For better and for worse, “A Good Person,” the new drama, written and directed by Zach Braff, starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, and now playing in theatres, is a portrait of the messiness of addiction.
Pharmaceutical rep—and part time jazz singer—Allison’s (Pugh) happy, carefree life falls apart when the car she is driving veers off the road, leaving two relatives dead, her future sister-in-law Molly (Nichelle Hines), and Molly’s husband Jesse (Toby Onwumere). Allison survives, but to combat residual pain, is prescribed OxyContin painkillers.
Now, a year later, consumed with guilt, she is unemployed, living at home with her mother Diane (Molly Shannon), estranged from fiancé Nathan (Chinaza Uche) and addicted to the opioids.
Allison’s life shifts when she bumps into Daniel (Morgan), the father of her ex-fiancé and Molly, who perished in the crash, at an AA meeting. The stern, ex-cop—who leans into pronouncements like, “Better to be half-an-hour early, than one minute late.”—blames Allison for the accident, but attempts to find common ground with her and possibly chart a course through their shared grief.
“Neither of us chose this fate,” he says, “but perhaps we can find a way to love it.”
“A Good Person” features fine performances from Pugh and Freeman, but, despite its heavy subject matter, defaults to a feel-good vibe in scene after scene.
Pugh, even with her movie star glow, convinces as a person drained of the will to live and Morgan’s mix of grandpa and Dirty Harry is entertaining and occasionally moving, but they are undone by a script laced with platitudes. Written by Braff, the story brushes up against the edges of the emotionality required to give us all the feels, but every time it begins to feel authentic, it takes a turn to the artificial. Braff never met a manipulative moment he couldn’t exploit, and it blunts the effectiveness of the storytelling.
“A Good Person’s” set-up suggests a deep dive into survivor’s guilt, addiction and, ultimately, forgiveness, but the lack of jagged edges and grit feels more Hallmark than harrowing.
“The Lost King” is not the alternate title for Prince Harry’s recent tell-all book or a “Where’s Waldo” style game. It is the mostly true story of amateur historian Philippa Langley and her quest—some would call it an obsession—to find the remains of the last English king to die in battle, Richard “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” the III.
A lowkey dramedy, now playing in theatres, “The Lost King” stars Sally Hawkins as Langley, a divorced sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who, becomes inspired to research the much-maligned monarch’s life and death after taking in a stage production of Shakespeare’s royal tragedy.
She reads everything there is on his life, joins a group of eccentric Ricardians, argues with historians and even converses with a vision of the King himself (Harry Lloyd). She feels he was judged unfairly in life, and is determined to find his remains and give him a proper burial.
In the course of tireless study, she determines that the King’s resting place is in a nondescript carpark in Leicester, once the home of a Franciscan Friary. Through sheer force of will (and considerable fund-raising ability) she manages to convince the naysayers, including the Deputy Registrar of the local university, to OK an excavation.
In September 2012 Langley’s theories were proved correct and the remains of the long-lost king were uncovered. “He was right where I said he’d be,” she says with amazement as the university experts scramble to take credit for her work.
“The Lost King” is a lowkey “National Treasure” style movie. Langley’s quest to rehabilitate King Richard’s dastardly reputation isn’t nearly as action packed as the Nic Cage movies, but her deep dive into history brings with it a determination that makes up for the lack of thrills.
Instead, it’s a personal story about an underdog, who, despite her intelligence, is passed over for promotions at work and treated like an outsider by academia. Langley’s journey to expose the truth about a misunderstood monarch is a lightweight human tale of empathy given heft by a compelling performance from Hawkins. Her work is grounded in reality, even during the magic realism scenes when she turns to King Richard for guidance.
“The Lost King” is the kind of Brit pic that is a little too black-and-white in its portrayal of the condescending bullies who tried to derail the plucky Langley, but as a portrait of a person who refused to be trampled on, who finds her voice, it is a warm and often funny feel-good flick.
“You Can Live Forever,” a new queer romance set against the backdrop of a Jehovah’s Witness community, is a restrained, poignant look at teenage love.
Set in the early 1990s, the story focusses on transplanted Thunder Bay teenager Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll). She’s a typical teen of the time, with a taste for getting high, movies, Siouxie and the Banshees T-shirts and playing video games. She’s also gay, but hasn’t told anyone in her family.
Following her father’s sudden heart attack and her distraught mother’s subsequent nervous breakdown, she’s sent to live with her Aunt Beth (Liane Balaban) and Uncle Jean-Francois (Antoine Yared) at a Jehovah’s Witness community in Quebec’s Saguenay region.
Suffering claustrophobia within the tightly-knit community, Jamie feels repressed, like an outsider at the Kingdom Hall meetings she is forced to attend—”What am I supposed to do?” she asks. “Nobody wants me here.”—until she meets Marike (June Laporte).
There are several paths the low-key, deliberately-paced “You Can Live Forever” could have walked, but it chooses warmth and empathy over everything else. Co-directors Sarah Watts—who grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness community—and Mark Slutsky, take pains to paint a portrait of life inside the religious community, but from a thoughtful, not judgemental point of view. Ditto the relationship at the center of the movie. Their bond is taken seriously, not simply a high school fling.
It is not a complicated story but it is a delicate one, handled respectfully by Watts and Slutsky, who also wrote the script. The community’s beliefs are recognised in a story that sees Jamie disagree with her family’s dogmas, but still empathize with them as people. It is a tricky balance, and the way Jamie accepts Marike’s religious background is a tangible sign of the deep affection she has for her.
“You Can Live Forever” pays careful attention to the characters to avoid falling into stereotypes or hitting inauthentic notes. It is a little too methodical in its approach, but the emotional impact of this story of star-crossed lovers is hard to deny.
I join John Moore of NewsTalk 1010’s “Moore in the Morning” to discuss the Writer’s Guild of America’s decision to allow artificial intelligence to inspire film scripts.
I introed the Canadian premier of “John Wick: Chapter 4” with stars Keanu Reeves and Shamier Anderson and director Chad Stahelski. Instead of the planned Q&A, they did a tribute to Lance Reddick, a co-star in all four Wick movies, who passed away earlier in the day.
On this week’s Richard Crouse Show we meet Jacob Silverman. He is a journalist in New York, where he writes about technology, cryptocurrency, and politics. He’s the author of “Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection” and is a contributing editor for The New Republic and The Baffler. His new book, co-written with the actor and writer Ben McKenzie, is called “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud,” and will be published by Abrams Books in July 2023.
He is also the host of new podcast “The Naked Emperor” about Sam Bankman-Fried, from CBC News’ Front Burner and CBC Podcasts. The Naked Emperor is on CBC and everywhere podcasts are available.
The podcast is the story of Sam Bankman-Fried, once a billionaire and trusted face of crypto with his trading platform FTX. Despite his dorm room lifestyle he charmed celebrities, politicians, and Silicon Valley. That is, until it all came crashing down. Today Sam faces charges that could send him to jail for the rest of his life. It’s a fascinating story.
Then, Metis/Ukrainian writer and educator Conor Kerr stops by. His debut novel, “Avenue of Champions,” won the 2022 RELIT Award and was shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon/Walrus Debut Novel Award and his available wherever you buy fine books, right now. The book centers on Daniel, a young Métis man searching for a way to exist in a world of violence, intergenerational trauma and systemic racism.
Finally, we’ll meet Lilah Fitzgerald. Best known for her roles in “Seventh Son” and “Monster High.” She is also a busy author, with her debut novel “Stars and Swashbucklers” set to release on April 4th. The book is a futuristic fantasy that follows a girl on a sailing trip across a shattered Earth that has become a series of islands floating between the stars.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
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In 2019’s “Shazam!,” teenager Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) life took a metaphysical turn when an ancient wizard Djimon Hounsou), protector of the realms from the Seven Deadly Sins and keeper of the Rock of Eternity, plucked him from obscurity to transform into superhero Shazam, the adult champion of the world.
In the new film, “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” set two years after the events of the first movie, Billy still grapples with his superhero alter ego (Zachary Levi). “I’m an idiot,” he says. “I don’t deserve these powers, if I’m being honest. Like, what am I even contributing? There’s already a superhero with a red suit with a lightening bolt on it. Aquaman is literally huge, and he’s so manly. And Batman, he’s so cool. I feel like a fraud.”
This new adventure sees Batson, and his foster siblings, who also transform into superheroes by saying the magic word “Shazam!,” pitted against their most ferocious foe yet, the Daughters of Atlas.
“We are at war,” says Hespera (Helen Mirren). “We will annihilate everything. The champions of this realm can do nothing to stop us.”
The Daughters of Atlas want to strip the Shazam gang of their powers but as they do that the fate of the world hangs in the balance. “You are very menacing,” Shazam says to Hespera. “I just want you to know that.”
At its heart “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods” is a coming-of-age story. Billy begins the movie insecure, a victim of imposter syndrome. Unfortunately, as his confidence grows, so does the movie’s tendency to clutter up the screen with busy CGI, heaping helpings of mythology and not-so-subtle product placement. (They even manage to find a way to work in the Skittles “taste the rainbow” slogan.)
The best elements of the first film are present. The focus on family—finding your logical, if not biological family—the humour and Levy’s manchild performance as the title character, provide the film’s heart but the effort to make the sequel bigger-and-better overshadow the more organic, pleasing parts of the story.
It is a blast to see Helen Mirren channel her inner Shakespearean villain as Hespera, and some of the Ray Harryhausen-inspired creatures have a cool, “Famous Monsters of Filmland” retro appeal but, in general, when it comes to “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” bigger is not better.
In “Brother,” a new coming of age story from “The Wire” director Clement Virgo, now playing in theatres, weaves three timelines together to form a vivid portrait of memory, regret and grief.
Based on the novel of the same name by David Chariandy, and adapted by Virgo, “Brother” is the story of Francis (Aaron Pierre) and younger sibling Michael (Lamar Johnson), the sons of Jamaican immigrants, growing up in Scarborough, Ontario. The athletic Francis, who harbors dreams of becoming a music producer, exudes confidence. He is Michael’s surrogate father and, despite quitting school mid-term, is his role model and guardian angel.
But even with Francis on his side, Michael is overwhelmed by police overreach and the gang violence gripping the neighborhood. Random shootings are a regular event and once, a stray bullet even pierces the wall of a nearby apartment, killing an innocent child.
On their way to adulthood, the brothers are bonded by family, but choose different paths.
The parallel stories of “Brother,” told on a broken timeline, are skillfully handled by Virgo. He
interlaces the various timeframes to create a vivid portrait of the lives of these two young men and the pressures that formed and informed their personalities.
As adults the two lead characters are brought to vivid life by British actor Aaron Pierre, who reveals real vulnerability as the formidable Francis, and Lamar Johnson as younger brother Michael, who struggles to live in the long shadow cast by his older brother.
It is the story of their struggle to live up to expectations, but more importantly, it is about the toll of the struggle. Disappointment hangs over Francis’s character, and as he becomes more and more unpredictable, Pierre skillfully displays the ways that his risk taking is the symptom of dashed dreams and it is heartbreaking.
Virgo’s supple, elegant filmmaking reinforces the film’s central themes by creating a richly textured world for the characters to inhabit. The streets that represent a looming danger to Michael are beautifully shot, at once suburban stark and yet poetic. It is that juxtaposition that gives “Brother” its layered, complex thematic feel.
“Brother” features fine performances, a killer soundtrack that ranges from Nina Simone singing Jaques Brel to reggae to hip hop, and combines them to tell an emotionally arresting story that is both thoughtful and tangible.
