I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the fantasy of “The Magic Faraway Tree,” the horrors of “Insidious: Out of the Further,” the character study of “The Rivals of Amziah King” and the drama of “Late Fame.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the fantasy of “The Magic Faraway Tree,” the horrors of “Insidious: Out of the Further,” the character study of “The Rivals of Amziah King” and the drama of “Late Fame.”Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
CAST: Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Lin Shaye. Directed by Jacob Chase.
REVIEW: More of the same from the “Insidious” series after a few wobbly years, “Insidious: Out of the Further” plays on nostalgia with the return of franchise favorite Lin Shaye but freshens things up with a revolving door between the worlds of the dead and the living, and the introduction of a charismatic and chatty villain who resembles a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and an extra from a Marilyn Manson video.
A sequel to 2023s “Insidious: The Red Door,” the new film centers on Gemma (Amelia Eve), a young mom living in her childhood home with daughter Maya (Island Austin). Plagued dark and intense dreams that make her lose track of time, she is slowly losing her grip on reality.
At least she thinks they’re dreams. “Ever since she was born, it’s been just the two of us,” she says. “We were really happy … until I started having these dreams.”
Turns out, she is astrally projecting into The Further, a purgatory of lost souls. “You have a rare gift,” says psychic medium and paranormal investigator Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), “the ability to travel into the realm between this world and the next one.”
Gemma’s “rare gift” comes fraught with real danger. “You can do something I didn’t know was possible,” says Elise. “You can bring demons back to the human world permanently.”
When The Further’s malevolent inhabitants see a pathway through Gemma to the real world, the boundary between their dominion and ours is breached. “When the dead rise,” says Elise, “it’ll be the end of the living.”
A 2020 “Science of Scare” study declared “Insidious,” the 2010 movie that kicked off the franchise, contained the most frightening jump scare ever. The intensity director James Wan captured in that sequence, unfortunately, has been diluted in the five subsequent films.
“Insidious: Out of the Further” does have its moments. Gemma’s journey through her daughter’s labyrinthine coach cushion fort is an effective exercise in claustrophobic horror, there are some mild jump scares, general uneasiness and icky tooth terror that may put you off scheduling a dentist appointment any time soon. It’s a bonus points that the creepy stuff is created using practical effects and that it maintains a connection to the franchise lore while being a standalone film. But there is nothing that comes close to matching Wan’s terrifying image of the Lipstick-Face Demon appearing behind new father Josh Lambert in the first film. Perhaps familiarity with the franchise tropes has created, if not contempt, then a mild disinterest for the secrets of The Further.
“Insidious: Out of the Further” rides the line between freshening things up and fan service, but, despite the introduction of new characters, it feels like it is out of new ideas.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Rivals of Amziah King,” a new crime thriller now playing in theatres, Matthew McConaughey stars as a beekeeper whose life is upended by the return of his estranged stepdaughter and violent business rivals. “Get ready, my little chickadee. Bees only swarm when they are ready for a fight.”
CAST: Matthew McConaughey, Angelina LookingGlass, Jake Horowitz, Scott Shepherd, Rob Morgan, Tony Revolori, Kurt Russell. Directed by Andrew Patterson.
REVIEW: Set in the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, “The Rivals of Amziah King” stars Matthew McConaughey as the title character, a beekeeper and bluegrass musician who runs the biggest honey operation in his area. “I know the weather. I know the bees. I know the point where anyone else would give up and I won’t.”
His life is changed for the better when his foster daughter Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass) reappears in his life. As the pair become reacquainted, making the most of their second chance at having a meaningful relationship, Amziah opens his heart and business to the young women.
But as their efforts to create a true family business are threatened by powerful rivals looking to undo everything Amziah and Kateri have built.
“This isn’t just theft. There’s a design and a cruelty to this. Someone loaded up everything he built and took it all away. And I’m going to find them and I’m going to take it all back.”
“The Rivals of Amziah King” feels like two films.
With no spoilers I can tell you that the first hour is a hang out movie disguised as a character study of Amziah. In McConaughey’s hands he is a bigger-than-life man, who doesn’t speak, but rather pontificates, on bees, life and whatever else strikes his fancy. He’s a William Faulkner-esque character, a distinctly southern person, poetically earthy with a deep reservoir of humanity and spirituality.
Director Andrew Patterson takes his time, allowing us to get to know Azmiah, Kateri and other members of the tight knit community through storytelling, music and lots of talk about bees. In fact, it sometimes feels like “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bees but Were Afraid to Ask” would be a better title but there’s a sanctity to Amziah’s connection with the bees that is intriguing.
Which is why it comes as such a surprise when around the hour mark, the movie drops its tone poem tendencies in favor of shift toward crime thrills and revenge. It’s not an easy fit, and the movie loses much of its heartfelt charm as it becomes about stolen bee colonies and amateur sleuthing.
Up until that part, however, “The Rivals of Amziah King” is a wonderfully offbeat movie that creates a beautiful portrait of community that sprouted up around its central character.
SYNOPSIS: In “Late Fame,” a new drama now playing in theatres, Willem Dafoe stars as a forgotten New York City poet whose work is rediscovered by an enthusiastic group of young fans.
CAST: Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Edmund Donovan, Clay Singer, Luca Padovan, Graham Campbell, Arthur Langlie, Jake Lacy, Tony Torn, Clark Johnson. Directed by Kent Jones.
REVIEW: Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) moved to New York City in 1977 with dreams of becoming a poet. “Downtown was another world,” he says, “and Soho was like being on the moon.” In present day, he’s a postal worker who spends most nights at the local bar, and whose one book of poetry lies, mostly unread, in the delete bin of bohemian history.
His long-forgotten dreams of glory are reignited when he’s approached by Meyers (Edmund Donovan), an animated young man who slowly ingratiates his way into Saxberger’s quietly ordered life through flattery and persistence. Meyers is the leader of a circle of twentysomething so-called renaissance men called the Enthusiasm Society. Their literary salon is a pretentious throwback to old New York in their stilted celebration of poetry and art.
Feted as a rediscovered genius, Saxberger reluctantly bathes in the group’s attention, particularly from Gloria (Greta Lee) a tragic heroine in the vein of Daisy Buchanan.
In the ramp up to the group’s inaugural poetry reading, Saxberger’s first public appearance in decades, the poet-turned-postal-worker ponders his place in the world of letters and whether this newfound attention is genuine or not.
Based on the novella “Late Fame” (“Später Ruhm”) by the nineteenth century Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler, the film is a witty and wistful look at art and aging that gives Dafoe and Lee a showcase for their powerhouse performances.
As Saxberger, Dafoe goes low-key, delivering a natural performance without any of the fun artifice of his work in “Poor Things” or “The Lighthouse.” Those heightened characterizations are expertly crafted, but he’s doing something different here, playing a world-weary guy whose second chance at recognition is a thorny rose; alluring but potentially harmful. It’s beautiful work that subtly reveals frustrations and ambition he thought were long buried.
Working opposite him is Greta Lee, in a much more flamboyant role. As the would-be flapper diva Gloria, she is by time theatrical à la Sally Bowles, even handing in an exhilarating version of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “Surabaya Johnny,” by times prickly and by times vulnerable. It’s dramatic, scene stealing work, the opposite of her restrained performance in “Past Lives.” Here she’s filled with glamour and pathos.
“Late Fame” longs for a more bohemian time, one where art and poetry had cultural currency. As a relic from that era, Saxberger is a curiosity to the Enthusiasm Society, but Dafoe quietly never allows us to forget that he’s a living, breathing person and not an artefact from another time. He is as authentic and grounded as Gloria is ephemeral and that push and pull gives the film its enticing allure.
CAST: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson. Directed by Ben Gregor.
REVIEW: Adapted from Enid Blyton’s book series “The Faraway Tree,” the film is a cheerful and charming film that embraces its whimsical nature to provide both heartfelt and humorous moments.
Andrew Garfield is Tim, a stay-at-home dad to technology addicted teenagers Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Joe (Phoenix Laroche) and Fran (Billie Gadsdon) and husband to inventor Polly (Claire Foy). When she discovers the high-tech fridge she’s been working on is also being used to spy on its owners, she hastily quits. With her resignation goes the family’s company home and car, leaving them at a crossroads.
Hauling out their Dream Binder, a decade old collection of paintings of their hopes and dreams, the couple to run away and start a new life and a tomato sauce business in the country.
“The countryside is filled with the most amazing trees,” says Tim. “Literally the most boring things in the world,” says the dour-faced Beth, who can’t imagine an unplugged life.
On arrival they find a house that is not really a house. “It is more of a barn,” says Polly. The older, unimpressed kids can’t charge their gadgets, and Joe asks, “Are we going back in time?”
When youngest daughter Fran returns a purse dropped by a someone on the woods, she receives an invitation to the mystical Far Away Magic Tree by tree resident Silky (Nicola Coughlan). Despite being warned not to go into the enchanted woods, Fran makes the trip and discovers a world of fairies and new worlds, like the Land of Goodies.
Fran returns days later with her siblings who visit the Land of Birthdays, where Beth makes a wish that just might change the family’s lives and fortunes.
“The Magic Faraway Tree” shares the sentiment of “Toy Story 5.” Both films discourage screen use and encourage embracing the imagination and playtime of childhood but do so in very different ways. The Pixar film is dramatic versus the quirky, broad tone of “The Magic Faraway tree.” Part fantasy, part Benny Hill (but without the annoying music), it’s a heartwarming cross between an English pantomime, “Narnia” and the family dynamics of “Paddington.” Screenwriter Simon Farnaby, it should be noted, wrote “Paddington 2.” Then influences blends together like puzzle pieces, especially in the fantasy scenes.
“The Magic Faraway Tree” is a sweet natured, uplifting story of a family repairing broken bonds that delivers a dose of adult dreams tempered by child-like magic.
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make a sandwich. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the biopic “Tony,” the dino drama “The End of Oak Street” and the slasher flick “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
