Like Rodney Dangerfield, all David Arquette wants is some respect. The “Scream” and “Eight Legged Freaks” actor and sometimes wrestler is the subject of “You Cannot Kill David Arquette,” a new documentary, now on VOD, that traces his journey to redemption in and out of the ring.
You likely know Arquette as part of the famous Hollywood family. His grandfather Cliff was a well-known comedian, his father Lewis was best known for playing J.D. Pickett on “The Waltons,” and his four siblings, Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia and Alexis (whop passed away in 2016) all became successful actors. He was once married to Cortney Cox and has been acting since his teens. Like everyone with a long career he’s been in hits and flops but, according to the documentary, “Scream,” the movie that made him a star also type cast him as a goofy, dim witted guy and ruined his serious acting career.
It was another movie, however, that sent him in a different direction. The actor was always a wrestling fan but “Ready to Rumble,” the story of a pair of slacker wrestling fans upset by the ouster of their favorite character by an unscrupulous promoter, brought him into the wrestling biz. Brought into Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling, he became a comic relief attraction and eventually winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. It was a marketing attempt, but wrestling fans were incensed that an interloper, a Hollywood actor, could take the championship away from “real” wrestlers. He became the he most hated man in pro-wrestling and gave up the ring for eighteen years.
Ostracized by Hollywood and the wrestling world, he battled substance abuse, a public divorce and a life-threatening heart attack. It’s here “You Cannot Kill David Arquette” begins.
Battling self-esteem issues—he frequently refers to himself as a loser—and the backlash that set him professionally adrift, Arquette, at age 48, and unable to get the acting auditions he wants, attempts a return to the ring. Like a flies-on-the-wall directors David Darg and Price James follow the actor as he loses fifty pounds, quits smoking, practices, gets his ass kicked, rehearses on the streets of Mexico and in one harrowing sequence, suffers a serious injury during an aptly named death match.
Wrestling takes up a great deal of screen time and it is clear that this is meant, in part, to be Arquette’s love letter to the sport, the important stuff in the film happens outside the ring. Arquette is laid bare here, exposing his struggles in a raw and candid way. He lays it bare, telling his tale on his own terms. It’s a story of personal redemption that never quite feels fulfilled, but Arquette’s directness and eagerness to set things right, if only in his own mind, is compelling.
Trading the barbed satire of “The Death of Stalin” for the socially aware period comedy of Charles Dickens, director Armando Iannucci breathes new life into a classic, often told tale.
“The Personal History of David Copperfield” sees Jairaj Varsani play Copperfield as a youngster born into a life of Victorian comfort. His life takes a turn when his widowed mother Clara (Morfydd Clark) marries the sadistic Mr. Murdstone (Darren Boyd) who beats David for the slightest of transgressions. When things come to a head at home David (now played by Dev Patel) is sent away to board with the down-on-his-luck Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) and family and work as child labor at Murdstone’s bottle factory.
David takes steps to shape his destiny after he isn’t told of his mother’s death until after her funeral. Following an emotional scene at the factory, he sets out to find his wealthy aunt Betsey Trotwood (Tilda Swinton) and her lodger, the kite-flying eccentric Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie) who believes he is possessed by the spirit of King Charles the First. Aunty pays for David’s tony university education, where he confirms his love of language and begins making the detailed notes on the people he meets that will one day form the backbone of his debut book, “The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery.”
It’s also there that he meets James Steerforth (Aneurin Barnard), a wealthy and witty student and obsequious law clerk Uriah Heep (Ben Whishaw). Both will have a major impact on David’s trajectory from pauper to gentleman and author.
Patel leads a diverse cast, jam packed with oddball characters, that maintains Dickens’s themes while giving the story a contemporary feel. Iannucci has compressed the 600-page book, boiling out the essence of Dickens’s condemnation of exploitation of the weak and comment on wealth and class as a measure of a person’s value. The result is uneven that sometimes feels like a series of vignettes but Iannucci mines a rich comedic vein that smoothes over the story’s fits and starts. Capaldi, Swinton and Laurie deliver broad performances but it is Patel who brings the humanity that balances everything out.
As David, Patel is at the center of the action and grounds some of the story’s more fanciful aspects with a deep humanity.
Iannucci is a Dickens fan and it shows. “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a sparkling adaptation of the original story that uses wonderful dialogue and physical comedy to paint a heartfelt, serious and timely portrait of social anxiety and inequality.
For the uninitiated “Phineas and Ferb,” the animated Disney Channel show which ran from 2007 to 2015, was a kind of kid-friendly version of “The Simpsons” that saw suburban stepbrothers have fun on their summer vacation. After over one hundred television adventures and a 2011 movie trip to the second dimension what is left to do with these two cartoon kids in “Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe,” now on Disney+?
As on the TV show, older sister Candace (voice of Ashley Tisdale) is feeling put upon and underappreciated by her brothers. Even her complaints to her parents fall on deaf ears. “Every day you call me to tell me that Phineas and Ferb have built some unbelievable thing,” says mom (Caroline Rhea), “and every day I come home to find nothing there. Doesn’t it exhaust you? It exhausts me.” When she is abducted by aliens and taken to another planet the enterprising brothers (voices of Vincent Martella and David Errigo Jr. respectively) jet off into space to rescue her.
Trouble is, she doesn’t need rescuing. The aliens treat her better than her family did—they call her The Chosen One—and she’s having fun… until she learns the truth of her new alien friends. “I used to think the universe was against me,” Candace says, “but now I realize it’s me against the universe.”
“Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe” reunites the original creative team– creators/executive producers Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh—and most of the television cast. New comers include comedian Ali Wong as Super Super Big Doctor, improv king Wayne Brady as Stapler Fist and actor Diedrich Bader. The result is a movie that feels like a continuation rather than a reboot of the series, complete with new, fun songs by guest songwriters like Karey Kirkpatrick of the musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates.
The movie is definitely aimed at kids, from the broad humour to the bright colours, the wild action and good messages—“You may not be the Chosen One,” Phineas and Ferb tell her, “but we choose you as a sister every time.”—but it doesn’t talk down to its audience. It’s smart, funny and there’s even stuff in there the parents will enjoy.
Check out episode thirty-three of Richard’s web series, “In Isolation With…” It’s the talk show where we make a connection without actually making contact! Today, broadcasting directly from Isolation Studios (a.k.a. my home office) we meetSam Maggs, an author who joins us via Zoom from her home in Los Angeles. Sam is a bestselling author of books, comics, and video games. She’s been a senior games writer, the author of many YA and middle-grade books, a comics writer for beloved titles like Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, My Little Pony, and Transformers. She is also an on-air host for networks like Nerdist.
Today she joins me to talk about two books, “Con Quest,” an adventure novel for young readers set in the world of comics conventions and “The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope,” a Young Adult novel based on the world of “The Unstoppable Wasp” Marvel comics series. I love this line in her bio… as a Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk.
In this interview we talk about her books, why we both feel we have to work all the time and discuss whether that is a good thing or not.
“A lot of the people in the book and experiences are based on real things that have happened to me at cons,” Sam says in the interview. “The antagonist in the book is based on an amalgamation of gatekeeping nerd dudes who over the years have told me that maybe I don’t belong in fandom and or that I’m not a real nerd and that I’m ruining their hobbies or whatever so making that bad guy was very fun for me.”
Let’s get to know Sam Maggs…
Watch the interview on YouTube HERE or on ctvnews.ca HERE!
On the August 22, 2020 episode of “Pop Life” Richard speaks to celebrity chef Bobby Flay about his love for the restaurant business, Easy Bake Ovens and his start in the industry. Then the Pop Life panel, Baron Hau, chef & founding instructor Gusta Cooking Studio, Luke Hayes chef & owner L.U.S.T Supper Club and Janet Zuccarini, CEO of Gusto 54 Restaurant Group, share their take on what makes a chef great.
Tune in Saturday nights, 8:30 pm (ET) on the CTV NewsChannel and again at midnight on CTV or watch the whole thing HERE!
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
Check out episode thirty-two of Richard’s web series, “In Isolation With…” It’s the talk show where we make a connection without actually making contact! Today, broadcasting directly from Isolation Studios (a.k.a. my home office) we meet Mike Scott, the founding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of The Waterboys. He is a restless creative spirit, known for radical changes in music style throughout what he refers to as his “allegedly unorthodox” career. The music on his solo albums and with The Waterboys explores a number of different styles, including folk, Celtic and rock and roll, fusing them together to create a sound that is not only catchy but unique.
The press release for his newest record Good Luck, Seeker, says the songs are populated by unrepentant freaks, soul legends, outlaw film stars and 20th Century mystics, drawing inspiration from the Stones, Kate Bush, Sly and Kendrick as well as Mike Scott’s very own musical past.
It’s a genre busting effort with epic songs like the dramatic, spoken word tune ‘My Wanderings In The Weary Land’ to the earworm of the extremely catchy single “The Soul Singer.”
In this interview we talk about the construct of time, the power of the Clash and why he liked a record by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich enough to spend 8 and sixpence, or about 50 cents on it…
I began the interview by asking Mike Scott why he’s never made the same record twice.
Watch the whole thing at YouTube HERE and on ctvnews.ca HERE!
Over the next few months Richard and Retrontario raid Richard’s archives to spotlight some of his older telephone interviews with fascinating local characters. The second in the series is beloved Toronto business leader “Honest” Ed Mirvish from 1994.
Check out the Retrontario YouTube site to listen to all interviews!
“The One and Only Ivan,” the new talking animal movie debuting on Disney+, is based on the bestselling children’s novel of the same name written by K. A. Applegate, which was inspired by the life of Ivan, a real-life silver-back gorilla who lived, as an attraction, at shopping center in Tacoma, Washington, for 27 years.
Set in 1973, the movie begins with Ivan (voice of Sam Rockwell) as the star attraction at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, run by Mack (Bryan Cranston), who does double duty as the big top ringleader. When Ivan isn’t locked away in a cage he’s performing to increasingly sparse crowds alongside an aging elephant named Stella (Angelina Jolie) or hanging out with his closest pal, a wisecracking stray dog named Bob (Danny DeVito). Most of the animals have no recollection of how they got there; this is the only life they have ever known.
When an abused baby elephant named Ruby (Brooklynn Prince) joins the circus, Stella looks after her and makes Ivan to take care of Ruby if she cannot. With the help of Ruby and Julia (Ariana Greenblatt), the daughter of the mall custodian, Ivan begins to look past his cage to rediscover his past and move Ruby and his other animal friends to the safety of a zoo.
“The One and Only Ivan” features solid CGI—the fur and feathers, so often a problem in films like this, look real—and good voicework from the star-studded cast— Helen Mirren, Ramón Rodriguez, “The Walking Dead’s” Eleanor Matsuura, Chaka Khan, “Hamilton” star Phillipa Soo and “Enlightened” creator Mike White—but it is the film’s messages that earn it a recommend.
The gently paced drama contains life lessons about leadership, treating all living creatures with kinship, love and respect and the value of promises. Best of all, it preaches and practices empathy for humans and animals. These are potent messages that all add up to the story’s main theme, that we can all make a difference in our lives and the lives of others.
“The Only and Only Ivan” softens the character of Mack, dialing down the wrong doing he displays in the book. It leaves the film with a villain-sized hole but Cranston is, nonetheless, an engaging performer, even if it would have been fun to see a little more Walter White in his portrayal of Mack.
The movie may not be appropriate for all ages. The animals in captivity and other realities of life at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade are probably best suited for children in the middle grades and up.
