I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the absurd “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” rthe absurd “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Housemaid,” a new psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, and now playing in theatres, a parolee gets a job working for a wealthy family, in a beautiful home filled with secrets.
CAST: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins. Directed by Paul Feig.
REVIEW: A story of a campaign of domestic psychological warfare, “The Housemaid” is a drawn-out, twisty-turny story of gaslighting, an attic room and a broken dinner plate.
The story begins with Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) looking for work to satisfy the conditions of her parole. In prison for ten years, she’s living in her car and if she doesn’t get a job soon, it’s back to the big house to finish her sentence.
When she lands a job as a live-in housemaid at the Winchester family estate, tending to the ultra-wealthy Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle), it appears to be a dream job. Given flexible hours and a new phone and credit card, she moves into a bedroom in the attic, the one with the lock on the outside.
“Hold on to this job and the living situation,” her parole officer reminds her, “or you’ll be back in Bedford to finish the last five years of your sentence.”
Desperate to avoid going back to jail, she puts her head down and gets to work, even though Nina’s personality leans toward Jekyll and Hyde; kind one second, cruel the next. “Today wasn’t a total disaster,” Nina says to Millie by way of praise.
Smoothing things out is Andrew, who always has a kind word and a way of keeping the peace between Nina and Millie. He’s a good guy, but is he too good to be true?
Director Paul Feig is best known for making comedies like “Bridesmaids,” but “The Housemaid,” despite sharing four letters in the title of his biggest hit, is not a laugh-a-minute. It has more to do with the intrigue and suspense of his 2018 film “A Simple Favor” than his other films.
Feig sets the dark story against the dazzling backdrop of the Winchester’s palatial home, a sun-dappled mansion painted inside and out in bright white, save for the creepy little room in the attic. The opulent home silently establishes film’s the power dynamic; the disparity between Nina’s effortless cruelty and Millie’s desperation, and it’s the last time anything in the film goes unsaid.
The movie takes some big swings and has more twists than a winding country road and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine wants to make sure you don’t miss a thing. I suppose, that’s great if you’re scrolling through your phone while watching (which you shouldn’t be, especially in a theatre) but it draws out the action, especially two flashback sequences near the end. By the time we get to the story’s revenge aspect, it feels played out.
Still, despite being overlong, it’s a bit of a romp, with the main cast, Sweeney, Seyfried and Sklenar, jumping in with both feet, throwing themselves at the pulpy premise with vigor that helps smooth most of the storytelling’s rough edges.
“The Housemaid” isn’t quite as clever as it needs to be to keep the audience on the edge of their seat until the end credits but has enough wackadoodle twists and engaging characters to register as a playful “evil one-percenters” time waster.
SYNOPSIS: In “Drop,” a darkly comedic new thriller now playing in theatres, Meghann Fahy plays a widow whose first date in years takes a strange turn when someone named Let’s Play “drops” a series of mysterious messages on her phone that threaten the lives of her sister, son and date. “You gotta be within fifty feet to send a drop,” says her date, Henry. “It’s someone in this restaurant.”
CAST: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan Spring, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson. Directed by Christopher Landon.
REVIEW: Not since the high-flying blackmail of Wes Craven’s “Red Eye” has a movie embraced its unlikely premise with such conviction.
The story of the worst—but perhaps most memorable—first date ever, fully commits to its story of technical and psychological warfare, no matter how silly the situation gets.
Action-packed, “Drop” is not. Director Christopher Landon trusts the “WWYD?—What Would You Do?— situation and the characters to carry the show as Violet (Meghann Fahy) tries to follow the crazy, texted demands clogging up her phone without alerting her date (Brandon Sklenar). With stylish photography—including some splashy Hitchcock inspired visuals—and the sparkling chemistry between Fahy and Sklenar, the director crafts a rollercoaster ride of a movie.
So, as a viewer, it’s best to leave your disbelief at the concession stand. If you can do that, “Drop” will be a darkly fun and tension filled story that pays off just before you fall off the edge of your seat.
If not, you may find yourself wondering why Henry didn’t hightail it out of there after the first text.
SYNOPSIS: In “It Ends with Us,” a new domestic abuse drama based on the bestseller of the same name by Colleen Hoover, and now playing in theatres, Blake Lively plays Lily, a young woman who relocates to Boston to find a new life, and romance with wealthy neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni). When the ghosts of the past revisit themselves on her new relationship, Lily must take control and take charge of her own destiny.
CAST: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj. Directed by Justin Baldoni.
REVIEW: “It Ends with Us” raises issues of the lingering, intergenerational effects of domestic abuse but is let down by its uncomplicated portrayal of the complex dynamics that motivate the characters. The film’s cycles of abuse themes are provocative, but director Baldoni (who also stars as Ryle), and screenwriter Christy Hall blunt the story’s impact by not digging deep enough. Abuse is a thorny, ugly subject, and nobody wants to see explicit representations of it on screen, but “It Ends with Us,” while well-meaning, simplifies the issue to the point of melodrama. Sincere melodrama, but melodrama none the less.
Lively is compelling as Lily, and her performance brings with it, when appropriate to the situation, heaping helpings of charm, warmth and courage. She nicely cast, as is Isabela Ferrer who plays young Lily in the flashback scenes. Ferrer not only looks like Lively but brings the same range to the role.
As Ryle’s sister and Lily’s BFF Allysa, Jenny Slate is also a welcome presence.
(MILD SPOILER ALERT) In theory Ryle is a walking contradiction. Charming and successful, he’s also a bit of a stalker with a violent streak. He’s a healer who breaks things when he gets angry. Baldoni plays him with a thin skin, as a man guided by his passions, for better and for worse.
Trouble is, the relationship at the heart of the film, between Lily and Ryle, always feels at arm’s length. Their meet-cute yearns to have a charming cat-and-mouse vibe, but other than some low-wattage sparkle, they don’t display a great deal of chemistry in this extended scene.
It doesn’t help that screenwriter Hall inserts exposition that is meant to be the kind of “naked truth telling” used so effectively in her movie “Daddio.” Unfortunately, the revelations feel less like “get to know you” confessions than hints of things to come later in the film.
When “It Ends with Us” takes a dramatic turn in its second hour, the stakes are raised and the culture of abuse themes come into focus, but over-all it feels padded by slo-motion montages (scored to the ironically named “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” by Cigarettes After Sex), Hallmark style dialogue and romance movie clichés. Still, it’s hard not to root for Lily as Lively guides her on her emotional journey.
