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 anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraigah Alman to talk about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 12:20)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Stephanie Tsicos to talk about anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including The anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the relationship woes of “The Invite” and the music bio “Peter Asher: Everywhere Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CP24 Breakfast” hosts Nick Dixon and Jennifer Hsiung to talk about the anarchy of “Minions & Monsters,” the animated adventures of Disney+’s “X-Men ’97” and the Prime Video “Legally Blonde” prequel “Elle.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Invite,” a new comedy directed by Olivia Wilde now playing in theatres, a dinner party thrown by an unhappy couple spirals out of control amid pent up frustrations and surprising propositions. “Why do I feel like everyone knows something except for me,” says Joe.
CAST: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton. Directed by Olivia Wilde.
REVIEW: Sexy and cringy, “The Invite” is a sharp, insightful portrait of a crumbling marriage, that shifts from high comedy to emotionally raw over the course of 107 eventful minutes.
A throwback to a time when adult dramas earned wide releases in theatres, “The Invite” begins with longtime couple, the eager-to-please Angela (Olivia Wilde, who also directs) and cynical music teacher Joe (Seth Rogen) prepping their well-appointed San Francisco apartment for a dinner party.
Joe claims Angela didn’t tell him their sophisticated neighbors were coming and wants to cancel. It’s too late, she says, she’s already made an elaborate charcuterie board and put the soufflé in the oven.
They’re bickering, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” style, as sexologist Pina (Penélope Cruz) and sensitive former fire fighter Hawk (Edward Norton) arrive. Impossibly cool, they’re completely untroubled by the argument they heard through the door. “We love a contentious environment,” Hawk says.
From then on, the evening rides a razor’s edge as secrets are shared, propositions are presented and frustrations aired. The real action begins when Pina and Hawk announce, “We have something we wanted to talk to you about.”
It’s cutting stuff, sharp enough to possibly sever Angela and Joe’s relationship.
An emotionally chaotic chamber piece, “The Invite” allows each of its actors to strut their stuff. All have a facility with the rapid fire, ping pong dialogue, making the theatrical seem natural.
Rogen mixes comic timing with true vulnerability and Norton’s wit switches on a dime as he delivers one of the film’s lengthier monologues, laying bare his soul.
The film’s real surprises, however, lie in the performances of Cruz abnd Wilde.
Cruz sparks with Norton, but it’s in the third act when she switches from seductress to therapist in the final act that sparks really begin to fly. Charismatic and fiery, she delivers magnetic, top-flight work, on par with “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Parallel Mothers.”
But, despite the dynamic efforts of the cast, it’s Wilde’s movie. As a director, she’s in top form, creating something that doesn’t feel anything like her previous efforts “Booksmart” and “Don’t Worry Darling.”
Using artful, sometimes claustrophobic, blocking to create humor and tension, her control over the tone of the piece is remarkable. The script leap frogs from serious and sincere to funny and inflammatory and Wilde, along with cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra, subtly and effectively use the kinetic visuals to communicate the emotions experienced by the characters.
It’s great show me, don’t tell me work, but it’s her performance that lingers after the end credits roll. Wearing Angela’s neurosis on her sleeve, she delivers a tightly wound portrait of a person in the grips of a prolonged anxiety attack that is earnest, funny and vulnerable. She deserves an Oscar simply for the artful way she disposes of the abovementioned soufflé after realizing its burnt and can’t be served. It’s a small moment that perfectly blends mild slapstick with Angela’s state of mind and it makes a big impact.
“The Invite” is a terrific, uncomfortable movie that beautifully constructs an evening where everything falls apart.
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Scott Hirsch to talk about the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and the vampire drama “Nosferatu.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” an intimate portrait of four tumultuous years in the life of the “Blowin’ in the Wind” singer.
CAST: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, P. J. Byrne, Will Harrison and Eriko Hatsune. Directed by James Mangold who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks.
REVIEW: From the surreal “Rocketman,” that turned Elton John’s life into pop art and the self-congratulatory “Bohemian Rhapsody” to the monkey business of the Robbie Williams biopic “Better Man” and Brian Wilson’s introspective “Love & Mercy,” music bios come in all envelope pushing shapes and sizes.
So, it’s a surprise that “A Complete Unknown,” the new film chronicling four years in Bob Dylan’s eventful life, from Greenwich Village newbie to the enigmatic superstar who was booed off the stage at the Newport Folk Festival for playing an electric guitar, is so straightforward.
A story about the man who wrote, “The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face,” could reasonably be expected to take some stylistic risks à la “I’m Not There,” Todd Haynes’s metaphoric retelling of the “Like a Rolling Stones” singer’s life.
Instead, “A Complete Unknown” is more “Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story” than “I’m Not There” or “Inside Llewyn Davis.” The storytelling is efficiently linear (although not all together factual) without the kind of flourishes that Dylan regularly applies to his songs.
But the back-to-basics approach benefits the movie, allowing Timothée Chalamet’s tour de force performance to shine.
Dylan is one of the most documented people of the twentieth century, a man who has inspired a million nasally impressions, and influenced generations of musicians, and yet remains somewhat unknowable.
As a result, “A Complete Unknown” lives up to its name. When we first meet Dylan, he’s an unknown commodity. Four years later he’s the voice of a generation, the most famous export of the folk scene, but in many ways, he remains an enigma.
Chalamet captures the voice and the physicality of young Dylan but isn’t weighed down by the superstar’s legend. Despite his documented life, Dylan, the man, the myth, the legend, is basically unknowable. He’s a cipher; a dancer to a song only he can hear. Chalamet plays him as a mysterious, sometimes imperious guy and most importantly, gets the essence of what made Dylan the voice of a generation. It’s the It Factor, the Rizz, the elusive quality that is impossible to define, but easy to spot.
Instead of attempting to unwind Dylan’s mystique director James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, wisely opts for a portrait of the time, the America and, in microcosm, the Greenwich Village folk era, that produced the singer. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the battle for civil rights indirectly hang heavy over the film, completing the portrait of the time that fuelled Dylan’s early work.
The songs, and there are plenty of them, most performed by Chalamet, are the product of these influences and act as a commentary on that chaotic period.
“A Complete Unknown” may not be revelatory in terms of its biography of Dylan, but it places the singer in context of his times, revealing a rich vein of history, personal and otherwise.
For better and for worse, there is nothing quite like a Wes Anderson film. The director’s unique production design is all over his new sci fi comedy “Asteroid City,” but with this film it is clear that whimsy has finally replaced storytelling on his to do list.
This is a twisty-turny one. Like a set of nesting dolls, it’s a film, within a play, within a show hosted by a Rod Sterling-esque talking head (Bryan Cranston), within a teleplay written by playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton).
The bulk of the “action” takes place in Asteroid City, a remote New Mexico desert town—population 87—where Steve Carell’s motel manager hosts a Junior Stargazer convention. Gifted kids and their parents from all over the state convene to showcase their incredible, and often outlandish, inventions.
It’s an interesting group that includes recently widowed war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), father to “brainiac” Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and son-in-law to Stanley (Tom Hanks), movie star Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) and the rough-n-tumble J.J. Kellogg (Liev Schreiber). Along for the ride are singing cowboy Montana (Rupert Friend), teacher June (Maya Hawke), Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton) a scientist from the local observatory and the fast-talking Junior Stargazer awards judge, General Grif Gibson (Jeffrey Wright).
When the convention is interrupted by a visiting alien, the whole thing is locked down for a mandatory government quarantine.
Despite the quirky tone and Anderson’s trademarked stylistic choices, “Asteroid City” is a serious film, albeit one laced with a healthy dose of absurdism. A study in how people deal with grief, and the true nature of love, Anderson’s characters experience existential dilemmas, angst born of loss and dissatisfaction. Threats are posed by nuclear bombs and life from other planets unexpectedly dropping by to say hello and children wonder aloud what happens when we die. A shroud of melancholic anxiety hangs over the film, like a shroud, but Anderson’s staging of the film, the meta story within a story structure, obscures the movie’s deeper meanings under layers of style.
The cast, particularly Johansson and Hanks, bring focus to Anderson’s unfocussed story, and Carell, Cranston and briefly Goldblum are having fun, but it sometimes feels the surfeit of characters are there more to decorate the screen than to forward the story.
“Asteroid City” may delight long-time fans, but casual moviegoers or newcomers to the director’s oeuvre may find the film’s mannered obtuseness off kilter and off putting.
