Richard sits in with CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the big weekend movies including the rebooted prequel “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the fin-tastic “Mermaids” and the updated 14th century situation comedy “The Little Hours.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard and CP24 anchor Nneka Elliott have a look at the weekend’s big releases, “Deadpool” with Ryan Reynolds as The Merc with the Mouth, “Zoolander 2,” Ben Stiller’s fifteen years in the making sequel to his 2001 comedy cult hit and “How to Be Single,” Dakota Johnson’s sex and the city.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard and “Canada AM” host Marci Ien dissect the weekend’s big releases, “Deadpool” with Ryan Reynolds as The Merc with the Mouth, “Zoolander 2,” Ben Stiller’s fifteen years in the making sequel to his 2001 comedy cult hit and “How to Be Single,” Dakota Johnson’s sex and the city.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
The opening narration of “How to be Single,” a new rom dram—romantic dramedy—starring “50 Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson, informs us that it isn’t about relationships, it’s about the times in between. And so it goes that the main character is basically single for most of the movie, but in reality the film is about relationships and nothing more.
On the eve of graduation Ivy Leaguer Alice (Johnson) has “the talk” with her long time boyfriend Josh (Nicolas Braun). She’d like to spend some time apart and find herself before they make a lifelong commitment. “I can’t wonder ‘what if,’” she says. “This is going to be great for both of us.” To learn what it means to be alone, she moves to New York, gets a job as a paralegal and kicks off the “Sex and the Sex” phase of her life with new workmate Robin (Rebel Wilson) as her guide.
“Where are you going?” asks Robin.
“Hone,” says Alice.
“I never want to hear you say that again,” snorts Robin. “You’re single.”
And so it begins.
At first, under the brazen Robin’s tutelage, Alice is an awkward flirt but soon embraces what her new friend calls a “sexual rumspringa” or rite of passage. She learns that drinks are a man’s “sexual currency” and just how long to wait before returning a text from a one night stand. From womanizing bartender Tom (Anders Holm) she discovers the trick to getting pick-ups out of the house the next day—turn off the water so thirsty “hungover chicks have to leave to survive.”
It’s a steep learning curve that sees her have flings with the above-mentioned bartender—“He’s sexual sorbet,” says Robin—and single father David (Damon Wayans Jr.) as several other characters swirl around her. Her workaholic sister Meg (Leslie Mann) begins a May-December relationship with Ken (Jake Lacy) while upstairs neighbour Lucy (Alison Brie) searches Manhattan looking for Mr. Right.
“How to be Single” is a messy retelling of Liz Tuccillo’s novel of the same name. It’s part slapstick comedy, part heart-tugger, part coming-of-age. The kitchen sink approach isn’t as bad as it sounds because director Christian Ditter has taken pains to cast the right people in the right roles. Wilson provides over-the-top comic relief—I don’t know if she has any range, but she’s very funny here—the guys represent various stereotypes—the playboy, the damaged single father, the puppy dog—and Mann makes the most of a role we’ve seen before, the workaholic who feels the ticking clock.
It’s a nice, appealing ensemble but it’s Johnson who brings the charm. She has a natural way about her, like Greta Gerwig gone slightly Hollywood, that allows complex emotions bleed through a seemingly simple performance. She makes Alice compelling, delivering funny lines—“I’ll be alone forever but at least my dead body will be food for the cats.”—and sad with equal skill.
“How to be Single” doesn’t add much, other than entertainment value, to the genre. Its basic premise is blurred as everyone ends up with someone—some romantically, some platonically, all hooked up—following the film’s sombre realization that being alone is OK as long as you aren’t… I don’t know, lonely? As a statement on modern relationships it’s muddled—”Why do we always tell our stories through relationships?” it asks, before doing just that.—but it does deliver enough laughs and romance to make it a pleasing enough Valentine’s Day diversion.
Richard’s CP24 reviews for Michael Fassbender as iCon Steve Jobs in the movie of the same name, Ellen Page and Julianne Moore as LGBT trailblazers in “Freeheld,” Deepa Mehta’s “Beeba Boys” and the Alison Brie rom com “Sleeping with Other People.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard’s reviews Michael Fassbender as iCon Steve Jobs in the movie of the same name, Ellen Page and Julianne Moore as LGBT trailblazers in “Freeheld,” Deepa Mehta’s “Beeba Boys” and the Alison Brie rom com “Sleeping with Other People.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Despite a lack of Katherine Heigl the new romantic comedy “Sleeping with Other People” follows the patented Heigl Method© rom com design to a tee—unlikely couple meets, falls in love, overcomes obstacles, breaks up and… well, I’m not going to give away the ending but if you don’t know it already then either you don’t have a romantic bone in your body or you’ve never seen a Katherine Heigl movie (“Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” excluded).
When we first meet Lainey (Alison Brie) and Jake (Jason Sudeikis) it’s 2002 and they are students at Columbia. They meet cute and wind up losing their virginity to one another. Cut to twelve years later, he’s a tech whiz of some sort, she’s a teacher and both have sex addiction issues. She’s hung up on her college romance Matt (Adam Scott), a married doctor Jake describes as “having all the charm of a broken Etch-A-Sketch.” He’s a slick talking ladies’ man who cheats on his girlfriends rather than tell them he doesn’t like them anymore. The pair reconnect at a Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting and after one date decide they will remain friends, removing the element of sex that always lands them in romantic hot water. Of course, this is a Heigl Method© rom com, so the only people who don’t realize that Lainey and Jake are a perfect couple is Lainey and Jake.
“Sleeping with Other People” might have been more effective if it didn’t adhere so strictly to the old possum that men and women can’t be friends. Lainey and Jake have a wonderful platonic relationship, spending quality time walking in Central Park, sharing secrets and generally doing the things friends do in lieu of pawing at one another. In the end it feels like a cheat (MILD SPOILER ONLY IF YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN A ROM COM AND CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THESE TWO) to pair them off at the end when it would have been far more interesting for the pair to remain platonically involved and explore the dynamics of that relationship. To have them fall into one another’s arms and beds is the crowd-pleasing way out, but less satisfying as a look at the way actual humans relate to one another.
Sudeikis and Brie are a fetching couple and have good chemistry. In their quieter moments they’re quite appealing but this is no 21st century “When Harry Met Sally.” Jake’s fast patter is only about half as charming as the movie thinks it is and Lainey’s obsession with Matt feels overwrought and unreal, like “Fatal Attraction” without the simmering rabbit. The occasional bits of sharp dialogue and the laughs are welcome, but generally everything—the plot points and base emotions—are telegraphed early and often.
Watching “Sleeping with Other People” I couldn’t help but think the movie focused on the wrong couple. Jake’s business partner Xander (Jason Mantzoukas) and his wife Naomi (Andrea Savage) are a much more dynamic duo. Too bad director Leslye Headland didn’t give them more attention while Lainey and Jake worked through their issues off screen.
