Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to tie a bowtie! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the family drama “The Piano Lesson,” the creeptastic “Heretic” and the Cillian Murphy in “Small Things Like These.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: A story of legacy and spirituality, in “The Piano Lesson,” starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler, and now playing in theatres, a treasured heirloom reveals a family’s past and possibly its future.
CAST: August Wilson, Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Michael Potts, Erykah Badu, Skylar Aleece Smith, Danielle Deadwyler, and Corey Hawkins. Directed by Malcolm Washington.
REVIEW: “The Piano Lesson,” based on the 1987 stage play by August Wilson, isn’t about practicing scales or learning to read music. It’s a story about honoring ancestors, generational trauma, self-determination and facing the ghosts that haunt.
The story begins in 1911 Mississippi with the Charles Brothers and the theft of an ornate upright piano from the home of former slave owners, the Sutter family. Decorated with carvings on the front and sides, we later learn that the piano’s art is a history of the Charles family, carved by an enslaved relative.
Cut to 1936 Pittsburgh. The piano now rests in the front room of the home of Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson), his niece Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), her young daughter Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith), and a ghost Berniece is convinced lives upstairs.
The relative calm of their lives is upended when Berniece ‘s brother Boy Willie (John David Washington) arrives from Mississippi with Lymon (Ray Fisher) with a plan to make money to buy the land where his family had once been enslaved. Trouble is, his plan involves selling the piano and Berniece will not hear of it.
The story is layered, and crisply complex, a tangle of emotion, the paranormal and family dynamics. In his directorial debut Malcolm Washington opens up the story with some brief flashbacks to Mississippi and some outside scenes, but the action here mostly takes place in the Charles house. It lends a stage bound feel to the film, and yet, the topflight performances and dialogue never allow “The Piano Lesson” to become overly theatrical in its claustrophobic setting.
It’s about the words, the ideas, and characters so carefully written each and every one of them could be the star of their own story. As it is, it’s an ensemble, that spreads the wealth, allowing each actor to shine. As the easy-going Lymon, Fisher has a playful moment when he buys a suit and some ill-fitting shoes from Wining Boy (a great Michael Potts). Washington is all kinetic energy and dreams for the future, but it is Deadwyler whose presence captivates. As a grieving widow and single mother, her character is the film’s beating heart and has the widest arc, leading up to an intense crescendo in the film’s final moments.
“The Piano Lesson” is a period piece, but the topics raised by Wilson’s script remain powerful and timely.
The glitzy new musical version of “The Color Purple” maintains the talking points of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Stephen Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film adaptation, but adds in a touch of old Hollywood glamor and rousing gospel, blues and jazz songs.
Set in Jim Crow era rural Georgia, Fantasia Barrino reprises her role from the Broadway stage to play Celie Harris, a timid young woman whose life is marred abuse and separation from loved ones. Impregnated by her father when she was just a teen, her baby is given away. Later, when she is shipped off to live with the abusive Albert Johnson (Colman Domingo), a man she is forced to call “Mister,” she is disconnected from her beloved sister Nettie (Ciara).
The cruel and overbearing Mister tells his terrified wife she’ll never see her sister again and blocks any communication between the two. “Whatever I say, go,” he tells her.
Isolated from everything she has ever known, she perseveres through strength of will, the power of imagination and the friendship of the indomitable Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and flamboyant blues chanteuse Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson).
Reimagined as a period drama with a healthy dose of magic realism, the new “The Color Purple” is a journey of self-discovery and triumph over adversity as Celie opts to take agency over her life and not be a docile victim. Despite her trauma, she has an eye to the future, hope and, above all, resilience.
Barrino plays Celie as soft-spoken, allowing the songs, like the moving “Superpower,” to stand out, fuelled by cathartic, powerhouse performances. The role is a weighty one, a stand-in for the evolution of many marginalized people, but this version of “The Color Purple” is an emotional Broadway-style crowd pleaser that turns Celie’s ordeal into a journey of empowerment.
The addition of musical weaves joy into the story.
Director Blitz Bazawule allows Celie’s flights of imagination to temper the story’s built-in oppressive tone. The film’s opening scene, featuring Mister playing banjo, while his horse’s hoof clomps keep time, is subtle, while a scene in which Shug, (a terrific Henson), takes Celie to the movies, becomes a luscious Art Deco fantasy reimagination of the song “What About Love?” It is lavish and lovely.
In terms of staging, one show stopping scene sees Celie sing to Shug while perched atop of spinning gramophone record. It’s a blast of old-school Hollywood glamour that cleverly demonstrates Celie’s use of imagination as a coping mechanism.
This isn’t the “The Color Purple” of old. Boldly stylized, it embraces humor, music, imagination and leaves some space for Mister’s redemption and a slightly more explicit depiction of the relationship between Celie and Shug than in the previous film version. More than anything, though, it is a tuneful, joyful journey from powerless to empowered, from heartbroken to healed that is sure to entertain and inspire in equal measure.
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” a new horror film now playing in theatres, is based on the chapter “The Captain’s Log” from Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula.” Told through news clippings and notes from the captain’s log of the Demeter, the chapter details the horrifying voyage that brought Count Dracula to England.
Haven’t read the book? Then think of it as “Alien” on the high seas. A claustrophobic nineteenth century thriller, it swaps out the commercial space tug Nostromo and Xenomorph creature for the merchant ship Demeter and the most famous vampire of all time.
Set in 1897, the story begins when the Demeter is chartered to carry fifty mysterious, unmarked wooden crates, contents unknown, from Eastern Europe to England. “Our charter has agreed to pay a bonus for timely arrival in London,” says Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham).
The bonus pay will be hard earned by the crew… if there is any crew left by the time they hit dry land.
When someone or something begins attacking the on-board livestock at night, rumors fly amongst the crew. “Evil is onboard,” says Olgareen (Stefan Kapicic). “Powerful evil.”
That evil comes in the form of Dracula (Javier Botet), a 400-year-old aristocratic vampire who feeds on the crew, killing them one by one, to regain his full powers. “The thing wears the skin of a man,” says stowaway Anna (Aisling Franciosi). “In the night it drinks our blood, and he is on the ship. Which means we will never leave it.”
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” isn’t exactly Dracula’s story. We get some of the usual vampire lore, and he is certainly a presence, but this is the story of the crew fighting against a great unknown. Director André Øvredal takes his time introducing the characters and setting up the situation on the ship before the first kill. Then, he builds tension slowly, shrouding the screen in fog and dark shadows where strange things just might be lurking. When the carnage begins, Øvredal keeps the bloodsucker mostly out of sight, hidden in corners, shot in tight close-ups, building anticipation for the eventual monstrous reveal.
It’s a nice twist on the usual Dracula movie. It eschews the Bela Lugosi vampire model in favor of a more rough-hewn, demonic aesthetic, like Nosferatu, with needle teeth and wings. They rid him of any of the hypnotic charm he may have had in the hands of Lugosi or Christopher Lee. In this film, he is evil incarnate, as though sprung from the deepest, darkest regions of the human imagination.
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” conjures up its scares with practical effects, with very little CGI or green screen work. Built of tension and fear, it makes for an old-fashioned fright fest, one more interested in simple, old-school scares than heavy special effects driven terror. It’s a little heavy handed in its final moments, as it attempts to set up a sequel, but if the next one is as brutally elemental and frightening as this one, I’m in.
Richard joins CTV NewsChannel and anchor Lois Lee to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including the virtual reality of “The Martrix Resurrection,” the coming of age dramedy “Licorice Pizza” and Denzel Washington in “The Tragedy of Macbeth” and the jukebox musical “Sing 2.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Austere and theatrical, “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” in theatres on December 25, streaming on Apple TV+ on January 14, feels like an up-scale horror film in its examination of ambition and violence.
The plot is familiar from high school English class. Three witches (all played by Kathryn Hunter) prophesize that Macbeth (Denzel Washington), a heroic general in King Duncan’s (Brendan Gleeson) army, is bound for glory. He will be named Thane of Cawdor, they say, and one day, if he has the backbone, King. It’s welcome news for the ambitious warrior and his ruthlessly Machiavellian wife, Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand), who helps kickstart her husband’s rise to power by devising a plot to kill the King.
Their bloody coup sees the well-liked Duncan murdered, triggering Macbeth’s ascent to the throne. The couple’s lust for power leads to a reign of terror, which includes the wholesale slaughter of King Duncan loyalist Macduff’s (Corey Hawkins) family and a civil war.
The crown sits heavily on their collective heads. The new power couple are soon overwhelmed by insomnia, festering paranoia and guilt. “By the pricking of my thumbs,” says one of the witches, “something wicked this way comes.”
Adapted for the screen by director Joel Coen, working for the first time without his brother Ethan, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” blends theatre and cinema in a seamless and powerful way. The expressionistic sets and minimalist soundtrack feel transported in from the theatre, while the beautiful stark black-and-white photography and charismatic performances are pure cinema.
Washington is quietly powerful as his immorality grows. His entrance, a bold walk straight up to the camera out of the fog, establishes his movie star cred. His letter-perfect line readings, imbuing meaning and emotion into even the most intimidating of Shakespeare’s passages proves he was born to say these words.
McDormand plays Lady Macbeth as her husband’s equal. She captures her ambition, but tempers the performance with notes of desperation.
Also striking is legendary stage actress Kathryn Hunter. She plays all three of the prophetic weird sisters in a physically transformative way that sees her bend into shapes that look almost supernatural.
All are ably supported by an exemplary cast, including Gleeson, Corey Hawkins as Macduff, the Thane of Fife, Bertie Carvel as Macbeth ally Banquo and Harry Melling as Malcolm, the King Duncan’s eldest.
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” is accessible without ever playing down to the audience. Masterful filmmaking mixes and matches the text with compelling images and wonderful performances to create a new take on the Scottish Play that is both respectful and fearlessly fresh.
Go see it, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…”
Richard joins Ryan Doyle and Jay Michaels of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show to talk about the history of champagne cocktails, the Kardashians retreat from television and “In the Heights”!
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“In the Heights” (in theatres and on PVOD) is a crowd pleaser that offers heart and uplift in almost every frame. HERE’S Richard’s interview with stars Jimmy Smits and Olga Merediz! HERE’S a a shorter version OF “Vax for Joy!”
“In the Heights,” now playing in theatres, is a joyful movie based on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony award-winning musical, that will make you feel better by the end of the movie than you did when it began. Energetic, exultant and empathetic, it feels like a long weekend away from real life.
A series of connected stories, “In the Heights” transcends its Broadway bound beginnings with a production cut loose from the confines of the stage. Shot on the streets of Washington Heights, New York, the story of a bodega, gentrification, a winning lottery ticket, love, community and the dreams of its characters is lovingly painted in big, bright colors by director John M. Chu.
The spider-web of a story weaves in and out of its character’s lives, centering around bodega owner Usnavi, played by the charismatic Anthony Ramos. Like almost everyone in the film Usnavi has a dream of a life beyond his neighborhood, and, in a sentiment borrowed from another famous musical, soon, most everyone discovers there’s no place like home.
“In the Heights” is a story of the immigrant experience that touches on the DREAM Act and fear of deportation, but is more concerned with its characters and their day dreams of creating better lives for themselves. It’s a story of resilience, of hope and it’s a tonic during these pandemic times when it seems the media, both social and mainstream, are incapable of delivering anything but unsettling news.
In an eager cast, Olga Merediz, who reprises her Broadway role as the neighborhood’s grandmother Abuela Claudia, and Melissa Barrera as Usnavi’s love interest Vanessa, are standouts.
The sheer spectacle of it all, however, may be the real star. Chu’s camera is in constant motion, capturing the many ensemble dance numbers that accompany the soundtrack’s hip-hop, salsa, merengue, soul and R&B, in an eye-popping manner. The Busby Berkeley-style “96,000” number, shot at a public swimming pool is a total throwback to Hollywood’s Golden Age, as is a terrifically staged gravity-defying dance on the side of a building.
It doesn’t all work, however. A framing device that sees Usnavi tell his story to a group of kids is clunky and the opening number, “In the Heights,” an almost eight-minute set-up to the story, is stylish but overstays its welcome.
Still, those are small issues in an invigorating crowd pleaser that offers heart and uplift in almost every frame.
