Sarah Hanlon and I take on comedy as an art form… and why it so often gets treated like drama’s unserious cousin.
They discuss the craft behind great comedy, from timing and rhythm to improv, physical performance, writing, surprise, and the invisible work that makes a joke land. They also dig into the Kevin Hart roast, modern roast culture, the difference between shock and surprise, and whether some comedy has become more about cruelty, grievance, and identity than actual jokes.
Along the way: Kinky Boots, Mr. Dressup, Jim Carrey, Gary Shandling, the Comedy Cellar, the Joe Rogan comedy universe, and underrated comedy favourites including After Hours and I Love You to Death.
Because if drama makes you cry, it’s art. But if comedy makes you laugh, somehow it still has to prove itself.
I sit with host Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about the new Tragically Hip live album, “The Pitt” lawsuit, a new “Godfather” novel and I review the road trip revenge flick “Is God Is.”
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the hellish hallmark “Obsession,” the rowdy revenge of “Is God Is” and the secrets of “The Wizard of the Kremlin.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the hellish hallmark “Obsession,” the rowdy revenge of “Is God Is” and the secrets of “The Wizard of the Kremlin.”
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make your bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the hellish hallmark “Obsession,” the rowdy revenge of “Is God Is” and the secrets of “The Wizard of the Kremlin.”
Presented by The Revue Cinema in partnership with the American Cinematheque, ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair’ is an annual film festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema!
This inaugural Toronto edition of Bleak Week includes 13 films, hailing from 5 countries, including 35mm prints, restoration premieres and various in-person appearances by some our favourite filmmakers of stark cinema. #BleakWeek
I’m hosting a screening of the cult Canadian apocalyptic black comedy-drama #LastNight and a post film Q&A with director Don McKellar at The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave. in Toronto) on June 1!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about Stephen Colbert’s final show on CBS, review the horror rom com “Obsession” and suggest some drinks to get obsessed about.
SYNOPSIS: In “Is God Is,” a new thriller now playing in theatres, a dying mother sends her twin daughters on a mission of revenge.
CAST: Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monáe, Vivica A. Fox, Sterling K. Brown. Written and directed by Aleshea Harris.
REVIEW: Revenge and reckoning lie at the heart of “Is God Is.” Fueled by rage and raw emotion, it’s a spellbinding Greek tragedy by way of Tennessee.
Based on director Aleshea Harris’ 2018 play of the same name, “Is God Is” stars Mallori Johnson and Kara Young as Anaia and Racine, twin sisters who were disfigured after their abusive father, known only as The Monster (Sterling K. Brown), deliberately lit a fire in their home. Inseparable, Racine, whose scars are hidden, is fiercely protective of Anaia whose face was burned. They share everything from a terrible legacy and twin telepathy to the burn scars that have come to define their lives.
They believed their mother, Ruby the God (Vivica A. Fox), perished in the blaze, but turns out, she’s alive, but just barely. On her deathbed, she has a request for her daughters. “Girls, I’m gonna make this real simple,” she says. “Make your daddy dead. Real dead.”
With mom’s marching orders, they set off to find the man who changed all their lives irrevocably.
“This seems a little crazy,” says Racine.
“Not as crazy as setting your wife on fire in front of your kids, then abandoning them.”
A potent mix of arthouse and grindhouse, “Is God Is” is an exciting feature film debut for writer and director Aleshea Harris. Infused with style, emotional weight and philosophical heft, it’s a bold big screen unveiling of a talent that put me in the mind of watching “Reservoir Dogs” for the first time.
It’s not just a debut, it’s an announcement. A declaration of Harris’s fundamental understanding of the film’s basic elements—neo-noir, Southern Gothic, revenge, buddy comedy road trips and spaghetti westerns—and her ability to take the various components and filter them through her own sensibility to create something that feels unique and alive in every frame.
The inciting incident, the fire that changed Anaia, Racine and Ruby’s lives, for instance, is horrifying, not because of what it shows but because of what it doesn’t show. Ditto a murder in the film’s final third. Harris is confident enough to allow the audience’s imagination to take over, to let us do the work, and those sequences have extra torque because of it.
Even though the situations are extreme, the top-line performances from two-time Tony winner Kara Young and Mallori Johnson keep the brutal story of retribution relatable.
Much of this material is heightened—particularly Erika Alexander as Divine the Healer and Vivica A. Fox as Ruby the God, who, despite being bedridden and covered with prosthetics, dominates her scene—but the central characters, Anaia and Racine, as they glide through the comedy, violence and moral dilemmas inherent to the story, remain eye level on their mission from Ruby the God.
Sterling K. Brown rates a mention for making a character who has very little screen time, but is talked about throughout, surprising and far more nuanced than expected. No spoilers here!
“Is God Is” is electrifying cinema, a pulpy movie that is in no way passive. Whether it makes you laugh, cringe and ponder cyclical violence, it demands a reaction.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” a new political drama now playing in theatres, Paul Dano plays a television producer who rises through the ranks to become the spin doctor and master of manipulation for KGB agent Vladimir Putin.
CAST: Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Will Keen, Jeffrey Wright, Jude Law. Directed by Olivier Assayas.
REVIEW: Adapted from Giuliano da Empoli’s novel, “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” this is not a reliable history lesson. Instead, we’re told by the film’s opening title card that it is “an original work of fiction with artistic intent.” Names and situations have been changed but this fictionalized story is no stranger than the real story of television producer and strategist Vladislav Surkov, architect of the post-USSR Kremlin.
Beginning in 2019, years after Vladimir Putin’s enigmatic advisor Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) retired from public life, the film is framed as a conversation between “the Wizard of the Kremlin” and American writer Lawrence Rowland (Jeffrey Wright), whose article “Vadim Baranov and the Invention of Fake Democracy” caught Baranov’s eye.
Baranov’s episodic story begins with a “When I was growing up…” and winds along his journey through the new world of the early 1990s Russia. From life under Communism and a particularly hedonistic theatre school, where he learned how to stage eye catching spectacles, to reality television (“First rule,” he says, “don’t be boring.”) to the world of banking oligarchs and the upper echelons of a new world order, it’s a tale of nationalism, chaos, autocracy and the power behind the power. “I don’t know much about politics,” he says, “but I do know about communications.”
The conversational framing device is an efficient way to drop big chunks of exposition and keep the story moving forward, but it also means an over reliance on voice over. In a show me don’t tell me medium, it feels more like a lecture and a low energy one at that.
Dano’s monotone, I suppose, is befitting a man of mystery, someone who spent a career as the unknowable person behind the throne, but it is too one-note to be compelling. It’s a shame because the machinations of creating a new political brand could be a fascinating and timely topic.
Bringing more energy is Law whose Putin is charismatic and chilling as he calmly speaks (in an English accent) of the advantages of Stalin’s rule and eliminating rivals. “We need to inspire fear and fury,” he says. It’s all surface, no real introspection here, but it’s a pretty good surface.
“The Wizard of the Kremlin” is ambitious but despite revealing Baranov’s secrets, ultimately doesn’t have that much to say.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@EntertainmentIsBroken
