I sit in with hosts Jim Richards and Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the family drama “Here,” the odd couple “A Real Pain” and the sci fi flick “Levels.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 28:36)
SYNOPSIS: In “Level,” a new indie sci-fi thriller starring Peter Mooney and Cara Gee, and now playing in theatres, bookseller Joe (Peter Mooney) falls for Ash (Cara Gee), a woman with a mysterious past… and present.
“I need to tell you something,” she says. “I’m not from here.” “I know,” he replies, “you’re from Bridgewater.” “No,” she clarifies, “I’m not from here.” Emphasis on the word here.
Before she can explain, she is killed, leaving Joe shattered, with just one clue, a book she left behind called “On Being Human.” With his life in pieces, he questions what is real and what is not in his pursuit of Ash’s killer. “I don’t know if I’m real,” he says. “Doesn’t seem like it.”
CAST: Cara Gee, Peter Mooney, Aaron Abrams, Jade Ma, Adam Hurtig and David Hewlett. Directed by Adam Stern.
REVIEW: Big ideas abound in “Level.” Writer/director Adam Stern questions the very fabric of reality, asking if answers to the world’s problems can be found in simulations. “The world is shit,” evil genius Anthony Hunter (Aaron Abrams) says, outlining his plan to use simulations to find out what happens before it happens; before climate change happens, before a fascist can get elected, and before millions of people die because of outdated ideologies and misinformation. With his plan, however, comes an even bigger question, Are his dangerous methods worth the results?
Stern’s sci fi movie is of the mind. There are some cool images and special effects—Stern’s resume features 75 visual effects credits—but “Levels” is Christopher Nolan Lite, with big philosophical notions but without the eye-popping images to accompany them.
It wants to engage the brain more than it wants to dazzle the eye, and it may spark up the synapses, but first you’ll have to wade through a lot of exposition. This is a tell-me, don’t-show-movie, and, as such, frequently gets a bit too wordy for its own good.
Debating the very idea of reality should up the stakes, but the volume of exposition slows down the film’s forward momentum. As a result, Stern’s messages of hope for the future of humankind are heartfelt but come packaged in a movie that lacks urgency.
“The Lovebirds,” a new comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae debuting on Netflix this week, belongs to a very specific sub-genre of rom com. Like “Date Night” and “Game Night” it’s the story of a rocky romance rescued by one wild night on the town.
Nanjiani and Rae are Jibran and Leilani, a couple we meet on their first date. It’s all sunshine and roses (and some day-drinking) until we cut to four years later. The genial tone of the first date is gone, replaced by endless bickering about how he can’t make up his mind about which restaurant to go to and even “The Amazing Race,” a show he’s never seen. “I don’t need to get hit by a truck to know it would suck,” he says.
On the drive to a dinner party, things come to a head. “I feel like I’m one page of the book,” he says, “but you’re reading a magazine.“ Just as a petty spat leads them to the brink of a break-up they unwittingly become involved in a crime when their car is commandeered by someone claiming to be a cop (Paul Sparks) and then used to brutally run over and kill a bicycle courier.
Afraid the police won’t believe their version of events, the couple leave the scene of the crime, determined to take matters into their own hands and figure out who the bad guy is. Plunged into world that makes their relationship woes look tame by comparison, the couple uncover clues and rekindle their romance. “This is like ‘The Amazing Race,’” she says, “except with dead people.”
“The Lovebirds” is a rom com, or maybe it’s better to call it a rom crime? Either way, it mixes affection, funnies and felonies in one package that rests solely on the shoulders of its two charismatic stars. Their Fred and Ethel style bickering, which supplies much of the film’s enjoyment, doesn’t feel mean-spirited or contrived. Just the banter between two people who may have forgotten what they liked about one another to begin with. Nanjiani and Rae bring the comedic chops to make us laugh and the magnetism to keep us onside when the action ramps up and grows more and more extreme. “We couldn’t figure out our relationship,” he says. “Do you think we can figure out a murder?”
“The Lovebirds” works best when it has an edge, less so (and you knew this was coming) when romance is reborn. The (NOT A SPOILER! IT MAY HAVE VIOLENCE BUT IT IS STILL A ROM COM) conventional ending is a predictable but happy way to put a bow on the story.
The Toronto restaurant helmed by Chef Daniel (Aaron Abrams) in the movie “Nose to Tail” is a lovely, high end bistro that promises good service and even better food. It looks effortless, like a swan drifting elegantly on a lake. It may feel calm in the front of house but the restaurant, like the swan, is paddling like hell to stay afloat.
Written and directed by first-timer Jesse Zigelstein, “Nose to Tail,” which debuts on VOD this week, takes place over the course of one crisis filled day. Waking up hung-over in his cramped downstairs office, Daniel begins planning a special meal for a VIP table of investors who, if impressed, might provide the financial lifeline the restaurant needs to survive. Before dinner service begins, however, he must deal with an unhappy landlord, a disappointed ex-wife and the loss of a sous-chef. Also, like flies buzzing around a rotten piece of meat, there’s a food truck across the street that may be siphoning Daniel’s customers and an annoying food blogger who seems to know more about the state of Daniel’s restaurant than Daniel does.
“Nose to Tail’s” isn’t likely to debut on the Food Network’s Movie Night. A portrait of a narcissistic chef, driven by ego, alcohol and pure rage, it shows more of the reality of restaurant life than any celebrity chef reality show. He’s an anti-hero, a person who wields his talent and reputation like a sword, to sleep with his hostess or treat his proteges in the kitchen like servants, but he’s also compelling. He may be the architect of his own demise but Abrams keeps the audience on side. He incorrigible but there is always a lingering sense that his often-irredeemable behavior is born out of a sense of failure, not power. He was once a hotshot, an up-and-comer, but now is being left behind and it has crushed him. Abrams gives him layers. He’s not likable but he’s also not simply a self-loathing Gordon Ramsey “Hell’s Kitchen” stereotype either.
“Nose to Tail” occasionally feels overstuffed with complications—Daniel is having a VERY bad day—but its determination to not smooth out Daniel’s rough edges makers it worth a look.
This week on The Richard Crouse Show: “Nose to Tail” writer/director Jesse Zigelstein and star Aaron Abrams. “Nose to Tail” is the story of an abrasive chef as he struggles to make a go of his failing restaurant over a one day and night.
Synopsis: Waking up hung-over in his cramped downstairs office, Daniel begins planning a special meal for a VIP table of investors who, if impressed, might provide the financial lifeline the restaurant needs to survive. Before dinner service begins, however, he must deal with an unhappy landlord, a disappointed ex-wife and the loss of a sous-chef. Also, like flies buzzing around a rotten piece of meat, there’s a food truck across the street that may be siphoning Daniel’s customers and an annoying food blogger who seems to know more about the state of Daniel’s restaurant than Daniel does.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!:
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 Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.
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The crowd-funded “Code 8” is speculative fiction, set in the future, but addresses real world issues like marginalization and the healthcare crisis.
Robbie Amell is Connor Reed, one of the 4% of the population born with extraordinary powers. Instead of being celebrated, however, Reed and his kind are discriminated against, forced to live in poverty.
Blessed—or cursed, depending on how you look at it—with the ability to generate electricity, Reed lives a quiet life, working in construction. The low profile job keep him off the radar of Agents Park in Davis (Sung Kang and Aaron Abrams), leaders of a militarized police unit, but doesn’t earn enough to pay for his mother‘s (Kari Matchett) mounting hospital bills.
To make some much-needed cash he agrees to expose his abilities to aid crime boss Marcus Sutcliffe (Greg Bryk) and his sadistic henchmen Garrett (Stephen Amell).
The aura of “X-Men” hangs heavy over “Code 8.” Director and co-writer (with Chris Pare) Jeff Chan has re-contextualized the idea of superbeings being persecuted for their powers—they don’t wear costumes, have character names like Electro or attend tony private schools—but all roads lead back to artist/co-writer Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee’s timely take on the mistrust of those seen as different. There’s more grit here and the characters aren’t as showy, they are simply trying to survive in a world that is inhospitable to them.
Chan does a good job balancing the action with ideas, effortlessly mixing and matching real word and sci fi elements to create a movie that has enough to say about the fear of diversity and tolerance to earn a look.
Newfoundland director Stephen Dunn’s feature debut is an odd movie. “Closet Monster” pays tribute to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and features a talking hamster spirit animal voiced by Isabella Rossellini. It’s also a beautifully made, eclectic film that breathes new life into the coming-of-age-and-out-of-the-closet genre.
Oscar (played as a youngster by Jack Fulton) is a child of a broken home who witnessed a grim act of gay bashing which left a young man paralyzed from the waist down.
Years later memories of the violent attack and his father’s (Aaron Abrams) homophobia—when he asks his father why the boy was beaten, the old man says, “Because he’s gay.”—have left Oscar (now played by Connor Jessup) feeling repressed, as though being gay was something that should never be talked about, let alone acknowledged. An imaginative kid, he has aspirations of leaving Newfoundland, moving to New York and becoming a makeup artist for horror and fantasy movies.
As a teen when Oscar develops a crush on hardware store co-worker Wilder (Aliocha Schneider) he finds himself still scarred from the trauma of his youth. His conditioned response is to filter his newfound feelings through a blend of aggressive fantasy flashbacks. His friends, Gemma (Sofia Banzhof) and Buffy (a hamster voiced by Rossellini) help ground him as he searches to find himself.
Perhaps because the story is loosely autobiographical Dunn is able to take what may have been a gimmicky story—talking hamsters! Gory make-up fever dreams!—and ground it, if not exactly in reality, then in a world that feels heightened but authentic. He’s aided by a great, naturalistic performance from Jessup who manages to keep the character earthbound and relatable even when the story takes off on existential flights of fancy.
“Closet Monster” confronts its issues head on, whether it is death—“Your parents replaced me,” says Buffy, “like, four times.”—grappling with sexuality or homophobia and does so with style and guts.
Newfoundland director Stephen Dunn’s feature debut is an odd movie. “Closet Monster” pays tribute to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and features a talking hamster spirit animal voiced by Isabella Rossellini. It’s also a beautifully made, eclectic film that breathes new life into the coming-of-age-and-out-of-the-closet genre.
Oscar (played as a youngster by Jack Fulton) is a child of a broken home who witnessed a grim act of gay bashing which left a young man paralyzed from the waist down.
Years later memories of the violent attack and his father’s (Aaron Abrams) homophobia—when he asks his father why the boy was beaten, the old man says, “Because he’s gay.”—have left Oscar (now played by Connor Jessup) feeling repressed, as though being gay was something that should never be talked about, let alone acknowledged. An imaginative kid, he has aspirations of leaving Newfoundland, moving to New York and becoming a makeup artist for horror and fantasy movies.
As a teen when Oscar develops a crush on hardware store co-worker Wilder (Aliocha Schneider) he finds himself still scarred from the trauma of his youth. His conditioned response is to filter his newfound feelings through a blend of aggressive fantasy flashbacks. His friends, Gemma (Sofia Banzhof) and Buffy (a hamster voiced by Rossellini) help ground him as he searches to find himself.
Perhaps because the story is loosely autobiographical Dunn is able to take what may have been a gimmicky story—talking hamsters! Gory make-up fever dreams!—and ground it, if not exactly in reality, then in a world that feels heightened but authentic. He’s aided by a great, naturalistic performance from Jessup who manages to keep the character earthbound and relatable even when the story takes off on existential flights of fancy.
“Closet Monster” confronts its issues head on, whether it is death—“Your parents replaced me,” says Buffy, “like, four times.”—grappling with sexuality or homophobia and does so with style and guts.
