I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about “Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:30)
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:03)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the new releases in theatres including the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night” (VOD/Digital).
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 alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Lars Shrike Walks the Night,” a new existential sci fi mystery now on VOD/Digital, Kelsey Grammar plays Lars Shrike, a fictional character who breaks free of his creator. “Are you glad you exist?” Lars asks of his author. “I have mixed feelings.”
CAST: Kelsey Grammer, David Clennon, Christine Lin, Kati Schwartz, Will Amato, Bobby Furst, Laurie Drayton. Directed by Gary Walkow.
REVIEW: About as offbeat a movie as you’re going to find starring a six-time Emmy Award winner, “Lars Shrike Walks the Night” is a strange journey of self-discovery that embraces the ambiguity of being, of consciousness and reality.
When we first meet Lars Shrike (Kelsey Grammer) he’s alone, stranded in the desert. A cypher, he knows his name, courtesy of a tattoo on his arm, and has a vague memory of having escaped somewhere or something terrible, but nothing else. “Was I a test tube baby on a spaceship?” he asks. “Was amnesia engineered into my genes?”
Disoriented, he’s unable to understand his past or present, and gathers information from a series of strangers that lead him to a public library. There, a helpful librarian provides clues that lead him to a book called “The Trouble with Dick,” an author (David Clennon) and possibly some indication of who or what he is.
But is that enough to lift Lars’s cosmic confusion?
“Lars Shrike Walks the Night” is the latest entry in director Gary Walkow’s long gestating cinematic universe. Beginning in 1987 with the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning “The Trouble with Dick,” he has slowly built the LarsVerse, adding the Russo Brothers produced “Crashing” in 2007 and the comedic family film “The Trouble with Dot & Harry” in 2015. The new movie is the latest, but apparently not the last. A title card that reads “Not The End” promises more.
Question is, Are Lars’s existential exploits compelling enough to warrant more movies?
For those with a taste for slow moving soul searching, perhaps. A mix of philosophy and slow-burn indie filmmaking, this is sci fi about ideas and identity, not special effects.
Grammar’s smooth and sonorous voice provides Lars’s inner thought via an enormous amount of narration. I was initially worried that the voice over would break my first rule of cinematic storytelling—Show me, don’t tell me—but once the film’s style settles into a groove, it becomes a tool to reveal the way Lars is reacting to the world and his place in it.
Low-fi and definitely low budget, “Lars Shrike Walks the Night” is obviously a passion project for director Walkow. A multi-generational examination of what it means to be human, the LarsVerse (my term, not his) provides atmosphere and intellectual thrills in place of big set pieces.
