I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the big screen adventures of “Supergirl” and the drama “Blood Lines.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 38:44)
I sit with guest host Mark Towhey on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about a movie to watch to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The CN Tower, an animated version of “Survivor” coming soon to theatres, “Supergirl’s” flight onto the big screen and a very expensive piece of Ted Lasso swag.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Matt Skube to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the adventures of “Supergirl,” the jackassery of “Jackass: Best and Last” and the drama of “Blood Lines.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join NewsTalk 1010 host Deb Hutton to talk about Owen Gleiberman’s notorious pan of “Supergirl” and the role of the film critic in the arts.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
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 adventures of “Supergirl,” the jackassery of “Jackass: Best and Last” and the drama of “Blood Lines.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Supergirl,” a new DC Comics superhero film now playing in theatres, Milly Alcock plays Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl. “My cousin and I,” she says, “have very different ideas about what it means to be a hero.”
CAST: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa. Directed by Craig Gillespie.
REVIEW: “Supergirl” has an obvious affection for not only DC Comics, but also “Star Wars,” “John Wick” and a handful of post-apocalyptic flicks but allows those influences to get in the way of establishing a style and personality of its own.
After spending the first fourteen years of her life on Krypton, watching everyone and everything she loved be destroyed, Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) finds herself more flawed than fierce. “Krypton didn’t die in a day,” she says. “The gods are not that kind.”
After a life of loss—and a wild interplanetary bender to celebrate her twenty-third birthday—she discovers a sense of purpose when she meets Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a heartbroken child looking for vengeance after merciless villain Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), destroyed her home and killed her family.
Together they set off on a mission of interstellar justice that uses their pain to find strength.
Loosely based on the “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” comic book series, the origin story is darker in tone than you might expect. What could have been a “Guardians of the Galaxy” style space romp is, instead, more of a mixed bag.
A raw and physical performance from Alcock, who channels both the character’s heroic spirit and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’s?” drunken, unpredictable Martha, lies at the film’s center. It’s highwire work with a lot of grit—have we seen a superhero vomit on screen before?—and emotional depth. Her trauma has left her scarred; cynical about her place in the world, and Alcock goes for it, embracing both the character’s hedonistic, haunted and heroic sides.
Her trauma drives the story, and, for a time, it feels unique. As the story develops, winding its way from a revenge drama to a more traditional superhero narrative, however, it becomes generic. The large-scale battle scenes are cluttered and so frenetic, it’s often impossible to follow the action. When you can, despite some good fight choreography—Supergirl is an agile, animated brawler—the fights are chaotic, but not fresh.
“Supergirl’s” real kryptonite, however, is in its desire to both defy audience expectations while, at the same time, making a big budget superhero flick. Director Craig Gillespie, working from a script by Ana Nogueira, smooths off the rough edges that make Supergirl interesting in favor of a generic, derivative approach. The result is a movie that folds a unique character into the usual collection of big battles, laughs and cool creatures. It feels familiar, which maybe doesn’t breed contempt in this case, but it does evoke a certain kind of apathy.
Richard Crouse makes a Salty Dog, the perfect cocktail to enjoy while paying tribute to animal actor stars of “Cruella,” the latest Disney live-action reboot. Come have a drink and a think about “Cruella” with us!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Cruella,” now available in select theatres and on Disney+ with Premier Access, is an origin story that explains the reason why one of Disney’s greatest villains hates Dalmatians.
One eventful day defined Estella’s (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) life. In less than twenty-four hours, the precious preteen with the distinctive mop of black and white hair, got kicked out of an upscale private school, snuck into a fashion show and thought, “for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong,“ and developed a lifelong hatred of Dalmatians. I won’t say why, but she does have a good reason to harbor animosity toward the spotted dogs. Most tragically, she lost her mother that same day.
Cut loose and alone, she lands in 1964 London. Falling in with petty thieves Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), Estella (now played by Emma Stone) forms an impromptu family, pulling off scams using disguises designed and made by her own hand.
Still, she’s not satisfied. “I want to be a professional designer,” she says, “not a thief.”
Securing an entry level job at an upscale department store, she gets the attention of The Baroness (Emma Thompson), a cruel, imperious clothing designer who says things like, “Gratitude is for losers.” She is the undisputed matriarch London fashion and will crush anyone who gets in her way.
As Estella rises through the ranks, she becomes aware of a connection between The Baroness and the death of her mother. Until then, she believed she was responsible for her mother’s passing and had gone through the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Now she adds a sixth stage, revenge.
“I’m starting to remember that you have an extreme side,” says Estella’s old friend Anita Darling (Kirby Howell-Baptiste).
Determined to ruin The Baroness, break her spirit, her confidence and her business. Estella creates an alter ego, the disruptive Cruella. In a series of staged public stunts Cruella humiliates The Baroness and becomes the darling of the fashion world. “Some call her a designer,” a TV talking head breathlessly reports, “some call her a vandal.”
As the “mad, bad and just a little bit sad” Cruella’s antics escalate, Estella’s personality grows fainter. “I’m not sweet Estella, try as I might. I’m Cruella.”
“Cruella” has lots going for it. Great costume design, a rippin’ soundtrack and arch attitude, but by the time the end credits roll, it is all about the dueling Emmas, Stone and Thompson.
“Wow,” says Cruella. “You really are a psycho. “How nice of you to say,” The Baroness snaps back.
Both hand in flamboyant performances that capture the wickedly humorous tone of the story.
Stone’s performance straddles the line between her two characters as Estella’s attempts to fit into the regular world fade, as bits and pieces of Cruella’s anything goes mentality filter through until she goes full-on baddie. The punk rock-glam inspired clothes help in the transformation, but the heart comes from Stone, who does something difficult, bring a tragic heart to a villain.
As The Baroness, Thompson is the is the Queen of the Side Eye. It’s a wonderfully comedic performance, equal parts disdain, evil and ridiculous, she redefines arrogance. Think “The Devil Wears Prada” with a sharper edge. It’s the kind of work you want to watch at least twice to catch all the small bits of business she weaves into the performance.
Propelled by the performances and a music-heavy soundtrack featuring everything from The Doors and Nina Simone to Iggy & The Stooges (this must be the first Disney film to feature the proto-punk tune “I Wanna Be Your Dog”) and Tina Turner, “Cruella” rocks along at a clip until it loses steam near the end as it prepares itself for the sequel.
Until then, however, “Cruella” is the most audacious of the recent live action reimaginings of a classic Disney character.
“Outside the Wire,” a new futuristic Netflix movie starring Anthony Mackie, is a run-of-the-mill action flick with more bullets than ideas.
Set in 2036, as “Outside the Wire” begins there is a violent civil war in Eastern Europe. The United States are there as peacekeepers, using robotic soldiers called Gumps to battle a ruthless warlord called Viktor Koval (Pilou Asbæk), the Terror of the Balkans, who may possess a doomsday device. In the midst of this conflict is Lieutenant Thomas Harp (Damson Idris), an U.S.-based drone pilot who makes the difficult, long-distance decision to sacrifice two Marine lives to save thirty-eight others. Instead of being commended for saving lives, an ethics committee sends him to a demilitarized zone in Eastern Europe to experience real combat up-close-and-personal.
He’s assigned to work with Captain Leo (Mackie), a hardnosed veteran who’ll show him the ropes. “War is ugly,” Leo says. “Sometimes you gotta get dirty to see any real change.” The twist is that Leo is only five years old. And no, before you ask, this isn’t a militaristic riff on “The Boss Baby.” Leo is a biotech android, a one-man militia, designed to be smarter, faster and more efficient than everyone else. “My existence is classified,” he tells Harp as they head off on a mission to deliver a vaccine to a cholera break twenty clicks outside the wire. The operation is partly humanitarian, and partly to act as a cover to meet an informant with intel on Koval’s whereabouts.
“Outside the Wire” is a slick mish-mash of “iRobot,” “Chappie” by way of “The Terminator” and modern war movies like “The Kingdom.” The derivative story is a delivery system for a series of clichés, large scale battle scenes and nifty special effects.
The social commentary on the ethics of using drones during wartime and what constitutes acceptable collateral damage feels blunted by the movie’s propensity to blow away soldiers and civilians alike with what must be the highest body count in a movie so far this year. It’s an important and ongoing discussion in the real world but don’t look for answers here, just giant fireballs and the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons.
When the bodies aren’t dropping, the clichés are. It’s as if Leo’s speech functions were programmed by a bot who had watched a 1000 hours of 1940s war movies. He does, however, occasionally deliver a fun line. “I’m not an idiot,” says the “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” star. “That would make me human.”
“Outside the Wire” is a noisy time-waster that could have used some outside the box thinking to make its shop-worn story more effective.
