I join 1290 CJBK in London and host Ken Eastwood to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the superhero flick “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” the crime story “Boston Strangler” and the family dramas “Brother” and “Riceboy Sleeps.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Tim Denis to have a look at the superhero flick “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” the crime story “Boston Strangler” and the family dramas “Brother” and “Riceboy Sleeps.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the superhero flick “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” the crime story “Boston Strangler” and the family dramas “Brother” and “Riceboy Sleeps.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
“Riceboy Sleeps,” a new drama from Vancouver director Anthony Shim, and now playing in theatres, is a meditative study in the immigrant experience in Canada through the lens of a mother and son relationship.
Set in the 1990s, Choi Seung-yoon is So-young, a single-mother to Dong-Hyun (as a child played by Dohyun Noel Hwang, later, as a teen by Ethan Hwang), who moved to Canada from Korea following the death of her husband. Once in Canada, the better life she hoped for seems just out of reach.
At her factory job So-young faces discrimination and, at school Dong-hyun is teased because his lunches are different than the sandwiches everyone has in their lunch boxes. His teacher even anglicizes his name to David because she can’t properly pronounce Dong-hyun.
Life isn’t easy for them. Dong-hyun, who, trying to assimilate to his new home, dyes his hair blonde and wears blue contacts, is suspended from school for fighting, and turns to drugs.
Gradually mother and son drift apart, but when So-young receives life-changing news, they attempt to reconnect with one another and with their heritage on a trip to Korea.
“Riceboy Sleeps” occasionally dips into melodrama, but is remarkably effective in its portrayal of the isolation and frustration that envelopes So-young and Dong-hyun’s new life. It’s in the details, the small (and sometimes not so small) behaviors, that define their interactions with many co-workers, doctors and even Dong-hyun’s teachers. Director Shim smartly visualizes the cultural claustrophobia with a boxy aspect ratio that doesn’t open up until the Korean sequences.
The natural performances are particularly effective in the film’s intimate moments. A scene where So-young struggles to use a Korean-English dictionary understand her cancer diagnosis is as frustrating and tragic as it is heartbreaking.
Ultimately, it is the film’s central relationship, the mother/son bond, that gives “Riceboy Sleeps” its poignancy.
I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions,” the charming and funny “I Like Movies” and the eco-drama “Blueback.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join 1290 CJBK in London and host Ken Eastwood to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the return of Ghostface in “Scream VI,” the sports drama “Champions,” the charming and funny “I Like Movies” and the eco-drama “Blueback.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
We’ve all seen boy and his dog movies about the deep relationship between humans and animals like “White Fang” and the simply named “Dog,” with Channing Tatum and a Belgian Malinois.
“Blueback,” a new Australian family picture starting Mia Wasikowska and now playing in theatres, mines similar territory, but this time it’s the story of a girl, her blue groper and the love of the ocean.
Wasikowska Is marine biologist Abby who grew up exploring the ocean around the coast of her Western Australian childhood home. “We were born in the water,” says her mother Dora (Elizabeth Alexander).
When Dora suffers a debilitating stroke that leaves her unable to speak, Abby returns home. Hoping a return to the sea will aid in Dora’s recovery, they travel to the coast.
From here, the story toggles between Abby’s childhood and the discovery of a rare blue groper—the Blueback of the title—that inspired the eco-activism that shaped her life, and the present day.
“Blueback” is a well-intentioned but heavy-handed film that mixes-and-matches mother and daughter dynamics with messages about the fragility of marine environments and the importance of conservationism. The movie’s main thrusts are intertwined and, unfortunately, over explained. Repetition and excessive exposition blunt the movie’s mission somewhat, despite fine performances from Wasikowska and Radha Mitchell, who plays Dora in the flashbacks.
The film’s storytelling deficiencies, however, are alleviated somewhat by beautiful underwater photography and the urgency of the conservation messaging.
I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at “Creed III,” the ninth movie in the “Rocky” franchise, the big screen debut of DCI Luther in “Luther: the Fallen Sun” and the family drama “Juniper.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 36:14)
I join NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about “Creed III,” the latest from the “Rocky” universe, the adventures of London copper “Luther: The Fallen Sun” and the family drama “Juniper.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
