I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the new hockey drama “Youngblood,” Rachel Weisz’s new limited Netflix series “Vladimir” and, in theatres, the return of Tommy Shelby in “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 38:18)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers,” the hockey drama “Youngblood” and the teen drama “Sweetness.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to reanimate the dead. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers” and the hockey drama “Youngblood.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Youngblood,” a reimagining of the 1986 Rob Lowe hockey drama now playing in theatres, Ashton James stars as a Black junior hockey player in Hamilton, Ontario, who dreams of getting drafted into the NHL.
CAST: Ashton James, Blair Underwood, Shawn Doyle, Alexandra McDonald, Oluniké Adeliyi, Henri Richer-Picard, Emidio Lopes, Donald MacLean Jr., Tamara Podemski, Joris Jarsky, Matt Wells, Keris Hope Hill, Jonathan Valvano, Ty Neckar, Dylan Hawco, Evan Buliung. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: In good sports movies the sport—baseball, basketball, hockey, ping pong, whatever—isn’t just a game, it’s a vehicle for social comment. “Youngblood” reinvents the original film to become a study of the difficulties faced by Black athletes, told with high octane hockey sequences as a backdrop.
A companion piece to director Hubert Davis’s 2022 documentary “Black Ice,” winner of TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary, “Youngblood” casts Ashton James as Dean Youngblood, a young, hotheaded defenseman, still stinging from the death of his mother. His promising career in Detroit was cut when he handed a year’s suspension for fighting and lost his scholarship. Now he’s looking to get back on the ice.
When he gets a second chance, a tryout for the Hamilton, Ontario Mustangs, it’s not his best shot, it might be his only shot at realizing his National Hockley League dreams.
With stern father and mentor Blane’s (Blair Underwood) teachings ringing in his head, Dean arrives thinking the cards are stacked against him. If he is to succeed, he must stomach strict coach Murray’s (Shawn Doyle) who barely gives him ice time and hazing from his new teammates as he learns there is no “I” in team. “It’s the Mustangs,” he’s told, “not the Youngbloods.”
The original film has been given an overhaul. Gone are most of the team’s hockey hijinks, the predatory house mother and star Rob Lowe’s Brat Pack vibe. Instead, perhaps inspired by late co-screenwriter Charles Officer’s time spent as a pro hockey player, the new film digs deeper, examining race, violence and toxicity in hockey, while keeping the puck on the ice with exciting game sequences.
As the title character, Ashton James brings passion for the game tempered by the hurt Dean feels by being overlooked because of the color of his skin and the loss of his mother (Oluniké Adeliyi), who had been a leveling force in his life. It’s nice, authentic work that allows James to hold the film’s center opposite older, more experienced actors.
“Youngblood” occasionally falls prey to platitudes—”Lord knows we all have our moments,” says inspirational house mother Ms. McGill (Tamara Podemski), “It’s what we do next that matters.”—but nice performances, combined with cool hockey footage, courtesy of Stuart James Cameron’s cinematography, bring Dean’s struggles, on and off the ice, to vivid life.
SYNOPSIS: In “Longlegs,” a new psychological horror film starring Maika Munroe and Nicolas Cage, and now playing in theatres, FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to a decades-old case of a serial killer who targets entire families. The case turns personal as she uncovers evidence of the occult.
CAST: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Blair Underwood, Kiernan Shipka. Directed by Osgood Perkins (son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins and photographer and actress Berry Berenson).
REVIEW More unsettling than scary, “Longlegs” is both thematically and visually dark. There’s not a lot of cracks to let the light in. As the mystery at the heart of this occult thriller unfolds, the action happens mostly at night or in darkened rooms, lending a heavy air of foreboding to every frame of this strange film.
Adding to the film’s otherworldly vibe is Maika Monroe as Lee Harker, the FBI agent assigned to Longlegs’ case. She is Clarice Starling with a carefully defined introspective side; a sixth sense that helps to unravel her cases. “It’s like something tapping me on the shoulder,” he says, “telling me where to look.” Analytical in the extreme, Munroe, in a quiet performance, allows us to see the gears turning in her head as the clues begin to add up. Her process gives Harker a brooding demeanor that perfectly matches the film’s tense, subdued tone.
On the other end of the scale is Cage as the titular serial killer. His unhinged, chaotic work makes his other gonzo performances in movies like “The Wicker Man,” “Face/Off” and “Vampire Kiss” seem positively understated by comparison. Jame Gumb has nothing on this guy. It’s an over-the-top display and individual mileage may vary, but his Tiny Tim inflection, creepy rendition of “Happy Birthday” and repulsive leer will not soon be forgotten.
Despite Cage’s larger-than-life-and-death performance, “Longlegs” values restraint. Other than a quick flash of decomposing bodies, a gallon or two of blood and a handful of jump scares, Perkins is more interested in burrowing into your subconscious with a nightmarish story that unfolds in the dark corners of Harker’s mind. The story’s psychological underpinnings are where the true horror lies. where the discomfort comes from.
By the time the end credits roll, you’ll leave the theatre unnerved, even after they turn on the lights.
Ambitious, audacious and just a little messy, “Origin,” the new film from director Ava DuVernay, now playing in theatres, is a study of the caste system told through the lens of a writer played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. Part biography, part intellectual journey, it mixes the emotional with the academic.
Ellis-Taylor is bestselling author Isabel Wilkerson, who, in real life is the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Happily married to Brett (Jon Bernthal), she is considering taking some time off writing and lecturing to look after her aging and ailing mother.
But tragedy and her restless intellectual curiosity push her into exploring how the unspoken caste system has shaped America, and how people are still classified to this day by a pecking order of human classifications. To that end she travels the world and history, making stops in the American South, Berlin, and India to study which groups of people have power, and which do not.
Based on Wilkerson life and the writing of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” “Origin” is narrative film that feels stuck between two worlds. The blend of Wilkerson’s biography, mixed with dramatic re-creations of the historical events that feed into her research, is a mix of personal and the political, but it seems as if the film is trying to decide if it is a narrative or a documentary.
Still, the choppy presentation is chock full of thought-provoking ideas. DuVernay, who also wrote the script, crafts a unique movie about connectivity, one that isn’t afraid to swing for the fences. As the film skips through world history and Wilkerson’s life, a portrait of systemic subjugation eventually comes into focus, against a backdrop of personal loss. The film’s two prongs don’t feel like a natural fit, but Ellis-Taylor’s rock-solid performance anchors the film, providing a bridge between the emotional and intellectual.
“Origin” is an interesting movie, one that bristles with the spirit of discovery, but sometimes gets allows lucidity to get lost in its execution.
