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 “Her Private Hell,” a new sci-fi mystery thriller from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, and now playing in theatres, a mysterious killer comes into contact with characters in two timeframes.
CAST: Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, Hidetoshi Nishijima. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
REVIEW: Few things are worse than listening to someone explain their nightmares. Watching the dreamlike “Her Private Hell” is one of them. Nicolas Winding Refn’s impenetrable endurance test strains patience as much as the most long-winded dream recounting.
A story of fathers, daughters and a nasty serial killed named The Leather Man, “Her Private Hell” is set against the surreal backdrop of a fog drenched netherworld that recalls a Billy Squier video from 1984. “Don’t fight the mist, just move through it.”
Sophie Thatcher plays actress Elle, star of a cheesy sci-fi film called “Candy Floss.” A cross between “Star Wars” and “Barbarella,” it also features Hunter (Kristine Froseth), a newbie obsessed with the trappings of fame.
Elle’s job is complicated when her movie producer father Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott) announces his wife, Dominique (Havana Rose Liu), who happens to be Elle’s former lover, will be taking over as producer.
“This movie’s gonna be hell,” Elle says and at this point it’s as if she’s warning the audience about the film they’re watching not the fictional one she’s starring in.
When Elle and Hunter witness The Leather Man gruesomely kill a young woman, the story suddenly switches to postwar Japan, and a GI named Kay’s (Charles Melton) quest to find and destroy The Leather Man.
Both beautiful and banal, “Her Private Hell,” Refn’s first film in ten years, is all style and no substance. It indulges in his trademarked aesthetic—scenes bathed in neon light, hypnotic long takes and graphic violence—while offering little in the way of a comprehensible story. Despite its gloss, and high-minded ideas about revealing each character’s personal hell, it is crushed under the weight of its own moody pretention.
Refn, who now goes by the brand name NWR, isn’t afraid to take chances—his story is all over the place and he even has his characters speak in a wolf language at one point—but it’s all in service to a story that is more punishing than pleasurable.
Based on a true story, “Irena’s Vow,” a new heartfelt World War II drama now playing in theatres, is a portrait of extraordinary courage in the face of tragedy.
“Yellowjackets’s” co-star Sophie Nélisse is 19-year-old Polish Catholic nurse Irena Gut Opdyke.
Forced into service by the Nazis, first at a sewing factory, then as a housekeeper for Nazi officer Major Edward Rügemer (Dougray Scott), she witnesses an act of unspeakable cruelty that changes her life. Shocked and appalled, Irena makes a vow to help the dozen Jewish tailors she befriended at the factory.
Her plan is audacious. She arranges to secret the tailors away to the basement of the German commandant’s house. If they are discovered, it would mean a death sentence, but, Irena’s hopes, who would look for them in the coal cellar of a Nazi officer?
For two years the twelve men and women live in the basement, emerging only when Rügemer is out of town. Question is, how long can they stay undetected?
“Irena’s Vow” is headlined by a committed and empathetic performance from Nélisse. As Irena improvises a daring, and years long, scheme to rescue her former co-workers, the scenario occasionally challenges credulity, but Nélisse makes sure that Irena’s compassion, bravery and intellect are present and ground the compelling story.
“Irena’s Vow” has nicely detailed period elements, and shines a light on an important hero’s story, but lacks true suspense. The story echoes the historical record, but relies on too many melodramatic moments to be truly memorable.
The title refers to a code used by the Germans in WWII to direct their submarine convoys in the North Atlantic. Thought to be unbreakable, the British, working at a facility called Bletchley Park, cracked it not once, but twice. This is the story of a team of code-breakers lead by the brilliant but unstable Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott). He had recently suffered a nervous break-down after the collapse of his relationship with Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), but he is the only person clever enough to break the code and is brought back into service. At work he befriends Claire’s roommate Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), and learns that there is more to his ex-lover than meets the eye. Enigma is a nicely crafted, intelligent thriller that builds slowly and delivers a surprising payoff. Kate Winslett has never been better, transforming herself from mousey to sex-kitten, and Saffron Burrows burns up the screen with her sex appeal.
