I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the demonic drama “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” the non rom com “The Threesome” and what’s happening at TIFF!
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:01)
SYNOPSIS: In “The Threesome,” a look at modern romance now playing in theatres, an impulsive ménage à trois leads to double trouble for Connor, Jenny and Olivia.
CAST: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, and Julia Sweeney. Directed by Chad Hartigan.
REVIEW: A charming, but uneven rom com about adult truths and consequences, “The Threesome” is as narratively messy as the situation it essays.
The action in “The Threesome” begins with an impetuous, slightly stoned ménage à trois between nice-guy Connor (Jonah Hauer-King), his longtime crush Olivia (Zoey Deutch) and Jenny (Ruby Cruz), a random customer at Olivia’s restaurant who was just been stood up by her date.
Long story short, months later Jenny and Olivia let Connor know he’s going to be a father twice over.
The resulting complications are the stuff of farce, but with a heart.
Director Chad Hartigan, working from a script by Ethan Ogilby, plays the situation for light laughs, but keeps one foot firmly placed on the ground. Ogilby introduces some very non rom com elements to the story, and it is the stark realities of the situation that add layers to what could have been standard fare.
The film’s biggest selling point are the three leads, Deutch, Hauer-King, and Cruz. They hold on tight as the story veers from heartfelt to humorous to chaotic, often in the same scene. If not for their wonderful dynamics, “The Threesome” might have ended up feeling more like a hygiene film about the importance of contraception than a complex look at accountability and adulthood.
Structurally “The Threesome” pays tribute to rom com tropes but never falls victim to the genre’s cliches, even as it gallops toward a rushed happily-ever-after ending.
“Space Oddity,” a new overstuffed feature directed by actor Kyra Sedgwick and now playing on VOD, flits around between space travel, trauma, the ecology, family dynamics and romance without ever settling on any one of them.
When we meet the McAllister family, Rhode Island flower farmers Jeff (Kevin Bacon) and Jane (Carrie Preston), daughter Liz (Madeline Brewer) and son Alex (Kyle Allen), they are dealing with great trauma. The death of their middle son has left the parents and sister lost, throwing themselves into work to cope with their loss.
Alex, however, has an out-of-this-world plan to escape his pain. He joins Mission to Mars, a private company—think Bezos and Musk—with plans to colonize Mars. It’s not a one-way trip either. Earth is dying, Alex says, so why hang around?
His family goes along with his pipe dream until he gets serious, and applies for insurance to help finance the journey. At the insurance office, however, he meets Daisy (Alexandra Shipp), a broker who just might give the rocket man a reason to come down to earth.
The subject of space travel is the method by which “Space Oddity” conveys its real message, about the state of our planet and what needs to be done to save our environment, but the addition of family drama and romance makes it feel like it is madly running off in several directions all at once.
It has the feel of an after school special. The lead, Alex, isn’t a teenager, but he behaves like one and Allen’s wishy-washy performance doesn’t do much to hold our interest at the center of the film. He isn’t aided by a script that telegraphs every plot twist in advance. If the film’s journey had been more interesting, the predictable destination wouldn’t be as bland.
“Space Oddity” simply bites off more than it can chew. The environmental messages are heavy-handed with no new ideas and, as a study of grief, it is far too light weight.
