I’ll be hosting a Q&A with “The G” star Dale Dickey and director Karl R. Hearne at the Cineplex Yonge – Dundas Theatre in Toronto on Friday November 29. 2024.
Some info! Dale Dickey a formidable character actor, known for her Independent Spirit Award winning performance in “Winter’s Bone,” and appearances in more than 60 movies, like Iron Man 3 and Hell or High Water, and television shows like My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad and True Blood. Her latest film is the dark thriller “The G.” In the movie, she plays a grandmother looking for vengeance with the help of her granddaughter Emma (Denis), who calls her “The G,” after a corrupt legal guardian puts her in a care home in order to take her property.
I sit in with CKTB morning show guest host Karl Dockstader to have a look at movies in theatres and streaming including the sequelitis of “Moana 2,” Angelina Jolie in “Maria” and the bad assery of “The G.”
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the sequelitis of “Moana 2,” Angelina Jolie in “Maria” and the bad assery of “The G.”
SYNOPSIS: The new crime thriller “The G,” now playing in theatres, is a story of scams, elder abuse and vengeance that features a dynamic, slow burn performance from Dale Dickey.
CAST: Dale Dickey, Romane Denis, Roc Lafortune, Bruce Ramsay and Jonathan Koensgen. Written, directed, and produced by Karl R. Hearne.
REVIEW: Ten years ago, the chain-smoking Ann Hunter, a.k.a. “The G”, played by Dale Dickey, and her now terminally ill husband retired to lead a quiet life in the suburbs near his extended family. Their quiet lives are upended when they are evicted from their home by a corrupt legal guardian who believes they are sitting on a big stash of cash. Moved to a prison-like “eldercare facility,” they are stripped of their rights and their dignity. “We have to fight back,” she says. “No money. No home. What would you do?” With the help of her granddaughter, The G, like “Granny,” decides to get even. “These are bad people,” warns her husband. “I’ve done some bad things myself,” says The G.
“The G” isn’t a typical revenge drama. A slow burn, it’s about contained rage caused by personal injustice. There are some startling moments, like the opening “buried alive” sequence and The G’s habit of drinking vodka out of a yogurt container, but this is about is about the threat of violence, which in many ways is more effective than the violence itself.
The stone-cold heart of the film is Dale Dickey in the title role. Tough and unlikable, she eventually reveals her shady past with the Texas mob and the root of her rage, but we’re with her every step of the way. When she says, “I’m not a good person,” it’s hard to disagree, but up against the evil legal guardian Rivera (Bruce Ramsay), you root for her to let her freak flag fly.
A message movie about scams that target the elderly, “The G” is also a character study of a woman in her seventies who refuses to lie down and take the shafting society often offers up to the elderly. The no-nonsense G is an antihero, but in Dickey’s more than capable hands she’s also a compelling and foul-mouthed crusader for justice.
“The G” is a testament to the fighting spirit, and a showcase for Dickey who deserves more lead roles.
On the Saturday November 23, 2024 edition of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Dale Dickey. You know her as a formidable character actor, known for her Independent Spirit Award winning performance in “Winter’s Bone,” and appearances in more than 60 movies, like Iron Man 3 and Hell or High Water, and television shows like My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad and True Blood. Her latest film is the dark thriller “The G.” In the movie, she plays a grandmother looking for vengeance with the help of her granddaughter Emma (Denis), who calls her “The G,” after a corrupt legal guardian puts her in a care home in order to take her property.
Then, we’ll hear the remarkable story of Sash Simpson. These days Sash is the owner/operator and Chef of Sash, a beautiful, fine dining restaurant featuring his distinctive, signature blend of globally inspired, locally-sourced ingredients. He’s also the subject of a new documentary, now on Crave, called “Born Hungry.” In the film, director Barry Avrich tells Sash’s triumphant and challenging story from a five year old orphan on the streets of Chennai, India, to establishing himself as one of Toronto’s top celebrated chefs.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
All iHeartRadio Canada stations are available across Canada via live stream on iHeartRadio.caand the iHeartRadio Canada app. iHeartRadio Canada stations are also connected through Alexa, Siri, and Google Home smart speakers.
The things Will (Ben Foster) does to protect his daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in “Leave No Trace,” a new film by Debra Granik, director of “Winter’s Bone,” may be the things that endanger her.
When we first meet Will he is a vet with PTSD living way off the grid with Tom, his only daughter. Their home is a makeshift camp in an Oregon state public park. Home schooled, Tom has never experienced the outside world, and only knows what Will has taught her about life. “Where is your home?” she’s asked. “My dad,” comes the answer. When she is spotted in the park, social services are alerted. Father and daughter are taken in, housed and reintegrated into society. Tom drinks the new experiences in, making friends at school and church, as the realization sinks in that her father is not cut out for life around other people. “The same thing that’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with me,” she says. Hoping to regain his lost independence Will convinces Tom to hit the road in search of a more fulfilling life.
The questions at the heart of “Leave No Trace” are based on whether or not Will is a good father. Is he doing what is right for Tom? Their needs are so different, is he self-serving, prioritizing his needs over hers? The answers lie in Granik’s beautifully told story about the connections between people and the value of relationships.
Much of the film’s power comes from the lead performances. Foster is more reserved here, less bug-eyed and edgy, than we’ve seen him in the past. His take on Will is gentle with a deep reservoir of pain that bubbles just below the surface. It’s formidable stuff equalled by newcomer Harcourt McKenzie. Granik has an eye for casting, discovering Vera Farmiga in “Down to the Bone” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone,” and here she does it again. The young New Zealand actress gives Tom empathy and wide-eyed innocence mixed with curiosity. She is never less than natural and never less than believable.
“Leave No Trace” is an emotionally potent story about finding a path in life, even if it differs from the ones you love.
The real stars of the new neo-western “Hell or High Water” aren’t the top line cast, Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges. All are terrific, but the main attractions are the Fast Cash and Debt Relief signs that dot the West Texas landscape. They’re the reason we’re here and the engine that propels this story of outlaws, buddies and banks.
Pine plays Toby, a divorced father of two with a plan to make a better life for his kids. “I’ve been poor my whole life,” says Toby (Pine). “It’s like a disease passed from generation to generation. My parents their parents before them. It becomes a sickness. But not my boys.” With his estranged brother Tanner (Foster), an ex-convict ripe with attitude and anger, he plans a series of robberies to get some old fashioned Texas-style justice against the Texas Midlands Banks who loaned their mother just enough money to keep her in debt for the rest of her short life. They are robbing hoods that steal from the rich, the banks, to give to the poor, themselves. “To see you boys pay the banks back with their own money,” says their attorney. “It doesn’t get much more Texan than that.”
Between them and their revenge is Texas Ranger Marcus (Bridges), a grizzled veteran just weeks away from retirement. “Did you hear about them bank robberies,” says his half-Comanche partner Alberto (Gil Birmingham),” we might get to have some fun before they send you off to the rocking chair.”
Echoes of the Coen brothers ricochet throughout “Hell or High Water.” Aside from Coen regular Bridges, the movie exists in an amoral universe populated by down-on-their-heels types, done in either by poor life decisions, circumstance, age or temperament. English director David Mackenzie places these characters amid sun bleached landscapes and the hardened faces of citizens asserting their Second Amendment rights. It feels like the Coen Brothers but only because Joel and Ethan has visited this nihilistic comedy territory several times before. Mackenzie hasn’t simply made “No Country For Old Men Lite,” he’s combined interesting characters with a languid pace that apes the speed of life in West Texas to create a potent portrait of a time and place.
Set against the backdrop of West Texas’s perpetual economic downturn and those ever-present Fast cash signs, it’s a story not just about the four men but the circumstance that pitted them against one another.
“Hell or High Water” is two buddy movies in one. As one of the brothers Foster is reliable in his familiar man-on-the-edge role, but it is Pine who impresses. He underplays Toby, never doing more than he has to and avoiding the theatrics of his “Star Trek” films. It’s a career best performance that shows there is more to him than larger-than-life franchise work.
As the heavy-breathing lion in winter Bridges brings both gravitas and a light touch. His skill as a Ranger is evident but so is his offbeat sensibility. “Now that looks like a man who could foreclose on a house,” he says when meeting a recently robbed bank manager. It’s a throwaway line but Bridges brings it to life in a way that made me wonder if there is a more comfortable presence on screen than Bridges? He is matched in ease and charm by Birmingham who is a perfect foil for Bridges.
With its unhurried, deliberate pace Nick Cave’s suitably moody score and Mackenzie’s eye for detail “Hell or High Water” is more than a stop-gap between Coen Brothers neo westerns, it’s one of the most richly satisfying movies of the year so far.
I’ll be hosting a Q&A with “The G” star Dale Dickey and director Karl R. Hearne at the Cineplex Yonge – Dundas Theatre in Toronto on Friday November 29. 2024.
