Steve Stebbing

In an attempt to bring you the best of what’s out there I give you my “High Spots” of the week, three noteworthy things you need to check out:

1. Blockers – Coming off of WrestleMania weekend, you might think I’m exhausted to death about talking about wrestling and wrestlers but I think John Cena’s new film deserves some recognition. The movie is about three parents banding together to prevent their daughters from losing their virginity on prom night. Starring alongside Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, Cena makes his first step towards a Dwayne Johnson like big screen career with a film that feels like it has a sweetheart nestled in the raunchy horn dog humor with a refreshing direction of three girls trying to figure out the pitfalls of sexual relationships, going against the norm of the usual American Pie male driven fare. Blockers may be, in some parts, exactly what you think it’s going to be but it still has room to surprise you.

2. A Quiet Place – You may know him, above everything, as Jim from The Office but as a filmmaker, John Krasinski has now arrived. With two small indie films under his belt, Krasinksi co-wrote and stars opposite his real life wife Emily Blunt in this horror film that is downright terrifying to an uncomfortable degree. The story takes place in a “post-fall” world where the last human are being hunted down by creatures that track by sound, centred around Krasinki, Blunt and their two children. Be warned, A Quiet Place is not only the title of the movie but also a descriptor of what your theater experience will be like. Bearing that in mind, if you want to grab popcorn, nachos or anything else crunchy, everyone in the room will hear you eat. Not deterring you from that concession visit but in a world where we are increasingly horrible and lack courtesy in the cinemas, well, don’t be “that guy”.

3. Sweet Virginia – A film that definitely flew under the radar and one I had the privilege of seeing at the Vancouver International Film festival, this story plays as an understated and soft-spoken Coen Brothers style feature. Director Jamie Dagg makes his first film not based on his own script and has two brilliant actors in Jon Bernthal and Christopher Abbott playing against their stereotypical roles, which are performed masterfully. Bernthal plays a quiet motel owner in a sleepy little Alaska town who may have a tenant who was responsible for a cold-blooded multiple homicide that kicks off the film. Abbott plays the secondary character with a seething rage that feels unpredictable, giving the film a deep-seated tension that doesn’t leave until the credits hit the screen. Jamie Dagg has an incredibly bright future ahead of him. I will have my interview from when the film was released up for you to listen to soon.

In an attempt to bring you the best of what’s out there I give you my “High Spots” of the week, three noteworthy things you need to check out:

1. Isle Of Dogs – Wes Anderson makes a triumphant return to stop animation, following up what I think the crowning achievement of his career was, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Dogs is a gorgeously crafted story about an island of exiled dogs living off of the coast of Japan and has a brilliant voice cast including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton and, of course, Bill Murray. The films momentum may have been deterred a bit by some insane cultural appropriation claims but, simply put, this is my favorite film so far this year.

2. Ready Player One – Nostalgia and break neck action sequences, this is what Steven Spielberg’s driving force in his adaptation of Ernest Cline’s best-selling book. Depicting a world more than twenty-five years into the future where everyone immerses themselves in a virtual reality world, there is a progressive message of disconnection from the real world that is rampant in this film before it becomes a bit lost in the immense shuffle of gorgeous imagery. Ready Player One may not be anywhere close to perfect but it is a damn fun ride.

3. The China Hustle and Shut Up And Say Something – Usually I would just reserve this spot for one film but we have two really stellar docs that opened this past weekend. The China Hustle is a financial horror story about the buying and selling of Chinese businesses from afar, a barrage of information sure to make your blood boil. Shut Up And Say Something on the other hand is an inspirational and emotional journey in the life of Canadian spoken word beat poet Shane Koyczan.

In an attempt to bring you the best of what’s out there I give you my “High Spots” of the week, three noteworthy things you need to check out:

Unsane – Steven Soderbergh is really bad at this whole retirement thing. Returning last year with his “Ocean’s 7/11” style film Logan Lucky, he is back again just six to eight months later with this psychological thriller starring The Crown’s Claire Foy as a woman who gets checked into a mental hospital against her will after she looks for help for some PTSD she has from being stalked years earlier. The great selling point on this is that Soderbergh went low-pro and filmed this on a iPhone, exactly like The Florida Project director Sean Baker did in his debut, Tangerine. What we get is a master filmmaker making a big film that feels so very real and so very close to the action.

Pacific Rim: Uprising – I know. Everyone is writing me off right now for giving some praise to a film that currently rates at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes but hear me out. Did you like the first movie? Do you like giant robots? Giant monsters? Do you want to see them fight? If you gave a hesitant  yes to any of those questions, then Uprising has what you crave, minus the style and heart that Guillermo Del Toro  gave the original film. I also play the game that Charlie Day is his same character from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, just changing his name to Dr. Newt Geizler. If you think about it, you wouldn’t put this past Charlie Kelly one bit.

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle – After the massive haul this reboot/sequel took in at the box office, I doubt there is anyone who hasn’t seen this new vehicle for The Rock and Kevin Hart and I call it that because you know we will see a follow-up and a franchise birthed out of this earner of almost a billion dollars. I feel that maybe in my initial review I was a little harsh on the movie, calling it a bit disposable and forgettable, because the audience definitely proved me wrong. Now the movie is on demand and on Blu-ray so we can all go back and give it a watch. I unabashedly love The Rock so it’s an easy sell for me.