SYNOPSIS: Part rom com and part essay on what lingers after we’re gone, “We Live in Time” stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as a couple who learn to cherish the short time they have together.
CAST: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Adam James, Marama Corlett, Aoife Hinds. Directed by John Crowley.
REVIEW: Told with a broken chronology, jumping to-and-fro in time, “We Live in Time” begins as a light and frothy rom com but becomes a touching story of love and loss.
Before it becomes a four-hankie tearjerker, however, it acts as a showcase for the chemistry and charisma of its leads Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, as it captures their meet cute and the initial spark of their love. Those sections are playful, imbued with a sense of hope and expectation at where this relationship may take them.
When Almut (Pugh) is diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer, the film becomes less about the romance, and more about the transcendental nature of living life on a deadline. “Let’s just say I’m not sure I can go through all that again,” she says. Having gone through chemo once before—“All I did was go bald and puke my guts out,” she says—she opts for quality of life versus quantity opting to have six great months, rather than get treatment and live twelve “passive” months.
It sets the couple, and their young daughter Ella (Grace Delaney), on a journey to live as fully as possible in the time they have left together.
The film’s unconventional puzzle structure goes a long way in preventing the story from becoming a maudlin tale of a young mother’s demise. It can take a few minutes to acclimatize to the time travel, but once the film’s rhythm makes itself clear, the shifting between good times and bad tempers the movie’s innate tragedy.
Tempers, but doesn’t erase. When Almut says, “I don’t want my relationship with Ella to be defined by my decline,” it is as devastating an admission as we’re likely to hear in a movie this year.
Cue the Kleenex.
“We Live in Time” is funnier than you might imagine it will be, but it is still a weepie, although one that skirts easy sentimentality. That’s because of the richness of the characters, courtesy of Pugh and Garfield, the intimacy they create on screen, and director John Crowley’s insistence that a movie about death can still be life-affirming.
SYNOPSIS: “Rumours,” a surreal new satire starring Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander and now playing in theatres, sees a group of clueless G7 politicians attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis during some sort of apocalyptic event. Not even the presence of a Volkswagen-sized brain and mysterious bog people can distract from their writing their meaningless manifesto.
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira, Zlatko Burić. Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson.
REVIEW: Poking fun at self-serving politicians could be low hanging fruit, but “Rumours,” the new film from directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, doesn’t just pick the fruit, it picks it and hurls it at it subjects with great, gleeful comic force.
A surreal satire set against the backdrop of a G7 summit in Germany—starring Cate Blanchett (the German chancellor and host), Roy Dupuis (the Canadian PM), Takehiro Hira (the Prime Minister of Japan), Nikki Amuka-Bird ( the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Rolando Ravello as Antonio Lamorte (the Prime Minister of Italy), Charles Dance (the US president with a pronounced English accent), and Denis Ménochet (the French leader)—it’s a candy-coloured tale about calamity, lust, ineptness and self-importance.
The heightened performances are a bit of fun, given texture by a script that provides each character with enough oddball personality to match the film’s bizarre story.
The lovelorn Canadian Prime Minister, for instance, is a tortured soul who allows his crushed romantic dreams to get the best of him as events spiral. “I love strong women!” he bellows, apropos of nothing, before dashing off into the woods, as if he is ruled by passion above all else. “I love them too much!”
It’s a funny, ridiculous moment, one among many, in what is essentially a one joke movie about political ineptitude. The ineffectiveness of the politicians in almost every aspect of the action, from doing their government jobs to surviving the strange circumstances swirling around them, is wacky political satire, amplified to reveal the truth of political incompetence.
Self-important politicians have always been easy targets—Aesop wrote about political speeches that promised more than they could ever deliver and that was in late to mid-6th century BCE—but it is satisfying to poke fun at authority. Every generation demands their own stick in the side of those who walk the halls of power, so even if the themes and tropes are familiar “Rumours” is that sharpened stick. Unlike the politicians it depicts, it delivers on what it promises.
SYNOPSIS: In “Bookworm,” a new family adventure film now playing in theatres, 11-year-old Mildred’s (Nell Fisher) world is turned upside down when her estranged father, the washed-up magician Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, agrees to take her camping to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther, claim the $50,000 reward, and pay off her mother’s debts.
CAST: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley, Morgana O’Reilly, Nikki Si’ulepa, Vanessa Stacey, Theo Shakes, Millen Baird. Directed by Ant Timpson.
REVIEW: A quirky and original (if slightly edgy) family film, “Bookworm” is an old-fashioned adventure, one that sets a father and daughter off on a camping trip that turns into a tale of survival and self-discovery.
Elijah Wood is “Bookworm’s” above the title star, and he delivers a memorably odd performance as a showy illusionist, with a big bag of tricks, but little idea of how to be a father. It’s a funny performance, driven by an irrational hate for magician David Blaine, but it is Nell Fisher as Mildred who steals the show.
She is precocious but never precious, smart but not a smart aleck. It’s a natural kid’s performance that helps anchor the film’s quirkier aspects.
Together they’re an engaging odd couple forced to put aside their differences—his reluctance to be a parent and her indifference to his parenting skills (“You’ve failed as a man and crapped the bed as a protector,” she tells him.)—and get to know one another to complete Mildred’s mission.
Set against the backdrop of Canterbury Plains in New Zealand’s southern region, “Bookworm” sees Wood on another adventure in familiar territory, and while this one is not as epic as his N.Z.-shot “Lord of the Rings” films, it satisfies in a less-is-more sense. It’s idiosyncratic and features some language and peril (see Michael Smiley’s excellent villain) that is definitely not the norm for kid’s flicks, but its story of reconciliation is relatable and has a great deal of eccentric charm.
On the Saturday October 12, 2024 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we meet Paul Gilligan. He writes and draws the syndicated comic strip Pooch Café with Andrews McMeel, which runs in over 250 newspapers around the world and has been twice nominated by the National Cartoonist Society for best strip. He is also the author-illustrator of Pluto Rocket: New in Town, King of the Mole People and its sequel, Rise of the Slugs. Today we’ll talk about his new book the graphic memoir “Boy vs. Shark.” In the book, ten-year-old Paul is terrified of sharks, but when he forces himself to see the movie Jaws to keep up with his more daring friends, he is traumatized into imagining a shark living in his bedroom.
Then, we’ll spend some time with Victor Garber. On the big screen, you know the London, Ontario born actor from his roles in Godspell, Titanic, Sleepless in Seattle, The First Wives Club, Legally Blonde and many others. On television, he is best known as Jack Bristow in the ABC series Alias, and he originated roles in the Broadway productions of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Noises Off, Lend Me a Tenor, Arcadia and Art. This month he will receive a Lifetime Achievement in Entertainment Award from The Forest City Film Festival in his hometown.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
I’ll be doing the on-screen introductions for “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Rear Window” at Cineplex’s Classic Film Series this October and November!
Find out which famous film director was so traumatised by “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” he became a vegetarian for four years after seeing the film and my favorite line in “Rear Window.”
50 years ago, five youths on a weekend getaway in the Texas countryside fell prey to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his cannibalistic family, and horror cinema would never be the same. Violent, confrontational, and shockingly realistic, director Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre terrified audiences in a way never thought possible when it was unleashed on a politically and socially tumultuous America in 1974.
Rear Window (1954)
Select Screenings from Nov. 8 – 14
Tickets on sale soon
The story of a recuperating news photographer who believes he has witnessed a murder. Confined to a wheelchair after an accident, he spends his time watching the occupants of neighbouring apartments through a telephoto lens and binoculars and becomes convinced that a murder has taken place.
More info from Cineplex.com:
From creepy classics to new nightmares, Cineplex has genre fans covered with a spooktacular Halloween lineup. Kicking off with the 50th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacreand the late, great Shelley Duvall’s final film, The Forest Hills, Cineplex will also screen the 40th anniversary of Wes Craven’s timeless slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street, the 20th anniversary of the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, the 10th anniversary of the supernatural horrorIt Follows, before wrapping up Halloweekend with the 65th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s gripping North by Northwest.
Continuing to honour the master of suspense, Cineplex will present additional Hitchcock classics with the 70th anniversaries of Dial M for Murder and Rear Windowon the big screen throughout Noirvember, as well as the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ memorable performance in The Third Man.
SYNOPSIS: Based on true events, “Woman of the Hour,” a new thriller directed by and starring Anna Kendrick, and now playing in theatres, is a look at structural misogyny through the lens of a true crime story.
CAST: Anna Kendrick, Cheryl Bradshaw, Daniel Zovatto, Rodney Alcala, Nicolette Robinson, Kathryn Gallagher, Tony Hale. Directed by Anna Kendrick.
REVIEW: Anna Kendrick makes a sensational, but never sensationalized directorial debut with the taut true crime thriller “Woman of the Hour.”
The story of dead-eyed serial killer Rodney Alcala, played with malevolent mystery by Daniel Zovatto, becomes less the story of a cold-blooded murderer (who may have killed as many as 130 women) and more about chauvinism, misogyny and power dynamics.
Kendrick balances these big themes with several stories that dovetail together to form a whole. Told on a broken timeline as the action jumps around in chronology, we learn that Alcala preys on women, mostly runaways, drifters and those with no connection to their community, all women who won’t be immediately missed; that Cheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick) is a wannabe actress who says, “I’m working very hard but accomplishing very little,” and that Laura’s (Nicolette Robinson) accusations against Alcala in the rape and murder of her friend went unheard.
When Cheryl is booked to appear on “The Dating Game,” her agent assures her it will be good for her career. After all, Sally Field once appeared on the show and look how well she’s doing. The set up is simple, she’ll ask three “bachelors” a series of questions, and at the end of the show, choose one of them to go on a date.
Trouble is, one of them is an idiot, one’s a sexist, and the other is a predator named Alcala.
By the time the movie gets to the cheesy gameshow section Kendrick, the director, has already ramped up the tension and, in an exchange between Cheryl and the show’s make-up artists, established her theme. As she powders Cheryl’s face the make-up artist tells her the most important question to consider when choose one of the men: “Which one of you won’t hurt me?”
It’s a stark moment amid the kitschy, candy-coloured game show set, and even though screenwriter Ian McDonald has taken considerable liberties with the facts while weaving this story together, the depiction of institutional misogyny—whether it is game show host Ed (Tony Hale) openly discussing Cheryl’s figure with crew members or Cheryl’s “nice-guy” neighbor (Pete Holmes) making a clumsy pass at her or Alcala’s victimization of women—the movie hits some hard truths.
“Women of the Hour” is an exciting directorial debut. The wit and timing Kendrick displays as a performer easily translates to her work behind the camera as she confidently, in a tight 90 minutes, navigates the film’s tricky structure to create an almost unbearable feeling of tension.
SYNOPSIS: “The Apprentice,” the controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn, now playing in theatres, paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.”
CAST: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Gabriel Sherman. Directed by Ali Abbasi.
REVIEW: In 1972 photographer Robert Frank was given carte blanch to follo and film The Rolling Stones on their American tour. The result was “Cocksucker Blues,” a film deemed unleasable by the band, but not because of the overwhelming amount of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll on display. Rumor has it the band banned the film because Frank unblinkingly showed the tedium of life on the road and revealed the real lives of the band members.
It’s hardly the high glam life that would be expected from the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” although these are the scenes that humanize the group and put a pinprick in the bubble of fame that surrounded the Stones in their glory days.
Director Jim Jarmusch said, “It makes you think that being a rock star is one of the last things you’d ever want to do.”
I mention all this because I think there is a correlation between “Cocksucker Blues” and “The Apprentice.” The Trump campaign unsuccessfully worked to suppress this film, and I would guess—and that’s all this is—they wanted it shelved not because of the harder edged portrait of Trump in the film’s second half, which falls in line with the candidate’s strongman image, but because of the softer, more humanist tone of the first hour.
When we first meet Trump (Sebastian Stan) he’s a desperate man, going door-to-door in his father’s buildings to collect rents from tenants who clearly loathe him, a lawsuit looms that could potentially bankrupt the Trump family and his brother Freddy is a drunk who is slowly losing his battle with the bottle.
Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer Trump affectionately calls “evil incarnate.” The prosecutor in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of suspected communists, he had a fearsome take-no-prisoners reputation. The closeted lawyer took Trump under his wing, greasing the wheels for him socially and professionally in 1970s New York City.
“You’re the client,” says Cohn, “but you work for me. You do what I say, when I say.”
The ambitious Trump begins as a lump of clay but is soon molded into an effigy of Roy Cohn, merciless in business and in life.
“The Apprentice” is several things. It’s the making of a monster. It’s a story of unchecked ambition. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s a period piece of New York City in the go-go 1980s.
Mostly though, it’s an entertaining character study of one of the world’s most famous people that comes with the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good? Stan, who (mostly) avoids doing an “SNL” style Trump caricature. In the last hour, when he has absorbed Cohn’s lessons and the student has surpassed the master, he’s recognizably Trump.
Before that, he is more fully rounded as a character. There are flashes of compassion when he interacts with Freddy, frustration at being under his father’s thumb and vulnerability. When he becomes the blustery Trump we’re more familiar with, it becomes less interesting, but still avoids imitation.
As Cohn, Strong is serpentine, to the point of predatorially flicking his tongue. Eyelids at half mast, he exudes maximum confidence in his ability to control every situation. When the tide turns for him, Strong manages to create empathy for a character who never had any in real life. When he complains to Trump that “he’s lost the last trace of decency you ever had,” the words hit hard.
The bad? While Maria Bakalova, who plays Trump’s first wife Ivana, is credible in the role, it feels a bit cheeky to cast her, given her headlining encounter with Trump associate Rudy Giuliani in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”
The ugly? The casual venality on display. It’s the kind that powerful people use to intimidate and control the people in their lives, and it is gruesome. It’s an ugly glimpse into the halls of power where cold-blooded mercenaries like Cohn will do anything to win.
There’s also a graphic and cruel scene of sexual assault, unflinchingly captured by director Ali Abbasi’s camera.
Donald Trump dismisses “The Apprentice” as “pure fiction” and for sure it isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth. An opening title card acknowledges that, announcing that “some events have been fictionalized for dramatic effect,” but it does capture the tenor of the times and the dynamic between Trump and Cohn. It’s an origin story, and while you may not learn anything new, it paints a potent picture of pure ambition run amok.
SYNOPSIS: “Piece by Piece,” a new fanciful documentary about musician, rapper, producer, fashion designer and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams, told through animated Lego, is a brightly colored trip down memory lane for one of the most influential musicians of the 21st century.
CAST: Pharrell Williams, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Chad Hugo, Daft Punk. Directed by Morgan Neville.
REVIEW: Content wise “Piece by Piece” is a rather straightforward music biography. The story of a young music obsessed outsider who, through tenacity, talent and luck finds his way to the inner circle of the music business isn’t new, but the telling of the tale is. Shot like a regular doc, with talking heads, recreations and “archival” footage, it is rendered completely in colorful Lego bricks. “What if life is like Lego,” Pharrell Williams says early on, “except you can put it together however you want?”
The imaginative visuals will make your eyeballs dance. Williams’s early life in Virginia Beach, Virginia is vividly portrayed as a time filled with diverse influences, like Stevie Wonder, Carl Sagan and his grandmother, who encouraged him to join his school’s band club, but it is music that sparked his imagination. Literally. In one eye popping sequence director Neville illustrates the future producer’s synesthesia, the ability to see colors in the mind’s eye when listening to music.
Later the Lego is used to maximum effect when recalling incidents in Williams’s career, like getting the contact high in Snoop Dogg’s studio that resulted in “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and in a splashy sequence that sees Williams return to the neighborhood where he grew up.
By the time the end credits roll, “Piece by Piece” touches on Black Lives Matter, his brand work with everyone from Chanel to McDonalds and the dry spell that saw him briefly lose his way in the business. The talking heads provide good information, but there are holes. We never learn why his original band the Neptunes split, and while there is a great of talk about his genius at coming up with beats, the actual creative process remains mysterious.
Still, as a fun night at the movies, the Lego look and good time tunes like “Hollaback Girl,” “Rockstar,” “Frontin’” and “Happy” are a blast but it is his philosophical vantage point—the movie could easily have been called “The Tao of Pharrell”—that provides the film’s uplift. It’s mostly Pop Psychology 101, and never really digs deep into Williams’s head, but it does serve as a testament to the power of music, positive thinking and being true to oneself as key components to personal and profession success.
On the Saturday October 5, 2024 edition of the Richard Crouse Show we meet Zac Hanson, drummer for the 3x Grammy® Award-nominated, multi-Platinum pop-rock trio, Hanson. The band are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark third album “Underneath” with a new expanded version of the album and a North American tour.
The, later in the show we’ll meet author Jennifer Whiteford. She writes regularly for Razorcake, a long-standing punk publication and was also a founding member of the “all girl, all rock” band Sophomore Level Psychology. With those rock ‘n roll days behind her, she says she now mostly stays home and reads and writes novels like her new one, “Make Me a Mixtape.” In the book a guarded punk-rocker-turned-barista meets a big-hearted sound tech who charms his way into her life and helps her revisit her musical past in this truly charming, cozy romance.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
