I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the World War II drama “Pressure,” the romantic crime drama “Tuner” and the existential horror of “Backrooms.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to brush your teeth. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the World War II drama “Pressure,” the romantic crime drama “Tuner” and the existential horror of “Backrooms.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Pressure,” a new World War II drama starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser, and now playing in theatres, a meteorologist plays a vital role in the scheduling of the largest amphibious assault in history.
CAST: Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, Damian Lewis. Directed by Anthony Maras.
REVIEW: A study of courage in the face of uncertainty, “Pressure” is a ticking clock drama that takes a well-known historical event and infuses the story with suspense and high-stakes intensity.
Based on true events, “Pressure” takes place in the 72 hours leading up to D-Day in June 1944. The planned Allied forces’ amphibious invasion of Normandy, France is the largest seaborne invasion force in history, but there’s a catch.
“All the pieces are in place,” says Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser). “The only imponderable is the weather.”
Unpredictable weather in the form of two aggressive storms threaten to scuttle the mission.
“If you invade tomorrow,” says Britain’s tenacious chief meteorologist, Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), “they’re going to be washed away.”
As Stagg attempts to convince the brass that moving ahead will come with the cost of thousands of lives, the ultimate decision lies with Eisenhower.
“The final decision on the timing of D-Day,” he says, “will be mine and mine alone.”
The wrong decision not only puts lives in jeopardy, but also the fate of the free world.
“The storms that I’m talking about are real,” says Stagg. “And the wrath of nature is real.”
“Pressure” is all about the weather and whether or not to postpone D-Day. It is a war epic, but only in the sense that the decisions made by Stagg and Eisenhower are epic in their scope. The movie itself is a rather intimate retelling of events that doesn’t bother diving deep into the inner lives of its characters.
Instead, the characters are broken down into stereotypes. Andrew Scott leaves behind his “Fleabag” Hot Priest persona to play Stagg as a meticulous meteorologist, uncompromising and curt. He does good work, bringing a quiet, internalized intensity to Stagg that effectively conveys the character’s coiled confidence.
As Eisenhower’s aid and left-hand Captain Kay Summersby, Irish actress Kerry Condon acts as an anchor, emotionally grounding her boss as he makes world altering decisions.
Chris Messina as Irving P. Krick, the American meteorologist who butted heads with Stagg, is brash, if a little bland.
It’s with the casting of Brendan Fraser as Eisenhower that the movie runs into stormy weather. Physically imposing, he opts for melodrama over gravitas, a choice that runs counter to the stoic real-life character.
Dialogue driven, “Pressure” is a chamber piece that values its intimacy over action but occasionally veers into theatricality.
The Rob Ford Movie. That’s the shorthand being used to describe “Run This Town,” a film coming to VOD this week. It’s set during the tumultuous term of the late Toronto mayor but make no mistake this isn’t a Ford biopic or a study of his politics. It’s a film that uses Ford’s tumultuous time as a backdrop for an unconvincing study of millennial angst among other things.
Set in 2013, the film centers around Bram Shriver (Ben Platt). Fresh out of journalism school he’s keen to tackle the big stories, to write articles that will move the needle. His dream job of being a reporter at The Record, however, sees him writing Best Hot Dogs in the City clickbait lists instead of investigating city hall.
Meanwhile, it’s chaos at city hall. Rob Ford (Damian Lewis under a mound of Fat Bastard make-up), the popular 64th Mayor of Toronto, is making headlines for his erratic behavior. Keeping things on course is Kamal (Mena Massoud), spin wizard and special assistant to the mayor, who, it is said, “knows everything.“ A Greek chorus of Steamwhistle-beer-drinking communications folks provide the necessary exposition to explain how they spin bad news and behavior into good news and how to vilify the press.
Back at the newsroom Bram stumbles his way into the wildest political scandal in Toronto history when he happens to pick up the phone and become the first person to find out about “the crack video.“ Can he capitalize on the biggest break of his career and finally put his Frum Award to good use or will he be doomed to write lists forever?
Keep in mind Bernstein and Woodward he is not. The story runs parallel to the reporting done by Bram’s real-life counterparts at The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. More pointedly Robyn Doolittle or Kevin Donovan, the real-life reporters who broke the story are nowhere to be seen or heard.
“Run This Town” is a mix of fact and fiction, of flights of fancy that live at the intersection of real reporting and fake news. A muddle of ripped from the headlines details, innuendo and fiction it takes on the Ford administration’s failings, the state of journalism, millennial angst, sexual harassment and more. Jam packed and lightening-paced it hop scotches around, pausing only long enough to linger on a grotesque caricature of Rob “Show me some respect, will ya?” Ford.
Ford, played by Lewis in a prosthetic suit, fake flab and a stereotypical “oot and aboot” accent, is portrayed as an incoherent buffoon. Misogynistic, racist, paranoid—and those are the good qualities the film grants him—he lurches about the office making inappropriate remarks, prone to fits of sudden temper. It’s an exaggerated interpretation of the mayor but it is also one that is all fat suit and no humanity. Say what you will about Ford’s behavior while in office, and there is much to be said about it, what we see here is larger-than-life without the enough life to make it feel real.
By default “Our Kind of Traitor” will probably be listed under the “thriller” section on Netflix and elsewhere simply because it was written by spymaster John le Carré but don’t be fooled. Labelling this Ewan McGregor film a thriller simply because of le Carré’s involvement is like calling “One Hour Photo” because Robin Williams took the lead.
McGregor and Naomie Harris are Perry Makepeace and Gail Perkins, an English couple on romantic holiday in Marrakesh. When she leaves him alone in a restaurant Perry meets flamboyant Russian oligarch Dima (Stellan Skarsgård) who takes the uptight poetry professor to a wild party resembling something out of a Fellini film. Inside a large mansion half naked women ride horseback and there’s enough drugs and booze to make Keith Richard do a double take. It’s a wild night that goes on until the sun rises, followed by a tennis match at Dima’s expansive villa.
Perry and Gail meet Dima’s family and nothing seems too odd until later that night at a cocktail party when the Russian asks Perry to smuggle a flash drive filled with very sensitive banking information to London. Turns out Dima is a money launderer whose usefulness to the mob has come to an end. He fears they may kill him and his family and his way out is to get the flash drive to the MI6 in return for safe passage to England.
Sounds like a plan until MI6 agent Hector (Damian Lewis) is less than entirely enthusiastic about the whole situation. Thus begins the intrigue, what little there is of it here, with Perry channelling his inner James Bond to become a Citizen Spy.
From buttoned down poetry professor to le Carré hero in a matter of days. It’s a leap, a gaping chasm even, which requires a well-oiled suspension of disbelief. The main problem is that the movie doesn’t offer up many clues as to why this couple would risk everything to come to the aid of a man they barely know. It’s a well-worn cinematic staple, the everyman as hero, but here it falls flat.
“I’ve BLEEPED up your life Professor,” says Dima. “Why are you still here?”
This would have been a good time for screenwriter Hossein Amini to offer up some kind of rational explanation as to why Perry has laid it all on the line. Instead we get this: “I’ve no idea.”
The rest of “Our Kind of Traitor” is about as riveting as that answer. Skarsgård’s boisterous performance is worth a look and Lewis is multi-layered enough to carry the whole thing but they are inexplicably pushed to the background behind the bland leads.
