I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers,” the teen drama “Sweetness,” the hockey drama “Youngblood” and Cilian Murphy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about Spyce Girlz vs. Spice Girls, the Liugi Mangione musical, Bobby Cannavale’s bearded lizard and I review the hockey drama “Youngblood” and suggest some drinks that taste great on and off the ice.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to reanimate the dead. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers” and the hockey drama “Youngblood.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Bride!,” a new gothic story of love and crime loosely inspired by “The Bride of Frankenstein,” and now playing in theatres, a lonely Frankenstein’s monster finds companionship with the recently murdered, reanimated Bride. “What do you want with a dead girl?” she asks. “I’m the same. Born from the dead,” he says. “I am… a monster.”
CAST: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz. Written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
REVIEWS: A mix of classic horror and “Bonnie and Clyde,” with a side of “Wild at Heart,” “The Bride!” is a modern and monstrous, but messy, take on what it means to challenge expectations just by being alive.
Set in the 1930s Chicago, “The Bride!” begins with a lovelorn monster (Christian Bale) asking scientist Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening) for a cure for his loneliness. He wants a companion; someone to love.
The pair dig up the dearly departed Ida and jolt her back to life as the fragmented Bride (Jessie Buckley), a woman possessed by the spirit of her former persona, a take-no-prisoners flapper (“I would prefer not to,” is her catchphrase.), and the ghost of nineteenth century English novelist Mary Shelley, author of the Gothic novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”
“The bride… of Frankenstein,” “Frankie” calls her. “No,” she replies, “just The Bride.”
Rebellious and powerful, she’s far from a demure monster’s mate. As romance blossoms, they connect during a chaotic crime wave that turns The Bride into an accidental folk hero. Their monstrous crime spree inspires women nationwide to break the law, coming together as a community of vigilantes marked with The Bride’s distinctively stained lips and cheek trademark.
On the run from detectives Det. Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz) “Frankie” says, “There is nothing left to do now, except live.”
There is no shortage of ideas in “The Bride!” Director Maggie Gyllenhaal, who also wrote the script, packs the movie with thoughts on bodily autonomy, identity, feminist reclamation, loneliness and what it means to be truly alive.
Unfortunately, these notions feel stitched together as randomly as the roughhewn sutures and staples that bind Frankenstein’s creature together. A more-is-more take on the story of a woman living a second life, an existence forced upon her by Dr. Euphronius and the creature, the film becomes muddled in a sea of ideas that ultimately feel unsupported by the nuts-and-bolts of the story.
At the film’s heart is Jessie Buckley’s uninhibited performance. As a vessel for Ida, Mary Shelley and The Bride, she flip-flops between the characters randomly, spitting out rapid fire lines in various accents, often nonsensically, depending on which of her personas is in the forefront.
Buckley’s commitment to it will be seen as brave, or annoying, depending on your tolerance for over-the-top theatrics. Either way, channeling the three characters doesn’t really work, even in Buckley’s skilled hands.
Gyllenhaal and Bale lend a more restrained hand to the creature. The lovesick “Frankie” is both tender and volatile, and Bale, under an inch of make-up, brings real humanity to the character.
“The Bride!” is an audacious movie. The title’s exclamation mark suggests a movie made with urgency, and Gyllenhaal embraces that sense of excitement in her reimagination of The Bride character, but her enthusiasm for the topic overwhelms the film’s storytelling.
SYNOPSIS: In “Hoppers,” a new animated Pixar science fiction, adventure comedy now playing in theatres, a teen eco warrior goes to extreme lengths to fight city hall’s plan to pave over a nature preserve to build a highway.
CAST: Piper Curda, Bobby Moynihan, Jon Hamm, Kathy Najimy, Dave Franco, Melissa Villaseñor, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Ego Nwodim, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Bayer. Directed by Daniel Chong.
REVIEW: Pixar returns to the top of the animation heap with “Hoppers,” a movie that brims with heart, irreverence, imagination and eye-popping animation.
When we first meet Mabel Tanaka (voice of Piper Curda) she’s a preteen with anger issues who learns to find solace in nature. “It’s hard to be mad when you feel like you’re part of something,” says her grandmother (Karen Huie).
Years later as popular local politician Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) is about to have a local nature habitat paved over to make room for a highway that will save commuters “up to four minutes,” Mabel tries to stop the construction. When the Mayor gives her 48 hours to repopulate the area with animals or he’ll continue the building, Mabel uses an experimental process to “hop” her human consciousness into a lifelike, robotic beaver, and communicate directly with animals.
“Hoppers” is an action adventure that zips along at the speed of light. Director Daniel Chong, a veteran storyboard artist on films like “Bolt,” “Cars 2,” “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” “Free Birds” and “Inside Out,” moves the story along quickly enough to engage young minds, but allows the script by Jesse Andrews to feel grown up enough for adults.
The twist on Dr. Dolittle—talking to animals through robotics and mind swapping—is inventive and allows the film’s messages of eco responsibility and community to be approached from the perspective of both animals and humans, deepening the story’s messages while also adding to the entertainment value. Familiar issues of the importance of working together to solve problems, found family and environmental concerns—never mess with Mother Nature!—are carefully addressed in a unique and interesting way.
The messaging may be nothing new, but the animation feels fresh. Energetic and alive, it’s playful, with fun character design and big action set pieces that pay homage to everything from “Jaws” and weirdo 70s flick “Frogs” to “Avatar” (even though one of the scientists says her “hopping” device is, “nothing like Avatar!”) and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The easiest comparison would be to “Zootopia’s” blend of talking animals and social themes, but “Hoppers” feels different from that billion-dollar franchise. There’s more of a sense of wonder in the action adventure of “Hoppers’” sometimes silly, but always wild ‘n wooly story.
“Hoppers” has fun voicework—Meryl Streep’s imperious Insect Queen is a standout—and an off-the-wall but engaging story, but it stands out because it finds the balance between heart and humor.
SYNOPSIS: In “Sweetness,” a new teen thriller now playing in theatres, the thin line between reality and fantasy is blurred when a 16-year-old meets her drug addicted rock star idol.
CAST: Kate Hallett, Herman Tømmeraas, Aya Furukawa, Justin Chatwin, Steven Ogg, Amanda Brugel. Directed by Emma Higgins.
REVIEW: A “Misery” for a new generation, “Sweetness” essays a teen crush as it escalates from fandom-from-afar to an up-close-and-personal obsession.
Like many 16-year-olds, Rylee (Kate Hallett) has posters of her favorite singer Payton Adler (Herman Tømmeraas) plastered over her bedroom walls. The lonely girl, still stinging from the loss of her mother in a drunk driving accident, finds an escape in his lyrics. His music changed her life. Before she found his songs, she says, “I was really messed up.”
The chance to see her idol perform live in concert turns into something else when, after the show, she gets separated from her best friend Sidney (Aya Furukawa) and is almost injured when Adler, driving while high, runs her down.
As he drives her home, she realizes he is battling addiction and makes the snap decision to save him from himself by kidnapping him and holding him hostage at her home.
As Payton detoxes, the situation escalates pushing Rylee to extremes to prove her tough love is genuine. “Helping you will be the greatest thing I ever do,” she says.
Despite the title, there’s very little sweetness in Rylee’s tale of obsession.
Writer/director Emma Higgins keeps the story taut as she details what happens when Rylee’s, (played with urgent Annie Wilkes energy by Kate Hallett), parasocial relationship becomes flesh. Her empathy soon turns evil as the situation spins out of control, leaving her convinced that nobody understands her except the rockstar she has chained up in the basement.
Recent films like “Lurker” and “Hurry Up Tomorrow” have examined the obsessive nature of fandom, but Higgins, while going hard at the premise, offers up some moments of dark humour that help take some of the edge off Rylee’s extreme behavior; actions born from obsession, grief and loneliness.
“Sweetness” may not have an entirely original take on obsessive fandom, but interesting work from the leads and some shocking twists earn it a recommendation.
SYNOPSIS: In “Youngblood,” a reimagining of the 1986 Rob Lowe hockey drama now playing in theatres, Ashton James stars as a Black junior hockey player in Hamilton, Ontario, who dreams of getting drafted into the NHL.
CAST: Ashton James, Blair Underwood, Shawn Doyle, Alexandra McDonald, Oluniké Adeliyi, Henri Richer-Picard, Emidio Lopes, Donald MacLean Jr., Tamara Podemski, Joris Jarsky, Matt Wells, Keris Hope Hill, Jonathan Valvano, Ty Neckar, Dylan Hawco, Evan Buliung. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: In good sports movies the sport—baseball, basketball, hockey, ping pong, whatever—isn’t just a game, it’s a vehicle for social comment. “Youngblood” reinvents the original film to become a study of the difficulties faced by Black athletes, told with high octane hockey sequences as a backdrop.
A companion piece to director Hubert Davis’s 2022 documentary “Black Ice,” winner of TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary, “Youngblood” casts Ashton James as Dean Youngblood, a young, hotheaded defenseman, still stinging from the death of his mother. His promising career in Detroit was cut when he handed a year’s suspension for fighting and lost his scholarship. Now he’s looking to get back on the ice.
When he gets a second chance, a tryout for the Hamilton, Ontario Mustangs, it’s not his best shot, it might be his only shot at realizing his National Hockley League dreams.
With stern father and mentor Blane’s (Blair Underwood) teachings ringing in his head, Dean arrives thinking the cards are stacked against him. If he is to succeed, he must stomach strict coach Murray’s (Shawn Doyle) who barely gives him ice time and hazing from his new teammates as he learns there is no “I” in team. “It’s the Mustangs,” he’s told, “not the Youngbloods.”
The original film has been given an overhaul. Gone are most of the team’s hockey hijinks, the predatory house mother and star Rob Lowe’s Brat Pack vibe. Instead, perhaps inspired by late co-screenwriter Charles Officer’s time spent as a pro hockey player, the new film digs deeper, examining race, violence and toxicity in hockey, while keeping the puck on the ice with exciting game sequences.
As the title character, Ashton James brings passion for the game tempered by the hurt Dean feels by being overlooked because of the color of his skin and the loss of his mother (Oluniké Adeliyi), who had been a leveling force in his life. It’s nice, authentic work that allows James to hold the film’s center opposite older, more experienced actors.
“Youngblood” occasionally falls prey to platitudes—”Lord knows we all have our moments,” says inspirational house mother Ms. McGill (Tamara Podemski), “It’s what we do next that matters.”—but nice performances, combined with cool hockey footage, courtesy of Stuart James Cameron’s cinematography, bring Dean’s struggles, on and off the ice, to vivid life.
SYNOPSIS: Oscar winner Cillian Murphy returns to theatres in “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” a feature-length, direct sequel to the original TV series that answers the question posed in the film’s trailer, “Whatever happened to Tommy Shelby, the famous Gypsy gangster?”
CAST: Cillian Murphy, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, Stephen Graham, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo, Barry Keoghan. Directed by Tom Harper.
REVIEW: Set in 1940, six years after the end of the television series, the story begins with former Peaky Blinders crime boss Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) living in self-exile. Trauma, PTSD from World War I, and betrayal led him to a monastic life, writing a memoir, far from the violence that infected most of his life. When asked why he’s sitting out WWII he says, “I have a war of my own. Inside my head.”
In Birmingham, as World War II rages, Tommy’s son ‘Duke’ Shelby (Barry Keoghan) has assumed control of Peaky Blinders. “Peaky Blinders are going to do,” says one onlooker to the gang’s violence, “whatever the Peaky Blinders want to do.”
Doing whatever they want includes stealing weapons meant for British soldiers fighting the Nazis. Concerned for her family and country, Tommy’s sister Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) visits her brother, urging him to “talk to your son before he gets hung by the law or lynched by the people.”
“If it’s trouble he’s in,” Tommy says, “I’ve got enough of my own.” But when Duke becomes involved with Nazis in a money counterfeit scheme to flood the British economy with £70 million worth of fake pound notes—”We’ll end the war with banknotes instead of bombs,” says British fascist Beckett (Tim Roth)—Tommy puts on his trademarked peaked cap and returns to Birmingham to confront Duke. “My son,” he says, “my dark reflection.”
Like the last chapter of a thick novel, “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” serves as a climax to the long-running series. It’s not exactly a stand-alone story, so, for the complete effect, you might want to watch the show—available for streaming on Netflix—or, at the very least glance at the show’s Wikipedia page before buying a ticket.
No time? That’s OK. Screenwriter Steven Knight, who also created the original television series, doles out background information by weaving it into conversations, and through excerpts from Tommy’s memoir. There’s no “Previously on Beaky Blinders” recap as such, but you get enough info to keep up, but perhaps not get the richness of Murphy’s take on Shelby, a man trying to battle against his worst nature.
It’s a slow burn, a story of family, fathers, sons and legacy with elements of magic realism, courtesy of Rebecca Ferguson’s enigmatic character Kaulo, a psychic figure with Romani heritage.
Style wise, tribute is paid to the streaming show.
Murphy moves through the film’s brimstone smoke and low-level, atmospheric lighting with Shelby’s signature style—sharp suits, dangling cigarette and confident walk—bringing with him a moral complexity as he works to discover if “from this bad some good will come.”
Murphy’s mastery of Tommy’s dangerous stoicism is entertaining, but it is the character’s battle between the good and evil that exist within that makes him fascinating.
In this big screen adaptation, screenwriter Knight and director Tom Harper clearly believe that bigger is better, but in the staging of the large scale, climatic “Mission Impossible” style sequence, the movie loses the intimate, inner world that mark its best moments.
I join CP24 Breakfast to have a look at Sunday night’s Actor Awards, the tribute to Catherine O’Hara and what the winners mean in the overall race to Oscar.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
