlos Santana, The Roots, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Herbie Hancock and more. (Opens in Toronto and Vancouver)

Blu-Ray:

Dark Phoenix – I haven’t had any faith in an X-Men movie since Bryan Singer ripped the reigns of the franchise back from director Matthew Vaughn after First Class, which was phenomenal, to make Days Of Future Past which was a film that crumbled under the weight of simply deconstructing it after my viewing. Then came Apocalypse, which was a dismal piece of convenient plot piece garbage and now we have this movie, the end story to this long-running Marvel created story but produced by Fox franchise, directed by usual EP Simon Kinberg, who I think is the reason, along with Singer, that this series took such a nosedive. So, where does this one lie in the pile of X-Men crap movies? I’d say it lands with a dull thump alongside Apocalypse but still being a bit better than it. The acting and story are incredibly awkward and the main adversary for the film is so lackluster that no matter how cool the final X-Men battle is, and it does look great, it’s hard to really care about anything going on. It’s fitting that this who Fox battle with Marvel went out with such a whimper of a movie.

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am – Heading into this documentary, my knowledge of Toni Morrison’s work was slightly limited. I was a huge fan of the Jonathan Demme directed film Beloved, based on her novel and knew she was the frequent author of choice for Oprah’s famous book club. This film gave me a crash course in this gifted and important literary voice and Nobel Prize winner and, most importantly, it all comes from Morrison herself who tells her story to the camera, leaving no stone unturned. Including interviews with friends like Black Power activist Angela Davis, writer Fran Lebowitz and Oprah Winfrey herself, we get a full portrait of how pivotal she is to black literature, the preservation of it and the need to keep it on the forefront of history. As far as biographical documentaries go, this one is top notch.

Above The Shadows – Two of the three bigger Blu-ray releases this week have zero clout or push behind them and, when it comes to the previous movie Dead Water, that’s probably for the best but with this film I think it could command a bigger audience but, besides me talking about it here, it will go unnoticed. Juno actress Olivia Thirlby stars as a young woman who has faded to the point of becoming invisible and must find her way back to society with the help of the one man who can see her, a former MMA champion, played by Alan Ritchson, who has fallen on hard times. I really enjoyed this one, an engaging fantasy romance film that capitalized on good chemistry between Ritchson and Thirlby which manages to shine through even if some of the thematic elements are a little muddled. I’m interested to see what writer and director Claudia Byers does next as both her other films Fort Bliss and Kettle Of Fish aren’t bad either.

Dead Water – Sometimes you just know a movie is going to be bad just by looking at the cover and this tells that warning pretty quickly. The movie has Banshee’s Griff Furst as a former soldier returning home after a tour in the Middle East and suffering from PTSD who is taken on a sailing expedition with his wife by a family friend played by Casper Van Dien. As soon as the trio get into open waters and out of cellphone reception things begin to get weird and their host starts to act out of character but unfortunately for the audience all of the acting, production level and directing is so awful it will put you off even before the dumb reveal of Van Dien’s intentions. Of course, all of this also happens before Judd Nelson, the reason I wanted to see this, appears on screen and, for the record, he’s terrible too. This movie is a waste of time.

Kung Fu League – Receiving all of these Asian releases from Well Go USA has been an absolute privilege as it gives me access to martial arts films that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise and the movies I have been getting have ranged from good to great and I feel like I’ve been very lucky. Well, my luck ran out on this movie, a truly awful abomination of a film that felt like utter nonsense throughout. The story follows a nerdy comic book artist who yearns for his dream girl but is constantly blocked by the bullying CEO of the company he works for causing him to use some magic to summon four martial arts masters to aid him. This film is hokey, badly put together with shoddy special effects and confusingly haphazard story and script and some of the worst music and songs I have ever heard. If the only thing I do today is deter you from watching this garbage, I’ll be happy. What a waste of time.

The Good Fight: Season 3 – 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.

Elementary: The Final Season – This modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes came to a close this past television year and now it is on DVD for everyone to check out, as well as in a complete series box set. I initially saw a lot of hate about this series and it’s approach when it came out and I finally checked it out with the release of the last season, the sixth one, and, truth be told, I kind of dug it. I’ve always enjoyed Jonny Lee Miller ever since I saw him in Hackers and his cocky attitude works brilliantly as Holmes, especially incorporating the former addict angle as well, and Lucy Liu is the perfect foil I never would have saw as Watson. There really is a reason this show lasted seven years and got to go out on its own terms.

The Case Of Hana & Alice – More anime, Steve? Yes, I guess so but this one has all sorts of acclaim behind it so I’m predisposed to enjoy it, right? This one is kind of weird as I feel like even the title was toned down from it’s original Japanese title of “The Murder Case of Hana & Alice” to the current and more innocuous one we have now but the movie does revolve around an unsolved murder case as it follows a new girl who starts at a new school and is mercilessly bullied after being assigned the “Judas” seat who’s previous occupant was killed. Weird storyline and that is how these movies operate but this movie actually is fascinating in its plot reveals and would transition to an interesting live-action piece.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekout:

Vice Squad – The cool thing about being hooked up with Shout Factory is getting these weirdo 80s tough-guy movies that I have never heard of and I definitely had no clue what this film was when I received it. Actress Season Huxley plays a prostitute named Princess who is forced by a Los Angeles detective to take down a brutal pimp named Ramrod, played with an edge by Cole Hauser’s dad, Wings, who has been killing other ladies of the night. The movie was made by Gary Sherman just after he directed to killer horror film Dead & Buried and, interestingly enough, the guy now makes true crime documentary series for A&E like The First 48. This movie had a lot of backlash behind it with people denouncing its violence, especially against women, but it did have an advocate in its favor with Martin Scorsese defending it, he himself going through the same thing with Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.

Endless Love – Let’s dig into a bit of controversy from the 1980s this week with this film that definitely pushed the boundaries but this was something director Franco Zeffirelli was not new to. The now infamous film starred Martin Hewitt and a very young Brooke Shields as a teen girl who falls for an older high school boy despite the protests of her parents, so essentially this is a Romeo and Juliet story. The film featured on-screen sex between the two teens and was initially awarded an X rating before being given an R after being resubmitted five times. Interestingly enough, this film was remade just five years ago and no one cared at all. The shock of having such a torrid romance film with this young of a focus has worn off.

Wildland – This is a weird one so I had to bring it right away to this section. This film, also titled Young Men And Fire, is available in the States on Blu-ray, is also screening at this years Vancouver International Film Festival, so in a rare occasion, you can get up on this movie in advance of that. The movie brings you closer than ever to the wildfires that ravage the western side of North America every year, following the fire crews in a sweeping yet deeply personal account of as they struggle with fear, loyalty, dreams, and demons within themselves. The movie is a true testament to the very real threat of climate change and is a slap in the face to any deniers, especially in the face of all the adversity these crews face doing their very deadly job. This is a massively important documentary.

Television:

Disenchantment: Season 2 (Netflix) – Matt Groening’s third original series and his first with Netflix enters into its sophomore season, following Princess Tiabeanie or ‘Bean’, voiced by Broad City’s Abby Jacobsen, a royal in a world of fantasy that wants desperately to shed the shackles of what a princess is supposed to be, yearning for action ad adventure. After meeting Luci, a demon, and Elfo, an elf, she gets more than she wished for in a series that is honestly a bit hard to get into through the first four episodes. Towards the end of the first season the show kind of finds its footing so I really hope that this new season builds on that from the get-go because, honestly, it feels slow and we are talking about an animated series here.

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (Netflix) – Who would have thought that the insane little interview sketch show that Zach Galifianakis created for Funny Or Die would see its own feature film but here it is and I’ve been ready for it ever since its announcement. The story sees Zach trying to make amends with his public access network after killing Matthew McConaughey (and reviving him), so he sets out on a road trip to try and gather a catalogue of episodes to satisfy his bosses. The trailer for this movie is straight insanity and the hilarious burns on his guests, mispronouncing of names and the ignorant insults are so funny. This is going to be the most streamed thing this weekend I think.

Criminal UK-France-Spain-Germany: Season 1 (Netflix) – This new series is massively ambitious and maybe can lead to some more very open platform series to be created as this thriller is made up of twelve stories set in four different countries, each takes place within the confines of a police interview suite and each countries series sitting as a stand-alone season on Netflix. A focus on the intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects, the show’s UK counterparts features David Tennant and Hayley Atwell, the German one has Phoenix actress Nina Hoss and honestly, cast aside. the approach to this show has me interested.

A Little Late With Lilly Singh: Season 1 (NBC) – As a Canadian I was overjoyed when I read on Twitter that homegrown YouTube star Lilly Singh was getting the spotlight of taking over the secondary late-night talk show on NBC from Carson Daly who seemed to have had that show for over a decade and a half and no one seemed to care about it. I’m really looking forward to what Lilly has planned for the show as the week’s go on but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen after the first night. I do feel she relies a bit on the fact that she is both a woman and a person of color in this position and so she should, it’s very progressive of NBC and I hope they are protective of that. The only thing I can see working against this is she is slightly unknown to the larger audience.

American Horror Story: 1984 (FX) – I’m kind of hit and miss with the American Horror Story series but I feel like this season was tailor-made for me to fall in love with and get over my edgy feelings about creator Ryan Murphy. Taking his cue from his two-season series Scream Queens, this season delves into that whole slasher genre like Friday The 13th and Halloween by bringing the homage to us in bright technicolor and it even takes place at a summer camp! Oh man, does that ever excite me as a huge horror fan and while the show doesn’t have such AHS staples as Jessica Lange and Evan Peters, it still has Emma Roberts from the before mentioned Scream Queens as well as Billie Lourd, Glee’s Matthew Morrison and Twisty the Clown himself, John Carroll Lynch who now plays Mr. Jingles, the killer for this series. I am so psyched for this season!

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sept 12

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September 12, 2019

New Releases:

The Goldfinch – Based on a bestselling novel from Pulitzer Prize winner Donna Tartt, the bidding war from studios for this adaptation was high but it ended up with Warner Bros. and most notably in the hands of gifted director John Crowley, following up his brilliant film Brooklyn. The film is about a boy in New York who is taken in by a wealthy Upper East Side family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The trailer plays everything pretty ambiguously but what is known is that the kid, who is played by Oakes Fegley from Pete’s Dragon as a child and Ansel Elgort as a teen and adult, harbours a deep secret which could blow up all his newly found relationships. I’m fascinated to see this film because the story sounds incredible. (Not opening in Hamilton)

Hustlers – Just looking at this movie it is pretty much completely unappealing to me. This film is toplined by Constance Wu, an actress I really enjoyed in Crazy Rich Asians but her real-life diva antics have really turned me off, and Jennifer Lopez who I’ve never really been a fan of so it has a bit working against it. That said it has Cardi B and Lizzo in supporting roles and is about a crew of former strippers who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients so I have a glimmer of hope for entertainment in this. The fact that, at the time of writing this, the movie has eleven positive reviews makes me a little bit intrigued.

Freaks – My first narrative film of last year’s VIFF, this hit me with all sorts of parental feelings like a loaded punch to the face. Freaks is a paranoid mystery that slowly blooms to its audience but, interestingly enough, shares a few different qualities from the Academy Award-winning hit Room. Just like young local actor Jacob Tremblay dazzled in that film, nine-year-old actress Lexy Kolker is the battery at the heart of this film as well, it’s driving force. From the directing and writing duo of Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the story drops you into a rundown house with papered windows and padlocked doors with our main two characters, Chloe (Kolker) and her dad played with deep nuance by Emile Hirsch. With what appears to be an unhealthy amount of itching paranoia, he constantly quizzes his young daughter on how to act outside the walls, in the real world, something that is absolutely foreign to Chloe. It’s life and death to Dad though. Inside the house is where they are safe and outside everyone will try to kill them. It’s a bleak and horrifying message to instill in a child, raising the immediate question: Is he indoctrinating his child with his own psychosis or is he protecting her from the reality he already knows? This movie is a must-see tour de force of acting and will hopefully make some waves a full year after I discovered it. (Only opening in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver)

Riot Girls – If you’ve been reading my stuff since I’ve started publishing you would see a trend that odd movies are really my thing, especially in the horror, sci-fi and action genre so this new film from Canadian director Jovanka Vuckovic, her first feature, is a red alert on my radar. The movie takes place in an alternate 1995, as a mysterious disease has wiped out all of the adults. In the new forged age, two gangs are pitted against each other in a brutal war for territory, resources and survival. One thing that grabs me immediately, besides the post-fall dystopia, is that it’s led by two badass ladies with the names of Nat and Scratch and that it’s the first feature from Vuckovic who made her mark with me in the all-women anthology movie XX. This could be a great breakout film for her. (Only opening in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver)

Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! – Morgan Spurlock is back with a follow up twelve years after he almost killed himself, eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month, supersizing whenever it was offered. This time he takes on the task of opening up his own fast food restaurant with the focus being on the fastest rising piece of that menu right now, the almighty chicken sandwich. With his focus on being transparent with the public, fresh and healthy food and a sustainable business model, Spurlock gives us an in-depth crash course on how the big corporations handle their business, the costliness of organic food and how “big chicken” is constantly screwing over the little guy who’s product it miles better than what these evil bastards shop to us. As a huge chicken sandwich guy myself, I found myself laughing with the filmmaker’s charm but also horrified at the facts I was being given. A beautiful companion piece to Super Size Me, Holy Chicken is about to give you way more food for thought. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

One Cut Of The Dead – Enduring a week of horror films, this movie definitely did the trick of spinning my brain around in my skull. The movie starts out as this low budget behind the scenes of a Japanese zombie film that gets totally disrupted when real zombies attack them at their location, forcing the cast and crew to desperately escape as the eccentric filmmaker follows behind, trying to make his magnum opus. Then after thirty-seven minutes of a single shot take the story ends and credits roll and I’m confused but then we rewind to the beginning of this project to find out that the making of was the real movie and we get to see how this who one-shot madness came to be. This film is massively original, totally fun and playful and exuded that Japanese cinema charm. The only thing that didn’t hold me was the over the top sentimental silliness that ends the movie, otherwise, I think horror fans should check this out. (Only opening in Toronto and Vancouver)

Blu-Ray:

Aladdin – Yes, Disney has been making so many of these live-action updates but something about Aladdin feels so sacred, firstly the fact that we all have such reverence for Robin Williams’ performance as the Genie. That aside, I wanted to believe in this movie because it is directed by Guy Ritchie but his last film King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword was such a horrible mess. The good news is that the film is vibrant, gorgeous and always fun to watch and does try to forge a separate identity while still keeping all of the songs intact and also a lot of Genie’s lines are the same but done with the stylings of Big Willy himself, Will Smith. The movie isn’t bad, the attempt to keep true to the heart of the film is there but it just isn’t memorable.

Aladdin: Signature Edition – It’s probably easy to say that a lot of people hold this movie high up as their favorite Disney animated film and who could blame them? It’s an absolute classic and makes us all feel warm and cozy with the voice of Robin Williams to guide us. Now, coinciding with the release of Guy Ritchie’s live-action remake, we get the Signature edition which has a sing-along track which is fun for the whole family, commentaries with the directors and animators, new featurettes, a brand new alternate ending and outtakes from Robin that will bring a tear to your eye. This may not be my favorite of the bunch but it is definitely in the top three.

John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum – Definitely one of my most anticipated films released this year, both movies leading up to this one have been like a gift from the action film gods, bestowing on us the perfect anti-hero story all birthed from the death of his dog. Now in this next piece, the whole world is after John Wick due to his decisions in the second movie and he has to bring in an old friend, Halle Berry’s character, to make it out alive. This movie burns all action movies to the ground and shows them how it’s really done, a story that would work as a Kurosawa samurai movie or a Sergio Leone spaghetti western told through Keanu Reeves dispatching assassins in a heightened world of secret organizations, blood oaths and neutral ground hotel establishments. It is awesome and if you aren’t on board with it by now I don’t think you ever will.

The Dead Don’t Die – Jim Jarmusch takes his hilariously deadpan style and applies it to a genre that always needs a bit of fresh breath, zombie horror. Bringing some of his staple stars including Bill Murray from his film Coffee And Cigarettes, Adam Driver from his last effort Patterson and, of course, Tilda Swinton, Jarmusch crafts a small-town story of a zombie outbreak where the weirdo citizens have to band together to survive. This movie is definitely not going to rope in everyone as horror fans will be possibly put off by the dialogue style and, well, all of this great filmmaker’s movies have a less than mainstream appeal but I found myself really enjoying it despite some of the parts of the film that sort of drag. I was definitely not ready for the movie to go full meta in the end which had me laughing hysterically. Again, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it got me and oh man is the ending bleak.

SEAL Team: Season 2 – Even though the series ended fifteen years ago I will always see David Boreanaz as the brooding vampire with a soul Angel from the Joss Whedon created Buffy spinoff and that’s even after twelve seasons as Seeley Booth on Bones. His new series is going very well though, a series that follows the lives of an elite Navy S.E.A.L. team as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions for the American government. Created by first-time showrunner Benjamin Cavell, this series has compelling characters and has the potential to get better in this vein if they can steer away from being a mission by mission procedural. I have enjoyed both seasons that Paramount sent me though.

Hawaii Five-O: Season 9 – As far as new series reboots of old classic shows go, I’d have to say that Dan-O and company are doing pretty well heading into season ten, especially after two cast members left the show due to pay inequality. Well, season eight and nine went off fine without them, adding The Event and Salvation’s Ian Anthony Dale and Michelle Borth, who was last seen in the big DC Comics blockbuster Shazam, and this season has some solid guest stars with John Wick 3’s Mark Dacascos returning to terrorize the Five-O, Andrew Lawrence in addition to his brothers bad guy role from the previous season and even Dog The Bounty Hunter as himself. Also, to keep with the theme, all of the episodes have names that are unpronounceable.

Curious George: Royal Monkey – An easy go-to for any kid is the Curious George stories and in theatrical form only one of them has made it to the big screen, featuring voices by Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore. The film did very well for itself, opening the door for a bunch of direct to video releases as well as a television series. Now with this new one, the adventure continues as George goes on a journey with his pal Princess Isabel to deal with all matters of the grown-up world. Not only is this a weird one to bring to my regular feature but my own daughter told me halfway through watching this that this was too baby like for her to enjoy so now I’ve got emotions about the passage of time and I was left to watch the rest of it by myself. Thanks, Paramount!

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek Out:

Charlie Says – This seems to be the year of Charles Manson in movie form as we got a quick glimpse of him in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and here we get former Doctor Who Matt Smith shedding some of that timey wimey stuff to influence some easily led sheep to do some horrific slaughter. Smith has quite a few recognizable stars around him for this one as Nurse Jackie’s Merritt Weaver and Game Of Thrones’ Hannah Murray co-star in this film that is directed by American Psycho’s Mary Harron who continues to lead a great number of women in the horror director’s chair. Some very cool character work for Matt Smith in this one.

Babylon – This movie has a very interesting story as it was originally intended for release in late 1980 and appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 1981 but then didn’t get its American theatrical release until this year. Why? Because the powers that be deemed it as “being too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension”. The movie centers around Brindsley Forde’s character Blue, frontman for a reggae band based in west London and captures the trials and tribulations of young black youths in troubled London in the early eighties. The film is a fascinating character study against a socio-political landscape and it’s a cinema crime that we’re only seeing this film now.

Mountain Rest – Now that Stranger Things has made her a star on the rise, Natalia Dyer’s indie career is getting a bit of a focus including this moody emotional drama led by Six Feet Under’s Frances Conroy. She plays an ageing actress who sequestered herself to a small mountain town years earlier and is now calling her estranged daughter and granddaughter home for reconciliation and one final celebration before she passes away. The film is the debut of writer and director Alex O. Eaton and is a great film about the erosion of family relationships over time against a gorgeously shot canvas of cinematography.

Cruising – When this film was made in 1980 the backlash against director William Friedkin was huge because he put one of the hottest stars working at the time, Al Pacino, in a controversial role that was getting nothing but hate. Fresh off of Norman Jewison’s And Justice For All, Pacino played an undercover detective who entered the world of the underground S&M gay subculture in New York City to catch a serial killer who is preying on gay men and the public and critics alike were perturbed, with the ratings board saying “there aren’t enough XXXs in the alphabet to rate this movie”. Heck, Friedkin was even nominated for a Razzie that year, the first year they existed. Is the movie that bad? No. It’s progressive for its time and showed an abandonment of safe mainstream filmmaking but it would be a trend that would have a hard time catching on. Beyond that, it is a fantastic Al Pacino performance.

Television:

Unbelievable: Season 1 (Netflix) – Look, it is just a given with me that if you cast Toni Collette in the lead of something then you have me as a fan immediately and not only does this new original series have her but it has Merritt Weaver who has already made an appearance on my list this week as well as Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever. The show is the true story of Marie, a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped, and the two female detectives who followed a twisting path to arrive at the truth. In a time where the #MeToo movement has helped so many women come forward with painful truths, this series digs into what all of these victims face, the ability to undoubtedly prove their story and the burden of truth. Created by Ern Brockovich writer Susannah Grant, Wonder Boys writer Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, this could be the must-see Netflix series to start the month.

Mr. Inbetween: Season 2 (FX) – A breakout hit from Australia, this show is another great film about a brutal anti-hero that I loved with the very first episode, a show I was turned on to by Drex. Created by the show’s star Scott Ryan and directed by Nash Edgerton, the series is a black comedy-drama about Ray, a guy who has to juggle being a father, ex-husband, boyfriend and confidant as well as maintain his employment as an enforcer for hire, dishing out violence to whomever his clients want him to. Scott Ryan is a fascinating actor to watch onscreen in a series that hugs the line between wholly grim and hilarious, sometimes in the same moment. I really think that this show needs to catch on in a Breaking Bad sort of way.

Mr. Mercedes: Season 3 (Crave) – As a Stephen King fan I feel massively late to the party with this show based on a later novel in his writing career and this one stars a favorite of mine, actor Brendan Gleeson as well as the always incredible Holland Taylor. The show tells the story of a psychopathic killer who drives a stolen Mercedes into a crowd and a recently retired detective who tries desperately and a little outside the bounds of the law to bring him down. Brought to television by one of the greatest showrunners ever, David E. Kelley, through that shepherding this show has great dialogue, nuanced character work and a creepy and intense plotline that keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is a solid binge for anyone looking for something to occupy the void that Castle Rock left.

Undone: Season 1 (Amazon Prime) – Coming off her guest spot on Parenthood and this year’s underrated sci-fi adaptation Alita: Battle Angel, I’m a pretty big fan of actress Rosa Salazar which has me looking forward to this new Amazon original which again sees the streaming service spread their wings into different things you wouldn’t see on conventional television. She plays a woman who discovers she has physical control over time after surviving a car accident and the really weird thing is this is the brand new show from BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and writer and producer Kate Purdy. Just the trailer alone is enough to convince people who love shows like Lost to jump on board.

The I-Land: Season 1 (Netflix) – Netflix again reaches out for something a little fresher for their new series that has an interesting cast featuring Kate Bosworth, Alex Pettyfer and Canadian actor Kyle Schmid. The show is a twisted mystery about ten people who wake up on a treacherous island with no memory of who they are and how they got there and set off on a trek to try to get back home only to discover the world is changed for the worst. I love weird shows like this as they remind me of the unpredictable nature of a show like Lost. Yes, I’m kind of fixated on that show this week which means I might be a bit nostalgic for it.

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