I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres and streaming this week including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:02)
I joined CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including the sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
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 sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons,” the family dramedy “Shook” and the action comedy “The Pickup.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the horror film “Weapons” and tell you about some drinks, made with Twizzlers, to enjoy with the film.
Click HERE to listen to Shane and me talk about how Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver are scaring wolves, Rod Stweart’s terrible tribute to Ozzy and why you should never use the Happy Gilmore running step swing.
For the Booze & Reviews look at “Weapons” and some cool Twizzler cocktails to pair with it, click 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 sweet body-swap movie “Freakier Friday,” the horrifying and hilarious “Weapons” and the family dramedy “Shook.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In the new horror film “Weapons” a community is left reeling when all but one child from Justine Gandy’s elementary classroom mysteriously vanish from their homes. “Whatever took those kids isn’t something you can fight,” says police officer Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich).
CAST: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan. Directed by Zach Cregger.
REVIEW: “Weapons” feels like the horror story Stephen King never wrote.
Like so many of King’s sinister novels, “Weapons” takes place in a tightly knit community, an ordinary place touched by supernatural terror. There’s dark humor, missing kids and the kind of unimaginable creeping dread that made King a millionaire.
But it’s not King, it’s Zach Cregger, one of the new kings of offbeat horror. His last film, 2002s “Barbarian,” was an audacious thriller about an evil Airbnb rental that delivered a heaping handful of solid scares and off-the-hook storytelling.
Creggar ups the ante with “Weapons.” As he did with “Barbarian,” he adds flourishes to a simple but effective premise to create textured, complex storytelling.
Like I said, the inciting incident is simple: One morning, at 2:17 am, seventeen children, all schoolmates, ran into the darkness and disappeared.
The question at the film’s heart—Where did they go, and why?—is the catalyst for an ambitious story that blends the points of view of six residents, teacher Miss Gandy (Julia Garner), Alex (Cary Christopher), the one student who stayed behind, school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), drug addict James (Austin Abrams) and parent Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) who says, “If my boy’s out there, I’ll tear this town apart to find him.”
Cregger handles the material with a deft hand, effectively building a relatable, ordinary world where terrible things happen. The eerie disappearances are dealt with quickly before the movie commits to its study of grief and trauma via six interconnected vignettes that dig deep into the lives of the main characters. As such, for most of its runtime “Weapons” is more about the aftermath of the disappearances, and how the characters deal with tragedy, anger and the bizarre nature of the vanishings, than the disappearances themselves.
The film’s vignettes eventually dovetail, leaving behind a trail of jump scares, dark humor, introspection and tension that leads to a cathartic climax. A mix of gruesome horror, surreal farce and surprise, it is unexpected and unexpectedly funny. Cregger navigates the story’s tonal twists and turns like a pro, bending the film’s unusual structure to his will to deliver an exciting, entertaining movie that is as hilarious as it is horrifying.
A throwback to the erotic thrillers of the 1980s, “Fair Play,” a blistering exploration of workplace gender dynamics, now streaming on Netflix, is a smart, sexy and sharp story of sabotage.
When we first meet Emily and Luke, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, they are a young couple, very much in love. By night they are a lovey-dovey pair on the verge of getting married.
“I wish we could tell the world,” Luke says.
But they can’t, because by day they work at an aggressive Wall Street financial firm with a strict no fraternization policy. That means all business, no flirting, no batting of eyes, just head-down business analysis.
When a project manager gets fired and escorted out of the building, rumor has it that Luke will take over and get the corner office, and Emily is thrilled for him.
But when the unexpected happens, and Emily is offered the job—“You made half the big calls this quarter alone,” her boss says.—Luke congratulates her but his true feelings are betrayed by the hurt behind his eyes.
Relationship power dynamics shifted, Luke becomes sullen and unpredictable as Emily becomes more powerful and confident. As their relationship erodes, worn away by jealousy, a bruised ego and anger, Luke’s performance at work falters.
“Why is it so hard to accept that I deserve the job?” Emily asks.
“Because I never got the shot,” Luke snorts.
In its examination of the cutthroat world of finance, “Fair Play” treads similar ground as movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boiler Room,” but does so from a different perspective. This movie is about the personal toll success can exact when ego, economics and gender dynamics collide.
In her big screen debut director Chloe Domont creates a tense two-hander, an edgy movie that transforms from sweet to sour as its provocative story nears the end credits. There are a handful of other characters, most notably Eddie Marsan as the reptilian big boss at the firm, but this is all about the intense performances from Dynevor and Ehrenreich.
“Bridgerton’s” Dynevor plays Emily, an Ivy Leaguer from humble Long Island beginnings, as a person who has fought her way to success. Her weapons against sexism and office politics are instinct, drive and a work ethic that places her a step ahead of the competition. In a breakout role Dynevor hands in the film’s most subtle performance, capturing the character’s inner reserve of strength necessary to keep her grounded as Luke’s behavior grows more erratic.
Ehrenreich, best known for play Han Solo in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” has the showier part. He plays Luke as an entitled guy who hasn’t been told “no” enough in his life. As Emily’s star rises at work, his man-child masculinity is threatened, manifesting itself in impotency, anger and finally, violence as he hopscotches through the stages of grief over the shoddy state of his career. Ehrenreich is as outward in his performance as Dynevor is introspective, and is an interesting, if one note, villain.
“Fair Play” is an effective, if slightly overlong, acidic relationship drama, a kind of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” set among the world of high finance and insecure men.
My review of “Cocaine Bear” is quoted in this article from Screen Rant.
“Before buying a ticket to “Cocaine Bear” ask yourself this question: Am I likely to enjoy a movie called “Cocaine Bear”? I can tell you authoritatively that it is the best stoned bear movie of the year. Admittedly, it is a small field, but if that turns your crank, by all means check it out…” Read the whole thing HERE!
