Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the fantasy of “The Magic Faraway Tree,” the horrors of “Insidious: Out of the Further,” the character study of “The Rivals of Amziah King” and the drama of “Late Fame.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
CAST: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson. Directed by Ben Gregor.
REVIEW: Adapted from Enid Blyton’s book series “The Faraway Tree,” the film is a cheerful and charming film that embraces its whimsical nature to provide both heartfelt and humorous moments.
Andrew Garfield is Tim, a stay-at-home dad to technology addicted teenagers Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Joe (Phoenix Laroche) and Fran (Billie Gadsdon) and husband to inventor Polly (Claire Foy). When she discovers the high-tech fridge she’s been working on is also being used to spy on its owners, she hastily quits. With her resignation goes the family’s company home and car, leaving them at a crossroads.
Hauling out their Dream Binder, a decade old collection of paintings of their hopes and dreams, the couple to run away and start a new life and a tomato sauce business in the country.
“The countryside is filled with the most amazing trees,” says Tim. “Literally the most boring things in the world,” says the dour-faced Beth, who can’t imagine an unplugged life.
On arrival they find a house that is not really a house. “It is more of a barn,” says Polly. The older, unimpressed kids can’t charge their gadgets, and Joe asks, “Are we going back in time?”
When youngest daughter Fran returns a purse dropped by a someone on the woods, she receives an invitation to the mystical Far Away Magic Tree by tree resident Silky (Nicola Coughlan). Despite being warned not to go into the enchanted woods, Fran makes the trip and discovers a world of fairies and new worlds, like the Land of Goodies.
Fran returns days later with her siblings who visit the Land of Birthdays, where Beth makes a wish that just might change the family’s lives and fortunes.
“The Magic Faraway Tree” shares the sentiment of “Toy Story 5.” Both films discourage screen use and encourage embracing the imagination and playtime of childhood but do so in very different ways. The Pixar film is dramatic versus the quirky, broad tone of “The Magic Faraway tree.” Part fantasy, part Benny Hill (but without the annoying music), it’s a heartwarming cross between an English pantomime, “Narnia” and the family dynamics of “Paddington.” Screenwriter Simon Farnaby, it should be noted, wrote “Paddington 2.” Then influences blends together like puzzle pieces, especially in the fantasy scenes.
“The Magic Faraway Tree” is a sweet natured, uplifting story of a family repairing broken bonds that delivers a dose of adult dreams tempered by child-like magic.
I join the CTV NewsChanel to talk about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Watch 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 sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “H is for Hawk,” a new drama starring Claire Foy now playing in theatres, a grieving daughter finds solace and hope from an unusual source.
CAST: Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Denise Gough, Sam Spruell, Lindsay Duncan. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe.
REVIEW: Theatres are full of movies about the power of art or human connection as a cure for deep seeded grief. Rarer is the subject of “H is for Hawk,” a true story, based on Helen Macdonald’s bestselling memoir, about a woman who uses the ancient art of falconry to navigate a personal loss.
Claire Foy plays Helen, an emotionally closed-off Cambridge academic quietly grieving the loss of her beloved photojournalist father Alisdair (Brendan Gleeson). “Dad would hate any kind of moping,” she says.
The pair shared a love of birding and the natural world, so, to fill the emotional hole left by her late dad, she adopts a fierce, wild goshawk named Mabel and immerses herself in the ancient art of falconry. “I ran towards things of death and difficulty,” Helen says. “Spooky, pale-eyed feathered ghosts that lived and killed in woodland thickets. I ran towards goshawks.”
While training the bird to hunt and fly free, Helen discovers a newfound sense of control, not only over Mabel, but also her life. “In my time with Mabel I’ve learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not.”
“H is for Hawk” feathers its nest with unconventional grief drama but is traditional in its response to Helen’s situation. That doesn’t mean it isn’t effective, or emotionally potent, it’s just that it isn’t as odd as the elevator pitch—hawk heals woman’s heartache—suggests. Instead, is a heartfelt, unsentimental story about finding solace in whatever form it presents itself. There is no single way to heal, and if help presents itself with feathers and talons, so be it. We’ve seen dogs and cats as emotional supports before, so why not a hawk?
Foy hands in a suitably raw performance, brimming with sadness and determination. She clicks wonderfully, in their limited scenes, with Brendan Gleason (primarily seen in flashbacks) who oozes warmth and passion for nature.
The real star, however, is Mable, actually played by four separate birds, and trained by falconry experts Rose and Lloyd Buck. The use of real hawks, rather than CGI, lends the film a realistic edge that goes a long way to making the story feel authentic.
“H is For Hawk” requires patience from the audience. It is slow, but the emotional payoff—and some wonderful nature photography—gives viewers something to sink their talons into.
There will likely not be a more melancholic movie this year than “All of Us Strangers,” a new, otherworldly study of grief, adapted from a Japanese ghost story by Taichi Yamada, that is grounded by real, earthbound emotion
Andrew Scott, best known for portraying James Moriarty in the BBC series “Sherlock,” and his role as the “hot priest” on “Fleabag,” is lonely screenwriter Adam. He lives alone in an abandoned London high rise, empty save for Harry (Paul Mescal), who lives on the sixth floor.
They meet when Harry, unannounced, arrives at Adam’s door with a bottle of whiskey. “I saw you looking at me from the street,” he says. “I’ve seen you a bunch of times, coming and going with your head down.” He’s fishing for an invite in, but Adam keeps the door between them.
Adam’s new project is a script set in 1987. To put himself in the right mindset he listens to music from the era, and makes a visit to his childhood home. There, he encounters the ghosts of his parents, played with warmth by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell. Killed in a car accident when Adam was twelve, they are stuck in 1987, while he exists in present day.
“You were just a boy,” says mom, “but now you’re not. You look different but it’s you. I thought you’d be hairier, like your dad.”
Visiting with these apparitions from the past provides a measure of closure for him, as he attempts to make up for decades of missed moments.
Back in London, he and Harry begin a relationship, the first meaningful connection of his adult life. “I’d always felt alone,” says Adam. “This is a new feeling.”
“All of Us Strangers” is a supernatural family drama, but it isn’t an “I see dead people” rehash. It is a chance for Adam to get to know the parents who left him, to tell them about his life, hear them tell them they love him and are proud of him, and possibly most importantly, get to say goodbye. It’s a work of melancholy, a study of one man coping with grief and loss, that is both gentle and devastating.
It’s never clear whether the parents are hallucinations, dreams or actual ghosts, but Scott’s contemplative performance renders that question moot. What’s important is Adam’s relationship to them, how they make him feel, not if they are real or not.
You may question what is real, and what is not throughout, but the individual moments—a father embracing his son for sins committed years ago, a mother’s comforting touch, Harry and Adam relaxing at home, happy and in love—feel real, and are by times moving, painful and utterly earthbound expressions of the power of love in the face of Adam’s unbearable loneliness.
“All of Us Strangers” is an intimate, haunting film that comforts and aches in equal measure.
“Women Talking,” directed by Sarah Polley and now playing in theatres, is a very specific portrayal of the aftermath of sexual abuse, with a universal message of standing up for one’s self, family and community.
Based on a 2018 Miriam Toews novel of the same name, in the film, the women of a tightly knit religious colony gather in the wake of terrible, on-going sexual abuse by the men. For years the commune’s husbands and sons have tranquilized the women with cow medication, raped them regardless of age, and then convinced the victims the abuse was the work of Satan or their “wild imaginations.”
“We know that we’ve not imagined these attacks,” says Salome (Claire Foy), the mother of an abused child. “We know that we are bruised, and infected, and pregnant, and terrified.”
In the wake of the allegations, the men, sequestered in the city for their safe keeping, have given the women two days to forgive them. If they don’t, they threaten to expel from the community women which means they will be denied entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Surely,” says mother-to-be Ona (Rooney Mara), “there must be something worth living for in this life. Not only the next.”
Now, gathered in the hayloft of one of their barns, the women, including the rancorous Mariche (Jessie Buckley) and community matriarch Agata (Judith Ivey), debate their three options: do nothing in retaliation, stay and fight, or leave.
The spirited deliberations give way to a variety of points of view. “Is forgiveness that’s forced upon us true forgiveness?” wonders Mariche. “We have been preyed upon like animals,” says Greta (Sheila McCarthy). “Maybe we should respond like animals.” Others wonder what life would have been like if none of this ever happened.
Set in 2010, timely social issues of justice, autonomy and unanimity among victims collide in a movie that captures the extended conversations, highlighting their harrowing nature, while slyly mixing in some unexpected humour.
Polley, who wrote as well as directed, ensures that each of the characters bring dynamic notions to their performances, and aren’t just placeholders representing opposing ideas for the sake of drama. The set-up, based on true events in a religious community in Boliva, offers a fascinating window into a fight for survival and the opportunity to examine the situation from a variety of thoughtful viewpoints.
A film, largely set in one room, whose action is verbal, not physical, could have been dry or, at the least, feel stage bound but Polley’s deep dive into the human condition crackles with life. She has carefully calibrated every line, every pause, to create forward momentum as the life-changing deliberations move toward their conclusion.
“Women Talking” is elegant filmmaking buoyed by emotional intelligence and powerhouse performances and is sure to be Oscar bound.
