I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:47)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit with host Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about “Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s” box office prospects, Ben Affleck’s game show payday, an Amy Winehouse lawsuit and a web slinging review.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the new releases in theatres including the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Set four years after the memory-erasing events of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” sees Spider-Man anonymously protecting New York City as his superpowers evolve. “Spiders have three life cycles. And between cycles, it can leave the spider vulnerable to threats. Those spiders that survive… go through a kind of rebirth.”
CAST: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.
REVIEW: The fourth standalone film starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man is a return to the Spidey movies of old. Without a multiverse in sight “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” delivers on the promise of the title and delivers a new, almost streamlined, character driven approach. In other words, you won’t need to check Wikipedia to understand the story and characters.
Last time around in 2021s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” supervillain Mysterio publicly revealed Peter Parker’s true Spider-Man identity, thus complicating the teen superhero’s life, and placing those closest to him in mortal danger. To protect his nearest and dearest and safeguard the multiverse, Parker convinces Dr. Strange to cast a spell to erase him from the collective consciousness. “Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker’s heart.”
Now on his own, he keeps New York City safe, but misses his old life, particularly his former flame MJ (Zendaya). The stress of his new, anonymous existence and fighting against a powerful invisible villain, triggers a dangerous evolution in Peter’s arachnid DNA. “The spider is swallowing up the man.”
“We are faced with a danger we can’t control,” Bill Metzger (Tramell Tillman), head of the Department of Damage Control, a U.S. government agency that handles the cleanup and regulation of superhuman-related incidents, tells Parker. “One we can’t even see. You’re the only one who’s immune to it.”
Big, long and loud, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” delivers the spectacle you expect from a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie but doesn’t forget that the ultimate appeal of the main character is his relatability. He’s blessed with superpowers—“He’s the hero every grown-up wishes they could be and every kid wants to be.”—but he’s not invincible and unlike many of his contemporaries he’s not a god, eccentric billionaire or soldier.
Instead, he’s an ordinary young man whose powers don’t solve his issues of insecurity, analysis paralysis and yearning. Then there’s the whole “with great power comes great responsibility” thing, a weight the character carries like a mantle. He’s driven to do the right thing, even if it comes at great personal cost.
“Are you Peter Parker,” asks MJ, “or are you Spider-Man?” It’s the question that lies at the heart of “Brand New Day” and the truth is he’s both, and that’s the push and pull that, as he matures, makes the character interesting and enduring.
Tom Holland, in his best “half man, half spider” performance nicely bridges the gap between the personal and physical, embodying the character’s emotional life, with a healthy dose of humor, while delivering the web-slinging action fans want.
The film’s emotional core, the relationships between MJ, Peter’s former best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) and Peter, is intact, and it is here director Destin Daniel Cretton pulls off his best trick. MJ and Ned’s minds have been wiped of memories of Peter, and yet the connection between them still feels tangible, even though they spend little time on screen together. The sense of longing is central to Peter’s isolation from normal life, and grounds the story in its more high-flying moments.
A dynamic of a different kind is shared between Peter and Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher (Jon Bernthal). Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers shave down some of the Punisher’s rough edges, turning an R-rated character into a PG package, but Bernthal sparks with Holland and provides some of the film’s comedic highlights.
I’m carefully side-stepping a major spoiler, so I won’t make any comments on the future of the MCU, but make no mistake, there is some franchise-building happening here. Luckily it feels organic to the story, mirroring Parker’s own battles with isolation, loss and the internal struggle with the personal, profession and power aspect of having extraordinary gifts.
Recent superhero movies have had a rough time at the box office but with its blend of humanity and superhero antics “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” even though it falls victim to an overblown final reel, is worth the trip to the theatre.
SYNOPSIS: In “Sheep in the Box,” a tender Japanese sci-fi drama now playing in theatres, a heartbroken couple welcomes a humanoid AI replica of their late son into their home.
CAST: Haruka Ayase, Daigo Yamamoto, Rimu Kuwaki. Written, directed and edited by Hirokazu Koreeda.
REVIEW: Set sometime in the near future, the trauma drama “Sheep in the Box” is a half-baked study in the effects of grief.
Two years after losing their seven-year-old son Kakeru in an accident, architect Otone (Haruka Ayase) and her husband Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto) are struggling to move on with their lives. “Even if you can’t see him,” says Otone, “he’s by your side.”
When they are approached by ReBirth, a company that creating generative AI humanoid replicas of deceased loved ones, with the offer of a free prototype, they are initially renunciant but the lure of having their son, or a close replica, in their lives again proves too much to resist. “You’re not ready to forget,” whispers a ReBirth ad. “At ReBirth we recognize that feeling.”
An exact match for their late son, the robotic child (Rimu Kuwaki) bonds with them, but as life returns to “normal” the couple, and Kakeru, come to understand that technology cannot replace human connection.
In her professional life as an architect Otone talks about blending wood and glass in harmony with one another. In her personal life she looks for harmony and relief by incorporating technology into her personal grief. It’s an interesting idea, and a timely one given our increasing reliance on new tech. Trouble is, it feels been-there-done-that given the existence of movies like “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Astro Boy,” “After Yang” and even “M3GAN.”
“Sheep in the Box” lives in the shadow of those movies. Director Hirokazu Koreeda “auteurs” the heck out of this thing, also serving as writer and editor, but doesn’t breathe much new life into the story of an artificial boy or the question of whether a replacement humanoid child can act as a balm after the loss of a child.
There are interesting moments. His description of robot Kakeru as being “born from death” is evocative and poignant phraseology but the overall themes of grief and resurrecting and the bottom line questions of, “Can a relationship between a machine and a human ever really be a two-way street,” are lost in a story that fires off in too many directions and obscures the story’s emotional core.
SYNOPSIS: In “I Want Your Sex,” a new comedy thriller starring Olivia Wilde and now playing in theatres, a naïve young man becomes an intern and muse to a provocative conceptual artist.
CAST: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs. Directed by Gregg Araki.
REVIEW: Christopher Nolan may be the bold face name of the cinema summer, but, in a lower-case way, Olivia Wilde is giving him a run for this money. A potential Oscar nominee for both director and star of “The Invite,” she hands in another memorable performance in Gregg Araki’s erotic comedy “I Want Your Sex.”
The film opens with a nod to “Sunset Boulevard.” A woman floats face down in the pool of an opulent mansion.
But she is no Joe Gillis, or Norma Desmond for that matter. She’s Erika Tracy (Wilde), world famous neo-pop artist and self-described “outlaw against a puritanical world.” In other words, she’s a conceptual artist whose work surveys various fetishes and straight up kinky behavior.
A job opening for an intern in the weeks leading up to her next big gallery show brings fresh-faced art student Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) into her orbit. He’s broke—his roommate Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) has been paying their rent—trapped in a deeply unsatisfying relationship with disinterested med student Minerva (Charli XCX), and looking for new adventures.
Which is exactly what he finds with his “work” with Erika as his intern role shifts from joe jobs like chewing endless wads of gum for an art piece to sexual muse to something more explicit. “The more I hung out with Erika,” he says, “the more under her control I became.”
As Erika makes Elliot her, “sexual astronaut exploring the outer reaches of experience,” he soon comes to learns to never play it safe.
Gregg Araki’s first film since 2014’s “White Bird in a Blizzard,” “I Want Your Sex” isn’t as subversive as his other works, but his frisky indie edge is still very much in play. A lighthearted rejection of repression, particularly sexual, it embraces the Brat doctrine (although Charli XCX, the Queen of Brat, is the film’s tamest character) of embracing the messiness of life.
The sharp script, co-written by Araki and Karley Sciortino, allows Hoffman’s laidback way with a line to shine. When asked what the difference between Erika’s work and porn is, his response—“Lighting, context.”—is perfect and deadpan hilarious.
His commitment to the role is obvious, from the sexual vulnerability to his sincerity, but it’s Wilde’s performance that rules. She’s fearless physically and steals every scene with a charismatic presence and a natural-yet-heightened line delivery.
“I Want Your Sex” is a peep show that provides a satirical look at the art world, and attitudes about sex and desire, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well without the funny, dedicated performances from the leads.
