I appear on “CTV News at 6” with Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. I’ll tell you about the Disney+ true crime series “Under the Bridge,” the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and the touching drama “We Grown Now.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:02)
I sit in with NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the touching drama “We Grown Now” and the coming-of-age story “Wild Goat Surf.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to stamp your feet! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the touching drama “We Grown Now” and the coming-of-age story “Wild Goat Surf.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with host Natalie Johnson, to talk about the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the touching drama “We Grown Now” and the coming-of-age story “Wild Goat Surf.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:35)
I join “CTV News Atlantic at Six” anchor Todd Battis to talk about the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and the coming-of-age story “Wild Goat Surf.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! And read Jesse Huot’s CTVNews.ca article about the movies HERE!
I join CP24 to have a look at the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the family drama “We Grown Now” and remastered The Beatles doc “Let It Be” on Disney+.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the family drama “We Grown Now” and remastered The Beatles doc “Let It Be” on Disney+.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at the gorilla warfare of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the coming-of-age story “Wild Goat Surf,” the family drama “We Grown Now” and remastered The Beatles doc “Let It Be” on Disney+.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
A study in friendship, family and community, “We Grown Now,” a new drama now playing in theatres, combines reality and fantasy, hope and joy, to create a moving coming-of-age story that gently tugs at the heartstrings.
Set in 1992, against a backdrop of gang warfare in Chicago’s violent Cabrini-Green Homes housing project, “We Grown Now” tells the story of tweens Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), best friends who grew up in Cabrini-Green. Malik lives with his mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) and grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson), while Eric lives with his dad (Lil Rel Howery) across the way.
“Me and Eric have done everything together since we were born,” says Malik. “We grew up together. Our place is the people. This is where we’re from.”
They’re good kids who do the things kids do. They tell bad jokes—“How do you make a tissue dance? You put a little ‘boogie’ into it.”—get lost in their imaginations and even when they play hooky, do it so they can check out the Art Institute of Chicago.
But trouble is closing in on their neighborhood.
As drugs, gangs and violence are slowly taking over Cabrini-Green, Dolores looks to get a new job, hours away in Peoria. It’s better money and, most importantly, hours away from the neighborhood’s trouble.
Trouble is, Eric is being left behind.
“How do you say goodbye to somebody?” Malik asks his mom.
“I don’t know that you ever do,” she says. “You carry them in your hearty wherever you go.”
A mixture of nostalgia and hard-edged reality, of bittersweet poetry and heartfelt relationships, “We Grown Now” is a nuanced look at the ties that bind and their importance, even when those ties begin to fray. The story is told against a bleak backdrop, but the veneer of social decay infused into the neighborhood does not extinguish the light emanating from the characters.
James and Ramirez hand in lovely, natural performances, despite a script that sometimes gives them an emotional intelligence that seems far beyond their tween years. Even then, the two are never less than charming, funny, and sometimes, a little heartbreaking. Both are gifted with expressive faces, and director Minhal Baig understands how to make their small, quiet interactions into big emotional moments.
“We Grown Now” is a stylized, haunting portrait of childhood, and the power of dreams to provide hope in an ever-changing world.
