I join CTV Atlantic anchor Bruce Frisco to talk about the one-horned horrors of “Death of a Unicorn,” the rompin’, stompin’ deja vu of “A Working Man,” the flightless dramedy of “The Penguin Lessons” and the off-kilter Prime Video film “Holland” with Nicole Kidman.
Watcxh the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the one-horned horrors of “Death of a Unicorn,” the rompin’, stompin’ deja vu of “A Working Man,” the flightless dramedy of “The Penguin Lessons,” the character study of “Darkest Miriam” and the off-kilter Prime Video film “Holland” with Nicole Kidman.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Holland,” a new Nicole Kidman thriller now streaming on Amazon Prime, Nancy suspects her husband of having an affair. Her self-styled investigation hints that nothing, and no one, may be what they seem.
CAST: Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen, and Jude Hill. Directed by Mimi Cave.
REVIEW: “You think you know someone, then you don’t,” says Holland, Michigan suburban home economics teacher Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman).
Intruding into her perfectly curated world are nagging suspicions that her optometrist husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) is having an affair. When she finds Polaroid film, she tells her friend Dave (Gael García Bernal), that Fred uses it to “take kinky sex photos with his lover.”
As Nancy’s distrust grows, she and Dave begin a homegrown investigation into Fred’s behavior. As they dig deeper and deeper to find proof of his infidelities, they develop feelings for one another.
As their relationship bears fruit, so does their investigation, and for the first time Nancy imagines a life outside of the one she has always known.
File “Holland” under the Suburban Anxiety category. The seemingly perfect small Michigan town is, of course, less than perfect, let alone wholesome, and director Mimi Cave, working in concert with cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, infuses the film with a sense of undefinable unease.
That vibe is continued in Kidman’s performance. Nobody does off kilter like Kidman. Her resume is dotted with eccentric characters, like Nancy, who present a polished veneer but soon reveal a darker underbelly. But Nancy isn’t completely quirky. She is simply a person who allows her dissatisfaction to dictate her extreme actions. Kidman masterfully finds the humanity in her and never overplays her hand, no matter how deep down the rabbit hole she falls.
Unfortunately, Nancy is placed at the heart of movie that is short on thrills. The action unfolds slowly without enough twists and turns to fully immerse the audience in the strange world of Nancy and Holland, Michigan.
Just in time for Mother’s Day comes the new Jennifer Lopez Netflix movie “The Mother.” A twist on the 1994 thriller “The Professional,” it is the story of a cold-blooded assassin whose heart is warmed by a young innocent caught up in a dangerous situation.
When we first meet The Mother (Lopez) she is a pregnant ex-assassin making a deal with the FBI to turn on her former crime partners, gun runners Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes) and Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal). Their business began when she was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, but soon spun out-of-control and now, even the morally compromised Mother wants out.
Trouble is, Lovell and Álvarez will do almost anything to keep her quiet. “You burned down our entire world,” says Lovell.
One barrage of bullets later, Mother is hospitalized. In recovery, she has the baby, but is told by a stern FBI agent (Edie Falco) that not only is she in danger, but the threat from Lovell and Álvarez extends to the newborn. “What you are to that child is a death sentence.”
Mother reluctantly agrees to put the child in foster care while she goes into hiding in the Alaskan wilderness. “You put her with good people,” she says. “Keep her safe. If there’s trouble, let me know.”
Cut to twelve years later. Mother gets word that her daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez), who has grown up in a quiet, leafy suburb unaffected and unaware of her biological mother’s past, is once again in danger. “They’re using her to get to me,” Mother says. Working with FBI agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick), Mother comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she has never met. “I’m a killer,” she says, “but I’m also a mother and I will die protecting her.”
Hiding out in the wilderness, Mother homeschools Zoe in the ways of tough love and warfare. “Do you hate me?” Mother asks. “Good. Use it. You’re going to work harder than you ever thought you could work. Then you are going to run out your reserve tank and find out you have more. And then you’ll run that out too.”
“The Mother” has echoes of “The Professional” and “Hannah,” but pales by comparison.
New Zealand director Niki Caro kicks things off with a far-fetched, but promising set-up, only to allow it to flounder as the running time increases. A compelling twist on a mother – daughter relationship is wasted by a script with paper thin characterizations, a pair of lackluster villains and no real twists after the first fifteen minutes.
Lopez brings a steely, studied deep freeze to the deadly character, punctuated by moments of familial concern. Lopez is no stranger to action or intrigue, and the “Bourne” style -up-close-and-personal fight scenes have some punch to them, but the clichéd dialogue feels left over from a 1990s direct-to-DVD flick. “I’m whatever I need to be to keep her safe,” could have been said by any number of b-movie heroes, and here, as the words spill out of her mouth, it feels like an echo from another, better movie.
Big points, though, to costume designers Bina Daigeler and Jeriana San Juan, whose fur-trimmed looks for the on-the-run Mother, are runway ready.
Even worse is Fiennes as the blandest bad guy to come down the pike since the forgettable Max Lord in “Wonder Woman 1984.” We know Lovell is evil because he does terrible things, but Fiennes plays him as a vessel for some heavy prosthetic make-up and nothing more.
“The Mother” is serviceable, a big action movie that fits the small screen.
Palestinian actor/director Elia Suleiman has made a career of exploring his national identity. In his new film, “It Must Be Heaven,” he continues on that trajectory by visiting New York and Paris. In one scene Suleiman, starring as a character known as ES, pitches the very movie we’re watching to a Parisian film producer (Vincent Maraval) who rejects the idea with a scoff. “It’s not Palestinian enough,” he says. “It could take place anywhere, even here,” which, as it turns out, is the entire idea behind the story.
ES is a deadpan, mostly silent Mr-Bean-by-way-of-Charlie-Chaplin character who lives in Nazareth. He’s the star of a series of vignettes, each featuring slice-of-life situations. A neighbour steals lemons from the tree in his yard. “Don’t think I’m stealing,” the man says. “I knocked on the door, but nobody was there.” In New York he encounters heavily armed people in a Brooklyn grocery store—complete with ammo belts spilling out of baby carriages—and while in Paris there’s a sparrow who flies through his Paris window and hops on his keyboard as he tries to write.
Each disconnected story fragment uses surreal humour as an allegory to illuminate the politics and conflicts of his home but the further he travels the more he realizes that the ills of his homeland are universal ailments, not specific to his home.
“It Must Be Heaven” is a finely crafted, unique movie that revels in its absurdity. Suleiman is a keen observer, both as a director and the film’s star. He spends a great deal of the movie watching the action around him, inviting us, as the viewer, to watch and learn with him. He welcomes us to observe and decode the situations with him, gently easing us into his new, expanded world view.
Anthony Gonzalez, the star of the new Pixar film Coco, has spent one-third of his life working on the project.
“It was a very long process,” said the 13-year old actor. “I auditioned when I was nine years old. I actually got to go to Pixar headquarters in Oakland when I was 10.
“I started doing the scratch voice, where they put my voice under the character to see what it looks like when I was 10. Eleven is when I got cast so I started going in more often to Pixar and doing the voice. At 12 I was still doing some voices. At the end of 12 I felt my voice was changing!”
In Coco he plays Miguel, a 12-year-old aspiring musician in a family with a generations-old ban on anything musical. During his village’s Day of the Dead celebrations he breaks into the ornate crypt of Ernesto de la Cruz, the world’s greatest musician, to steal the late singer’s guitar.
Then something strange happens. Guitar in hand, he finds himself transported to the colourful world of the Land of the Dead. If he can get de la Cruz‘s blessing he can go back to the world of the living and be a musician, but first he will learn the real story behind his unusual family history.
Gonzalez worked on the project for years without knowing if he would appear in the final film. “Every time they would tell me I was going to Pixar I would get so excited because it is a paradise there,” he said. “The food there is amazing, the Pixar store is just awesome and they have a big soccer field and I love to play. Every time I went to Pixar I would also be happy because I would miss school.
“When I was 11, it was around Christmas, and I went to do scratch voices. The director, Lee Unkrich, told me they had a present for me. I was so excited and I opened it and it was this big, wonderful piece of artwork that said, ‘You got the part.’”
Gonzalez has been performing in front of people since he was four years old. “I wasn’t shy,” he said. “It’s fun singing and acting. I can be free. I can express feelings when I am singing and when I act I can be stuff I never thought I could be.”
Coco has afforded Gonzalez the chance to follow his dream. He gets to travel to promote the movie — “Today I had poutine for lunch,” he enthused in his Toronto hotel room.
“It was the best thing I ever had. Who knew that French fries, bacon and gravy and cheese was a perfect mix?” — and more importantly, he gets to do what he loves. He hopes the movie will encourage other kids to follow their dreams.
“Miguel could be a role model for kids,” Gonzalez said. “Miguel in the movie really fights for what he wants. He wants to be a musician and no obstacles will stop him. He doesn’t let anyone or anything stop him from what he wants to do. I feel many kids will look up to him; kids who want to share their talent with the world.”
The Mexican tradition of honouring their deceased loved ones on Day of the Dead forms the backbone, both visually and emotionally, of the new Pixar film “Coco.”
Miguel Rivera (Anthony Gonzalez) is a 12-year-old aspiring musician and devoted fan of the “world’s greatest musician,” the late, great Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). Trouble is, his family doesn’t approve. In fact they have a generations–old ban on anything musical stemming from Miguel’s great-great grandfather, a guitar player who chose music over his young family. They are, we’re told, “the only family in Mexico who hates music.” Still, Miguel can’t let his dream of making music go. He studies de la Cruz’s films and records, learning them note-for-note.
In his village Day of the Dead celebrations are being prepared. Photos of loved ones are placed on altars in hopes that relatives who have passed into the spirit world will come back to visit and enjoy the festivities.
In the village square a talent show draws a huge crowd. Miguel is desperate to perform, but needs a new guitar. Keeping the words of his hero in mind—Don’t let anything stand in your way!—he breaks into de la Cruz’s ornate crypt to steal the late singer’s guitar when something strange happens. Guitar in hand, he finds himself transported to the colourful Day of the Dead spirit world just in time to attend de la Cruz’s spectacular show. If he can get de la Cruz‘s blessing he can go back to the world of the living and be a musician but first he must learn the real story behind his unusual family history.
“Coco” is packed with music but it isn’t a musical. Characters don’t suddenly burst into song. Instead, the songs—and there are a few of them—are set pieces, deftly woven into the fabric of the story. The stand-out tune, “Remember Me,” written by the “Frozen” team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, is heard throughout and used particularly effectively in the film’s tear-jerking finale.
Miguel’s love of music is the film’s McGuffin, the thing that drives the story, but “Coco” is more about the importance of family. Pixar has found a way to embroider a familiar kid’s movie motif with deeper messages about remembrance and the passing of time.
“Finding Nemo” and “Bambi” aside, mortality is not a big topic in children’s movies. “Coco,” however, embraces it; weaving an interesting story that toggles back-and-forth between the land of the living and dead. It celebrates the vibrancy of the Día de los Muertos celebrations, complete with skeletons in dazzlingly costumes and sugar-skulled characters aplenty that are kid friendly in a “Nightmare Before Christmas” kind of way. “The Walking Dead” this ain’t.
Visually “Coco” is spectacular. Whether it is the intricately realized skeleton characters or the perfect sheen on the water Miguel dives into, once again Pixar proves to be ahead of the pack in terms of bringing pixels and terabytes of information to imaginative life.
“Coco” is a heartfelt tribute to Mexican culture but more than that it is a universal story about the importance of family that is heartfelt but never saccharine.
“The Daily Show’s” brand of satirical political humour has become a legit source of news for many young people and is so influential Barack Obama has been a frequent guest. But being on the show hasn’t always worked out well for guests.
In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari (Gael García Bernal) was arrested and detained for 118 days after an interview he did on “The Daily Show” aired. The tongue-in-cheek piece featured regular correspondent Jason Jones claiming to be an American spy interviewing Bahari. Iranian officials, under the rule of newly “elected president” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, didn’t get the joke and Bahari was roused from his mother’s home and taken to jail while his pregnant English fiancée (Claire Foy) waited four months not knowing what was to become of the father of her child.
While in solitary at Evin Prison Bahari is blindfolded and interrogated by The Specialist (Kim Bodnia), a zealot who smells of rosewater. Breaking Bahari’s spirit, the interrogator convinces him to make a televised statement denouncing his actions as a “spy” for Iran’s enemies.
This is a true story, based on a memoir written by the main character, so it is no spoiler to mention that after months of physical and mental torture he is released just in time to see his child born in England.
Jon Stewart, stepping out from behind the “Daily Show” desk and into the director’s chair, divides the movie into two halves. The first half concentrates on Bahari’s coverage of the election. It’s fast, frantic and occasionally even funny mix of news and original footage that sets the scene for what is to come.
The second hour, post arrest, is slower, but more intense. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions as Bahari tries to figure out why he is there and what will happen. The blindfold adds to his fear; sightless he can’t see where the next slap might come from. The dynamic between the questioned and his questioner shifts constantly, never more so than in a scene where Bahari, Scheherazade-style, strings the Specialist along with some randy (and untrue) stories of his one thousand and one nights spent in exotic massage parlors.
Their interaction is at the heart of “Rosewater.” Stewart hasn’t opened the story up much in terms of building subtext—unlike his work on “The Daily Show,” the movie is very straightforward—but does bring sincerity and emotion to the film but the over-all “never give up” message seems trite given the backdrop of the story.
