Richard speaks to Jay Baruchel in the pages of the February issue of WestJet Magazine.
“For many, actor Jay Baruchel’s voice is instantly recognizable. Equal parts twang and child-like enthusiasm, it breathes vivid life into the animated character of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the bold, young protagonist in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise…” Read the whole thing HERE!
Based on a Spanish-language film from Mexico of the same-name “Miss Bala” is an updated, feminist take on the original movie. “In the end,” says Gloria (“Jane the Virgin’s” Gina Rodriguez), “the bullet settles everything.”
Rodriguez plays a young American woman who goes to Tijuana to help her best friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) prepare to enter the Miss Baja California beauty pageant. After witnessing a brutal gangland nightclub slaying Suzu disappears and Gloria kidnapped by a drug cartel. In exchange for her safety and help in finding Suzu, Gloria reluctantly agrees to smuggle cartel drug money through the Mexico-USA border. “I can help you find your friend,” says charismatic drug boss Lino (Ismael Cruz Cordova), but first you have to do something for me. Mess around and I will kill you.”
As she’s learning the ropes—which includes blowing up a DEA safe house—she is intercepted by the DEA. “You have to believe me,” she says. “They made me do it.” Trapped between two fierce opponents she finds herself acting as a double agent, utilizing the skills she learned from the cartel to earn her freedom from both the drug lords and the DEA. “Sometimes you have to do terrible things to survive.”
“Miss Bala” features frequent action sequences and mucho gunplay but is, at best, a by-the-book potboiler that rarely gets above a simmer. There is the tease of real danger in the interactions between Gloria and Lino but nothing that feels authentic. He’s a sensitive psycho who falls for Gloria because she reminds him of an ex-girlfriend and she’s a mild mannered make-up artist whose blood suddenly runs cold. He’s like the Dale Carnegie of drug lords doling out advice—“You need to believe in yourself.” “You need to feel confident.” “Play your part.”—that wouldn’t be out of place in any self help book. She’s a quick learner with a gun and, all of a sudden, an ace shot. In short, the characters are what they need to be in the moment not what they need to be to be well rounded or interesting.
Coming hot on the heels of female led revenge films like Coralie Fargeat’s “Revenge” or Park Chan-wook’s “Lady Vengeance,“ “Miss Bala” feels tame. Worse, its sequel-friendly ending promises more of the same.
At the beginning of the “Wonders of the Sea 3D,” a new documentary featuring underwater adventurers Jean Michel Cousteau and his children Celine and Fabien, narrator Arnold Schwarzenegger says the reason he signed on was because this “is an important film with an important message.” The message is actually twofold. First he cites the aesthetic, calling the doc a “declaration of love for the beauty of the ocean.” Later the movie’s secondary, but more serious message of how the future of humanity is inextricably connected to the health of the ocean.
From Fiji to the Bahamas, with a pit stop in California “Wonders of the Sea 3D” takes us to the final frontier. More people have walked on the moon than on the bottom of the deep ocean, and indeed many of the creatures we are introduced to look ripped from the pages of a sci fi comic book. From the familiar—like the octopus; “We may never get closer to alien intelligence than this,” says Jean Michel.—to more exotic undersea life like the bizarre Christmas Tree Worm and a flatworm that looks like it could be a multi-coloured scarf in a Fashion Week runway show, the images are striking and surreal. There’s even a fish who looks like Steve Buscemi.
The photography is beautiful, the 3D effective but as eye-catching as these images are they rarely provide a sense of scale. Life on the documented reefs reveals “nature’s masterful design” but it’s hard to tell if these creatures are ten feet tall or microscopic.
“Wonders of the Sea 3D” is aimed at kids whose imaginations may be sparked by the unusual watery beasts on display. The narration, courtesy of the Cousteau family and Schwarzenegger, is simple and direct, often with the feel of an educational classroom film. The narration may not be nearly as compelling as the images but the messages are memorable. “The ocean survives without us. We don’t survive without the ocean.”
Self help author John Tarnoff says, “In order to create your future, you have to reconcile your past.” It’s good advice for his boomer audience, the over 50s who may be looking to reconnect and restart their lives. It’s also a theme that runs through “Into Invisible Light,” a new film starring Jenifer Dale.
Dale, who co-wrote the script with director Shelagh Carter, plays Helena Grayson a recently widowed woman who can only claim the inheritance if she heads a foundation for young artists. Sitting in the big chair, she has to figure out who gets support and who doesn’t. She’s thrust into the world of artists despite having given up her artistic objectives years ago. This leads to her to explore her own ambition, to write again. Writing allows her to find her voice again, to examine a life that felt inconsequential and repressed without an artistic outlet. Helping her spark joy is Michael (Peter Keleghan), a Samuel-Beckett-quoting former flame, now a writing professor. Examining her past, just as Tarnoff suggests, leads the way to her future.
“Into Invisible Light” is a movie for adults; a film for people who have lived a life and are in process, looking to start over again. It’s a finely tuned story of second chances that eloquently essays a reawakening.
Densely written, this thoughtful examination of Helena’s new phase of life is supported by elegant cinematography courtesy of Ousama Rawi and a moody, stark score by Shawn Pierce. It occasionally takes itself a bit too seriously, leaning on minor chord drama for effect, but the lingering effect is one of hopeful rebirth.
Film critic Richard Crouse, social media star Stewart Reynolds, and parent blogger Samantha Kemp-Jackson get Behind the Headlines with host Beverly Thomson. Today they dive into why Netflix is urging viewers to stop romanticizing depictions of serial killer Ted Bundy, the outrage behind the four-hour Michael Jackson tell-all documentary that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the call from Britain’s press to cease the online tear into the lives of royal duchesses Meghan and Kate.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
The Etruscan Smile stars acclaimed British actor Brian Cox as Rory MacNeil, a rugged old Scotsman who reluctantly leaves his beloved isolated Hebridean island and travels to San Francisco to seek medical treatment. Moving in with his estranged son (Feild), Rory finds he feels more alive than ever as their relationship begins to grow and he builds a connection with his previously distant family thanks to his affection for his 6-month-old grandson.
Richard will host the “Etruscan Smile” Q&A with JJ Feild: Sat | February 2 | 6:30 PM | VCC. More information HERE!
JJ Feild’s notable credits include Last Orders starring opposite Helen Mirren and Michael Caine, Marvel’s Captain America as well as the critically acclaimed Third Star starring opposite Benedict Cumberbatch.
Richard speaks about how the Screen Actors Guild Awards will affect who wins what at the Academy Awards.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Grabbing Audience Favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, Smoke Signals was written, directed and acted by Indigenous creators. Director Chris Eyre captures the experience of living in the late 90s, through Thomas’ (Evan Adams) love of storytelling.
Adam Beach stars as Victor Joseph, a young man who has been estranged from his father for more than a decade. He lives on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation in Idaho – ostensibly the middle of nowhere.
But life for Victor Joseph is anything but empty. A handsome, strapping guy, he is sullen, silent and angry over his dad’s desertion of the family. The father, Arnold (Gary Farmer, Dead Man), was a good-hearted but moody drunk. When his wife, Arlene (Tantoo Cardinal), couldn’t take the booze and the beatings anymore, Arnold climbed into his pickup truck and drove away forever.
Years before Arnold’s departure, a fire swept through the house of Victor’s friend Thomas when an all-night party left most of the reservation – including Arnold – falling-down drunk. Arnold saved young Thomas, but the boy’s parents died, and since then Thomas has become the reservation outcast of sorts, grinning, bespectacled, socially inept, but with a mystical gift for telling wildly improbable stories, some of them true, to anyone who will listen.
For more info click HERE!
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A delightfully lighthearted look at the Indigenous psyche with expected moments of tugging sadness. Unpretentious, funny and soulful, Eyre created a standout first feature.
Smoke Signals was a seminal film for the Victoria Film Festival. It opened our mind to the community need and gave us a direction in which to strive. It is fitting that we now celebrate in our 25th year this wonderful film. Join us as we bring you another opportunity to see this mind-opening tale on the big screen. The film screens at 6:30 PM followed by a conversation with some of Smoke Signals’ principals. Richard Crouse of CTV’s Pop Life hosts.
Guests expected:
CHRIS EYRE, the nation’s most celebrated Native American film director, was born in Oregon. A member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he gained national attention in 1998 with the movie Smoke Signals, winning the Sundance Film Festival Filmmakers Trophy and the Audience Award. The Film also took Best Film honours at the American Indian Film Festival. He is a director and producer, also known for Edge of America (2003) and Skins (2002), and was honoured with the HatcH Native Spirit Award for his achievements in filmmaking. Chris Eyre was appointed as chairman of the film department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design as of January 2012.
EVAN ADAMS is from Tla’amin Nation, near the town of Powell River, B.C. He has starred in the Emmy-winning TV-movie Lost in the Barrens and its nominated sequel Curse of the Viking Grave, and numerous episodics like The Beachcombers and Black Stallion. Evan stars as Thomas Builds-The-Fire in Smoke Signals, written by Sherman Alexie. He won Best Actor awards from the American Indian Film Festival, and from First Americans in the Arts, and a 1999 Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. He continues to work on intermittent, high-profile projects, and is also a medical doctor in Vancouver, Canada.
TANTOO CARDINAL is arguably the most widely recognized Indigenous actress of her generation. Tantoo has appeared in numerous plays, television programs, and films, including Legends of the Fall, Dances With Wolves, Black Robe, Loyalties, Luna, Spirit of the Whale, Unnatural & Accidental, Marie-Anne, Sioux City, Silent Tongue, Mothers and Daughters and Smoke Signals. Recent work includes the films Eden, Maina, Angelique’s Isle and Falls Around Her (the latter two both playing at VFF 2019).
For her filmmaking contributions to the First Nations artistic community, Cardinal won the Eagle Spirit Award. She has also been honoured with the Macleans’ magazine Honour Roll as Actress of the Year; the Outstanding Achievement Award from Toronto Women in Film and Television; an International Women in Film Award for her lasting contribution to the arts, and induction to the CBC/Playback Hall of Fame. Cardinal is a Member of the Order of Canada, recognizing her contributions to the growth and development of Indigenous performing arts in Canada.
RICHARD CROUSE is the host of the CTV talk show Pop Life, and the regular lm critic for the 24 hour news source CTV’s News Channel and CP24. He is also the author of nine books on pop culture history including Who Wrote the Book of Love, the best-selling The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and its sequel. Crouse was the host of Reel to Real, Canada’s longest running television show about movies, from 1998 to 2008 and is a frequent guest on many national Canadian radio and television shows.
“The Kid Who Would Be King” looks to two stories for inspiration. The fantasy film from director Joe Cornish finds its framework in the legend of King Arthur and the goofy camaraderie of “The Goonies.”
The story begins in the fifth century with Arthur proving his status as “the true king” of Britain by pulling the sword Excalibur from a stone. A warrior and creator of the Knights of the Round Table he is brave and popular with everyone except his sister Morgana. The powerful enchantress wanted power for herself and was summarily banished to the underworld where she could do no harm. Vowing to return, “when hearts are empty and the world is lost” and take back control of Excalibur, she languishes for hundreds of years, ineffective and lost. “Soon darkness will dawn and my time will come,” she says, optimistically.
Cut to today’s London. The world is a mess, “as unstable as it has ever been.” Things are so bad the headline of the Daily Star simply reads, ”GLOOMY.” In this world Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis), a young lad just “twelve winters old,” and his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) try and do the right thing at school, mainly stand up to bullies like the mean spirited Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kaye (Rhianna Doris). Alex is a sweet and sensitive kid. So much so that even his teacher pushes him to get a little more cynical. “It’s a tough world out there and it is getting tougher all the time. It’s not the world that has to change, it’s you.”
Chased to a construction site by some bullies a terrified Alex finds Excalibur embedded in an old chunk of concrete. Pulling the sword from the stone he defends himself from Lance and Kaye and awakens Morgana from her slumber. “Find the new King,” she commands. “The sword must be mine. The new king must die.”
A fight is a foot but Alex will not enter the battle with Morgana and her army of undead soldiers alone. At his side are Bedders, some school friends and Merlin the Magician, an ancient entity who appears in the form of a classmate. “I am a perfectly normal, contemporary British schoolboy,” he announces before morphing into an owl and flying away. Together they have just four days until a solar eclipse plunges the world into darkness and welcomes the return of Morgana. “This is the best and worst, the most excellent and frightening thing that has ever happened to me,” squeals Bedders.
Just as Lord Tennyson modified the Arthurian legends to comment on the issues of his day “The Kid Who Would Be King” places the story in a topsy-turvy world where the spectre of Brexit and Trump dominate the news. Like the old school retellings of the tale it values good over evil. It brims with important messages for kids—the most worthwhile path is rarely the easiest, embrace the things that are important to you—and offers an optimistic view of the future. “A land is only as good as its leaders,” says Merlin (played as an older magician by Patrick Stewart), and you’ll make excellent leaders.”
“The Kid Who Would Be King” is a good-natured, if puffed-up adventure for kids but at two hours and ten minutes it feels long and occasionally repetitive. Kids may enjoy the imaginative battle scenes—trees come to life as sparring partners for the wannabe warriors, etc—and the charming “Goonies” chemistry between the heroes but Rebecca Ferguson is wasted as the underwritten villainess Morgana and the CGI looks like a relic from another time.
