I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to drink a Mai Tai. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the live-action “Moana,” the sport comedy “Racewalkers” and the wacky “Wizard of Oz” homage “Gail Daughtery and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” Zoey Deutch plays a Midwestern hairdresser who travels to Hollywood in search of her “celebrity sex pass” after her fiancée hooks up with an a-lister.
CAST: Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Sabrina Impacciatore, Jon Hamm, Weird Al” Yankovic, Henry Winkler, Elizabeth Perkins. Directed by David Wain.
REVIEW: A Hollywood farce that mistakes sincerity and commitment-to-the-bit for humor, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” stretches its “Wizard of Oz” parody to the breaking point.
The idea of a celebrity hall pass is simple. An agreement between couples, it allows both partners to get a one-time “pass” to sleep with a specific celebrity without it counting as cheating.
It’s a simple and fun hypothetical unless it actually happens.
That’s the case in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.” Small town Kansas woman Gail (Zoey Deutch) and her fiancé, Tom’s (Michael Cassidy) relationship is put into doubt when the unlikely happens, and Tom meets and has relations with his celebrity pass, Jennifer Aniston, who plays herself.
Gail decides she must “even the scales.”
“I had a celebrity free pass thing with my fiancé,” she says, “but he took it literally. So now I need to have sex with Jon Hamm to even up the score and save my relationship.”
On her quest for some “Hammertime,” Gail and BFF Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) travel to Los Angeles in what becomes a loose riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” complete with stand-ins for Toto, The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow and, of course, Jon Hamm as The Wizard.
Along the way they’re joined aspiring talent agent Caleb (Ben Wang), a paparazzo (Ken Marino) whose lifelong dream is to get a candid snap of Jon Hamm, Hamm’s former “Mad Man” co-star John Slattery who plays a comedic version of himself as an out-of-work, down-on-his-luck actor whose texts to Hamm always go unanswered, and a group of assassins (Sabrina Impacciatore, Joe Lo Truglio, Mather Zickel).
“Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” travels its own Yellow Brick Road in search of whimsy. It’s light and frothy, a nonsensical collection of scenes performed in a heightened, upbeat way, by a cast who energetically commits to the general ludicrous tone of the piece.
The consistent tone, however, when amplified, doesn’t have enough variance from scene to scene to hold interest.
That the cast are stymied by a script that leans into its absurdist style more than presenting genuinely funny moments blunts the film’s effectiveness.
The satire of celebrity culture and the chasm between Hollywood and the small-town Gail, representing Anytown USA, should have provided fertile ground but, time after time, the script, written by director David Wain and co-star Ken Marino, goes for silly over sentiment or any kind of satire with real bite. The result is a film that wastes a hall pass.
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 epic “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the feel-good divorce drama “Is This Thing On?” and the psychological thriller “The Housemaid.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Housemaid,” a new psychological thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, and now playing in theatres, a parolee gets a job working for a wealthy family, in a beautiful home filled with secrets.
CAST: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins. Directed by Paul Feig.
REVIEW: A story of a campaign of domestic psychological warfare, “The Housemaid” is a drawn-out, twisty-turny story of gaslighting, an attic room and a broken dinner plate.
The story begins with Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) looking for work to satisfy the conditions of her parole. In prison for ten years, she’s living in her car and if she doesn’t get a job soon, it’s back to the big house to finish her sentence.
When she lands a job as a live-in housemaid at the Winchester family estate, tending to the ultra-wealthy Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried), her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) and daughter Cecelia (Indiana Elle), it appears to be a dream job. Given flexible hours and a new phone and credit card, she moves into a bedroom in the attic, the one with the lock on the outside.
“Hold on to this job and the living situation,” her parole officer reminds her, “or you’ll be back in Bedford to finish the last five years of your sentence.”
Desperate to avoid going back to jail, she puts her head down and gets to work, even though Nina’s personality leans toward Jekyll and Hyde; kind one second, cruel the next. “Today wasn’t a total disaster,” Nina says to Millie by way of praise.
Smoothing things out is Andrew, who always has a kind word and a way of keeping the peace between Nina and Millie. He’s a good guy, but is he too good to be true?
Director Paul Feig is best known for making comedies like “Bridesmaids,” but “The Housemaid,” despite sharing four letters in the title of his biggest hit, is not a laugh-a-minute. It has more to do with the intrigue and suspense of his 2018 film “A Simple Favor” than his other films.
Feig sets the dark story against the dazzling backdrop of the Winchester’s palatial home, a sun-dappled mansion painted inside and out in bright white, save for the creepy little room in the attic. The opulent home silently establishes film’s the power dynamic; the disparity between Nina’s effortless cruelty and Millie’s desperation, and it’s the last time anything in the film goes unsaid.
The movie takes some big swings and has more twists than a winding country road and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine wants to make sure you don’t miss a thing. I suppose, that’s great if you’re scrolling through your phone while watching (which you shouldn’t be, especially in a theatre) but it draws out the action, especially two flashback sequences near the end. By the time we get to the story’s revenge aspect, it feels played out.
Still, despite being overlong, it’s a bit of a romp, with the main cast, Sweeney, Seyfried and Sklenar, jumping in with both feet, throwing themselves at the pulpy premise with vigor that helps smooth most of the storytelling’s rough edges.
“The Housemaid” isn’t quite as clever as it needs to be to keep the audience on the edge of their seat until the end credits but has enough wackadoodle twists and engaging characters to register as a playful “evil one-percenters” time waster.
SYNOPSIS: Seven years after the frenemy mystery “A Simple Favor,” comes a sequel to Prime Video appropriately called “Another Simple Favor.” Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are reunited as Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson, with director Paul Feig, for another adventure.
The last time we saw them, vlogger Stephanie and Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) facilitated sending Emily to jail. Now, she’s out and asks Stephanie to be her maid of honor at her extravagant wedding on the Isle of Capri. Cue the murder and mayhem. “To old friends and new beginnings,” Emily says, toasting Stephanie with a martini. “And not getting poisoned,” adds Stephannie.
CAST: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Alex Newell, Elena Sofia Ricci, Henry Golding, and Allison Janney. Directed by Paul Feig.
REVIEW: At oner point in the action Alison Janney says, “It doesn’t make any sense.” She is, of course, not referring to “Another Simple Favor,” but she could have been. A zig-zaggy sequel to the 2018 thriller, it features enough plot twists to give Agatha Christie whiplash. The sun-drenched island of Capri setting still allows for many dark corners for this story of murder, messy relationships and mafia to unfold.
Despite the ridiculous story swerves, it’s all played with a relatively straight face. The chemistry between Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively keeps things sparkly, but with a wink. It’s as if the characters know the things they are doing are implausible, but they’re happy to be along for the ride.
Kendrick brings her trademarked likability which plays in nice contrast to Lively’s charismatic screw loose take on Emily. Together they weather the script’s red herrings, holding the splintered story together with the sheer force of their chemistry.
The sinister tone of the original is missing, and it goes on a bit too long, but the sense of absurdity that drove the 2018 film is here in abundance. In other words, it’s a crime story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you.
