I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies and television shows coming to theatres and streaming services. Today we talk about the space thriller “I.S.S.,” the poignant “Memory” and the Paramount+ series “The Woman in the Wall.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the space thriller “I.S.S.,” the poignant “Memory” and the drama “Origin.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to pour a drink! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the space thriller “I.S.S.,” the poignant “Memory” and the drama “Origin.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Memory,” a poignant new drama now playing in select theatres and starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, is a difficult, delicate story about how the past impacts the present.
Chastain is Sylvia, a self-reliant social worker and overprotective single mother to Anna (Brooke Timber). Sober for a dozen years and counting, she wears her emotions on her sleeve, and when she isn’t working, she’s often at AA meetings, sometimes with Anna in tow.
The story kicks in when Sylvia reluctantly attends a high school reunion with sister Olivia (Merritt Wever). Sitting alone, she’s alarmed when a bearded stranger stares blankly at her, before sitting at her table. Unnerved, she bolts, with the man in pursuit. He follows her home to her rough Brooklyn neighborhood, parking himself outside while she hurriedly goes inside and bolts the door.
The next morning it’s revealed he is a middle-aged man with early onset dementia named Saul (Sarsgaard) who lives in a fancy townhouse with brother Isaac (Josh Charles) and niece Sara (Elsie Fisher). When Sylvia takes on the job of Saul’s caregiver, a relationship blossoms, as she confronts memories of her young life, while Saul strains to remember the day-to-day.
“Memory” is a simply rendered, quiet movie with powerhouse performances from Chastain and Sarsgaard. Director Michel Franco is a fly-on-the-wall, keeping the camera at arm’s length, with no fancy cinematography to distract from the performances. Ditto the soundtrack. Or, should I say lack thereof. Franco doesn’t manipulate emotion with music, save for repeated spins of Saul’s favorite song, Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”
The no-frills approach is in service to the characters and the story. With no distractions, the narrative, which details sexual abuse and trauma, unfolds in an unexpectedly warm way. That is thanks to Chastain, who plays Sylvia with emotional bluntness and Sarsgaard, who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, who brings vulnerability to Saul, but never forgets his strength of character.
They share remarkable chemistry, and even when “Memory” drifts into implausibility, the story of two outsiders who find redemption in one another packs an emotional wallop.
I join CP24 anchor Andrew Brennan to have a look at the high school the musical “Mean Girls,” the buzzy “The Beekeeper,” the divine “The Book of Clarence” and the drama “Freud’s Last Session.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about the high school the musical “Mean Girls,” the buzzy “The Beekeeper,” the divine “The Book of Clarence” and the drama “Freud’s Last Session.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the high school the musical “Mean Girls,” the buzzy “The Beekeeper,” the divine “The Book of Clarence” and the drama “Freud’s Last Session.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“Freud’s Last Session,” a new drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, documents imagined conversations between two of the most engaged minds of the twentieth century as they grapple with the greatest mystery of all time, the existence of God.
Set in 1939 England, Hopkins is the Father of Psychoanalysis, living in London after fleeing his Vienna birthplace as the Nazis marched in. A religious skeptic, he says, “I’m a passionate disbeliever who’s obsessed with belief.”
Goode plays Oxford don and author C.S. Lewis, a troubled World War I vet who reclaimed his lapsed belief in Christianity after facing the horrors of war. As he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the atheist Freud invites Lewis in for a conversation regarding what happens after you die.
As Freud faces mortality, he is unbowed in his dismissal of Lewis’s “fairy tale of faith.” Lewis, who came to religion through trauma, literature and study, uses their time together to prove that true believers are not, as Freud labels them, imbeciles.
As their philosophical joust heats up–“Have you ever considered how terrifying it would be if you’re wrong?” asks Lewis—the story splinters to include subplots involving the codependent relationship between Freud and his devoted daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries), her closeted relationship with Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham (Jodi Balfour) and Lewis’s involvement with Janie (Orla Brady), his late best friend’s mother. These story shards and the odd flashback, open up the story, taking us outside Freud’s booklined study.
This war of words, set against a backdrop of the rise of war in Europe, is more contemplative than confrontational. It’s provocative material, expertly delivered by Hopkins and Goode, that recalls Hopkins’s back-and-forth with Jonathan Pryce in “The Two Popes.” Their verbal sparring reveals more about their personalities than the flashbacks, which often interrupt the story’s rhythm, rather than embellishment it.
“Freud’s Last Session” is based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, and is the rare movie that doesn’t feel served by opening up the story. When it moves away from its two leads, it wanders, lessening the impact of their interaction.
Still, watching these two terrific actors bring these two titans to life on screen, even though they likely never met in real life, is time well spent.
I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Pauline Chan to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Jennifer Lawrence’s “No Hard Feelings” and the drama “Blue Jean.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 38:11)
