I join CTV Atlantic anchor Stephanie Tsicos to talk about the the bullet ballet of “Ballerina,” fishy thriller “Dangerous Animals” and the exorcism flick “The Ritual.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 28:18)
SYNOPSIS: Based on the true story of Emma Schmidt’s 1928 exorcism, “The Ritual,” a new horror film starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, and now playing in theatres, sees two priests battle their personal demons and the malevolent demon possessing a young woman. “We are the Lord’s army in this battle,” says Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino). “The devil will do whatever it takes to foil our plans. We must be resolute.”
CAST: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene, Abigail Cowen, Patrick Fabian, Patricia Heaton, Directed by David Midell.
REVIEW: The devil must have made them do it. There can be no other explanation for “The Ritual,” a movie so endlessly unentertaining only the Angel of the bottomless pit could be held responsible. I mean, how much evil fun can possessed teen Emma be if the worst thing she does is dish out some sick Latin burns and do some demonic hair pulling?
“The Ritual” flips the usual exorcism movie script. There are the customary tropes, the demonic barfing, the levitations and a seemingly innocent child saying terrible things in different languages, but screenwriters David Midell and Enrico Natale focus on the effect of demonic possession on those performing the rituals. The moments of doubt, the crises of faith, the physical and psychological effects suffered by the priests and nuns are front and center, although don’t add up to much. Mostly, the characters sit, shrouded in shadows, looking tortured before Midell, who also directs, quickly cuts away as though he’s embarrassed to show his characters in crisis.
“The Ritual” feels like a missed opportunity to do something different in the genre, as does the quarrel between the priests, Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) and Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) as to whether Emma’s circumstance is psychological or demonic. What could have been an added layer of complexity, the battle between science and faith, between new-fangled ideas and ancient traditions, is instead an unexplored muddle, like so much else in this bland story of good vs. evil.
Considered one of the most thoroughly documented exorcisms in American history, the story of Schmidt not only inspired “The Ritual,” but also “The Exorcism of Anna Ecklund” and, to a lesser extent, the grandaddy of the genre, “The Exoricist.”
So, I suppose, given how documented the case is, it makes sense to shoot it in a cinéma verité (“cinema of truth”) style, but one must wonder what possessed cinematographer Adam Biddle to keep his handheld camera in almost constant motion. It is, perhaps, meant to bring some kinetic energy to a script laden with exposition, clichés, anachronistic dialogue (did anyone ask for a “safe space” in 1928?) and lame jump scares but mostly the shaky camerawork feels erratic, distracting from the performances and story.
There is a certain camp appeal in Al Pacino holler, “Attention Beelzebub!” as he summons Emma’s inner demon, but even that is not enough to earn “The Ritual” a recommend.
Nicolas Cage caps off a busy 2023 with “The Retirement Plan,” an unusual family dramedy that marks his fifth foray into theatres since New Year’s.
He plays Matt, a retired older guy, content with the life of a beach bum after a life of “government work.” He was, he says, an arbitrator, someone who settled disputes and “gets the job done.” He was also a crappy father to Ashley (Ashley Greene), the daughter he left behind when he abandoned her and her sick mother years ago. “If she wants to visualize me as dead, she has every right,” he says.
When Ashley and husband Jimmy (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) steal a hard drive from ruthless crime boss Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his Shakespeare-loving henchman Bobo (Ron Perlman), the baddies will do almost anything to get it back, including taking her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell).
Caught up in a web of trouble, Sarah reaches put to dear old dad, unaware of his violent past. As he assesses the situation, his instincts kick in as he levels the playing field.
“Here’s the thing boss,” says Bobo to Donnie, “the old guy keeps killing everybody. Everybody!”
“The Retirement Plan” owes a debt to Guy Ritchie. It doesn’t have the snap, crackle and pop of Ritchie’s early films, like “Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” but stylistically its mix of violence and comedy plays like Ritchie Lite.
Cage hands in a charming, off-the-wall take on Matt, possibly the goofiest and most casual assassin we’ve seen on screen since “The Hitman’s Bodyguard.” He’s deadly, an unapologetic oddball, and more than just a bit silly, but it is Cage’s performance that breathes life into the desiccated one-last-job/bad father-with-a-violent-past genres. He’s letting his freak flag fly, having fun, and it shows.
“The Retirement Plan” isn’t a great movie, even by the standards of Cage’s choppy resume, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you.
The title of “One Shot,” a new action movie starring Scott Adkins, Ryan Phillippe and Ashley Greene Khoury, and now available on VOD, is a double entendre of a sort. The adrenalized action heroes at the heart of the film have one shot to quell an attack, and director James Nunn has cleverly filmed all the action in “real time,” using camera tricks to make it look like this was shot in one, long continuous take.
The story begins with a squad of Navy SEALs led by Lt. Blake Harris (Adkins) airlifting junior CIA analyst Zoe Anderson (Khoury) to a remote Guantanamo Bay-esque prison to a “United Nations of terror” suspects. Anderson’s job is to extract Amin Mansur (Waleed Elgadi), a British national who pleads his innocence, but is suspected to be a mastermind of a 9/11 style dirty-bomb attack on all three branches of the American government.
Deputy Site Manager Tom Shields (Phillippe) stalls the prisoner’s release, inadvertently allowing time for the ruthless terrorist Charef (Jess Liaudin) and his insurgents to overrun the place, freeing captives and trying to kill Mansur before he can spill the beans on the plot to bring down the government.
“One Shot” isn’t about the characters, political subtext or even the siege story. It’s all about the “one shot” gimmick, wall-to-wall video-game style gunplay and a sense of urgency.
For the most part the gimmick works, although, if you’re like me, you’ll be taken out of the story as you try and see where the subliminal edits are. It’s a distraction that fades as the running times passes because director Nunn choreographs the action expertly, creating a sense of unpredictable immediacy. You never really know who is around the next corner or hiding behind a pile of sandbags. It’s edgy you-are-there filmmaking, aided by cinematographer Jonathan Iles, that makes the generic story and stereotyped characters somewhat interesting.
The relentless violence, however, becomes tiering after a while. The first gunshot happens around the 19-minute mark and the bullet ballet continues pretty much nonstop for the rest of the running time. There are breaks in the action, usually as someone tends to a wounded person, but they are few and far between.
“One Shot” is a b-movie with efficient brutality and some edge-of-your-seat scenes, but the script is as riddled with clichés—”Sometimes it is harder to save a life than it is to save one,” intones Anderson when the going gets tough.—as the characters are with bullet holes.
Hilly Kristal became known as the Grand Curator of Punk. As the owner of CBGB, the American birthplace of punk rock, he auditioned hundreds of bands and gave groups like The Ramones, Blondie and The Talking Heads their first big breaks. When he liked a band he’d say his now legendary catchphrase, “There’s something there…”
After watching “CBGB,” the Alan Rickman movie based on his life and club, I was reminded of Gertrude Stein’s famous catchphrase, “There is no there there.”
When we first met Hilly (Rickman) he’s a divorced father with two failed clubs to his credit. When he stumbles across a dive bar on New York City’s Bowery he sees an opportunity. Taking over the lease, he befriends the neighborhood’s junkies, bikers and musicians, even if his original idea of presenting country, blue grass and blues (hence the acronym CBGB) gets passed over in favor of underground music by bands like Television and The Ramones.
The club is a hit, but Kristal is a terrible businessman who never pays his rent or liquor distributors. That job falls to his daughter Lisa (“Twilight’s” Ashley Greene) who pays the bills as an endless parade of musicians with names like Iggy Pop (Taylor Hawkins), Joey Ramone (Joel David Moore), Cheetah Chrome (Rupert Grint) and Debbie Harry (Malin Akerman) create a new youth movement on the club’s rickety stage.
Punk rock was a glorious racket, a stripped-down music designed put a bullet in the head of the Flower Power generation. Loud, fast and snotty, the music was ripe with energy and rebellion.
In other words it was everything that “CBGB” is not.
Director Randall Miller gets period details mostly right—the film’s set features artifacts from the punk rock shrine, including the bar, the pay phone, the poster filled walls and the infamously funky toilets—but entirely misses the spirit of the times and the music.
A movie about punk rock should crackle with energy. Despite a rockin’ soundtrack, “CBGB” feels inert. The story focuses on Kristal but Rickman barely registers. The actor reduces the flamboyant character to a morose monotone; a man at the center of a hurricane but who doesn’t feel the breeze.
The impersonations of the musicians are mostly quite good. The surprising stand-out is Rupert Grint as Dead Boys bassist Cheetah Chrome. It’s as un-Harry Potter a performance as you could imagine and he enthusiastically embraces Daniel Radcliffe’s post-Potter habit of showing his bum as often as possible.
Others acquit themselves in suitable snotty fashion, but the recreations mostly made me wish “CBGB” was a documentary and not a feature film. It has interesting tidbits about the time. For instance when Hilly first meets the Ramones he asks if they have any original songs. They say they only have five tunes, four of which have “I Don’t Wanna” in the title while the fifth is called “I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.” It’s a funny story, whether true or not, it hints at the kind of details that may have fleshed out a film that spends far too much time focused on the club and not on the music.
Not that there is a shortage of music, but it feels more “Rock of Ages” than “Raw Power.”
“CBGB” takes an exciting story of an important time and shaves all the rough edges away, leaving behind smoothed over vision of a rough-and-ready time.
