I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres and streaming including the wonderful “Anora,” the intriguing “Conclave,” the interspecies bromance “Venom: The Last Dance,” the revenger thriller “Seeds” and thr rock doc “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” on Disney+”.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Anora,” the Palme d’Or winning film from “The Florida Project” director Sean Baker, now playing in theatres, Brighton Beach sex worker Ani (Mikey Madison) becomes involved with the Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. Their initial transactional relationship quickly blossoms into a whirlwind romance and elopement. Her “Cinderella” story is turned upside down when Vanya’s powerful parents swoop in to force an annulment.
CAST: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan and Aleksei Serebryakov. Written, directed and edited by Sean Baker
REVIEW: Part screwball comedy, part fight for survival, “Anora” is a triumph of controlled chaos. As in his earlier films, “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket,” director Sean Baker keenly observes his characters with empathy and emotion in stories that examine money, class, and power.
But unlike his other movies, “Anora” constantly feels as though it is going to fly off its axis. Every scene, whether broadly comedic or heartbreaking, has a character-based urgency that propels the story. Baker’s ability to keep it all moving forward put me in the mind of watching plate spinning performers on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” It’s a film of remarkable energy and tension; one that keeps a lot of plates spinning without ever allowing the forward momentum of its anti-fairy tale to steamroll its characters.
Mikey Madison, best known to date as the oldest sibling on the sit com “Better Things” and being burned alive in both “Scream (5)” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” hands in a career re-defining performance as sex worker Anora a.k.a. Ani. An electric combination of tough-as-nails ferocity, self-assurance, desperation and poignant vulnerability, she is as compelling and charismatic a lead as we’ll see at the movies this year.
The film’s core, an extended set piece involving a city-wide hunt for Ani’s husband recalls the frenetic energy of “After Hours,” but the character building doesn’t stop when the action begins. A second scene-stealer, Yura Borisov as Igor, henchman for the Russian oligarch, emerges with a subtle but deeply felt and deeply comedic performance, tinged with an unexpected sweetness.
“Anora” is one of the best films of the year. An insightfully made look at the wealth divide, with elements of suspense and comedy, it never fails to entertain.
Every action movie worth their salt has a catchphrase, and “Nobody,” in theatres only, has a pretty good one. “Don’t call 911,” Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) says to his wife (Connie Nielsen) before taking on an army of baddies. It’s his “I’ll be back,” a line that tells you everything you need to know about the character’s confidence in his special set of skills.
But, when we first meet him unassuming suburban dad Hutch leads a life of quiet desperation. Under appreciated at home, a joke at work, he makes Rodney Dangerfield look like a well-respected man about town by comparison.
He is, by his own admission, a nobody.
When burglars invade his home, his son (Gage Munroe) fights back, but Hutch freezes. Later, when one of the cops of the scene says, “You know, if this was my family…” Hutch’s humiliation hangs heavy in the unspoken words.
But there’s more to Hutch than meets the eye. Turns out he’s an everyman who can kill every man. A former clean-up guy for “one of those three letter organizations,” he left the game for a normal life, but “over-corrected” and became everybody’s doormat. “I always knew it was a facade,” he says of his suburban life, “but it lasted longer than I expected.”
The aftermath of the burglary awakens a long dormant piece of his personality and when he single-handedly takes on a group of Russian toughs on a bus—to the strains of Steve Lawrence crooning “I’ve Gotta Be Me”—he earns the attention of karaoke singing crime boss Yulian Kuznetsov (Aleksey Serebryakov).
What follows is a violent, funny mix of “John Wick” and “Home Alone.”
There isn’t much to “Nobody” except for Hutch’s transformation and his ever-escalating way of offing the hordes of gun toting goons sent to silence him. Director Ilya Naishuller keeps the narrative to a minimum, doling out the exposition in the form of action instead of words. It’s fun, fast-paced and owes a nod to Guy Ritchie’s patented tricky editing and may be the most unexpected good time at the movies since terrible people killed John Wick’s dog.
From bewildered to badass, Odenkirk is an unlikely action star. Slight and wiry, he’s a like a coiled snake, and when he strikes he takes a lickin’ but keeps on tickin’. Unlike most action stars he gets the crap knocked out of him, but like most action stars, he’s relentless. It’s about as far away from his work on the “Mr. Show” as you could get. It’s more like a bloodied and bruised 1970s one man army character—think Charles Bronson—than anything he has done before.
It’s a compelling character, but a movie like “Nobody” is nothing without the fight scenes. Rest assured the action sequences are, as Hutch’s dad David (Christopher Lloyd) says, “just a bit excessive, but glorious.”
