Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make your bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the uncom rom com “The Drama,” the outer space antics of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the singular “Dead Lover.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the uncom rom com “The Drama,” the outer space antics of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the singular “Dead Lover.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:38)
I join CTV NewsChannel’s Scott Hirsch to talk about the uncom rom com “The Drama,” the outer space antics of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the singular “Dead Lover.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Dead Lover,” a new arthouse horror now playing in theatres, a gravedigger goes to extreme lengths to reanimate the love of her life after he drowns at sea.
CAST: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Leah Doz, Lowen Morrow. Directed by Grace Glowicki.
REVIEW: Absurd and gross, “Dead Lover” is a truly unique film. Fueled by imagination and owing a tip of the hat to everyone from Mary Shelley and German Expressionism to Avant-Garde Theater and DIY exploitation movies, it is ingenious and original but also the very definition of movie that will not be for everyone.
The action takes place in an otherworldly Victorian setting. A Gravedigger, played by co-writer and director Grace Glowicki, longs for love, but the stench of death that surrounds her keeps suitors away. (Some theatrical screenings even come with a “Stink-O-Vision” card to enhance the narrative effect.)
Her love life takes a turn, appropriately enough, at a funeral when an aristocratic poet (Ben Petrie) gets a whiff of her and finds himself attracted to her reek. They’re perfect for one another, but their torrid affair is ended when he drowns at sea, leaving behind only memories and a severed finger.
Overcome by grief, the Gravedigger performs experiments on the finger, hoping to regrow her lover using his scant remains, stolen corpses and potions. When the experiments yield unexpected results, the Gravedigger is forced into a world where desire has grave consequences.
Visually and performance wise “Dead Lover” resembles an experimental black box theatre production. With minimal sets and few props, the stagey look is definitely DIY in its lo-fi aesthetic. But minimum set dec doesn’t mean minimum impact. The film’s look is startling, an artful combination of dollar store props and practical effects that serves as an appropriately artificial backdrop for the broad performances, which owe a debt to silent movie acting as much as it does to clowning.
The cumulative effect of the visuals, the unusual performances and story will either be magical or off-putting, depending on your tolerance for bawdy body horror.
Ultimately “Dead Lover’s” story is a tender one about love and desire in all their forms, but as intriguing as the presentation is, it feels like a novelty whose appeal wanes as the runtime approaches the end credits.
I join CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisco to talk about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk,” the thriller “Honey Bunch” and the dystopian drama “The Well.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChanel to talk about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
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 sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk” and the thriller “Honey Bunch.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Honey Bunch,” a new horror-thriller now playing in theatres, disturbing visions plague a woman recovering at an experimental trauma center after a brutal car accident. “Everything is gonna go back to normal… it might just take a little more time.”
CAST: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Jason Isaacs, Kate Dickie and India Brown. Directed and written by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli.
REVIEW: A gothic, unsettling study of devotion and sacrifice, “Honey Bunch” starts off odd and doubles down on its weirdness as it winds its way to the end credits.
Following her recovery from a coma that resulted in partial memory loss and physical challenges, Diana’s (Grace Glowicki) husband Homer (Ben Petrie), for reasons she doesn’t understand, enrolls her at an out-of-the-way trauma facility for experimental treatment to repair her memory and motor skills.
As the procedures intensify her fragmented memory begins to rebuild, like puzzle pieces falling into place.
Unfortunately, for another patient, Josephina (India Brown), accompanied by her father Joseph (“White Lotus’” Jason Isaacs), the unusual treatment leaves her suffering from terrible side effects.
While Joseph pushes for his daughter’s recovery, Diana’s shattered memories lead her to troubling truths about her marriage and husband’s true motives.
“Honey Bunch’s” first hour takes some time to get where its going. Directors Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer immerse the viewer in the remote facility to hammer home Diana’s isolation. By the time her memories—or are the hallucinations?—return an unsettling, unpredictable atmosphere attaches itself to the film like the buttons on a blouse.
The rhythms take some getting used to, but patience is rewarded with a bonkers second half that let’s go of building suspicion and in favor of body horror touched by tragedy and revenge. Some swing-for-the-fences story turns defy credulity but, because they are based in affection, ultimately become a look at the see saw of married life, and how blind devotion may not be a suitable relationship building block.
A throwback to the films of the 1970s, “Honey Bunch” utilizes crash zooms and other retro techniques, accentuated by Andrea Boccadoro’s eerie, irreverent score, to tell a strange story of love justifying everything.
“Suck it Up” is a buddy flick where the main characters aren’t exactly buddies.
When we first meet Ronnie (Grace Glowicki) she’s a drunk rebounding from the death of her brother Garrett. Constantly on the tipple, she almost winds up in the hospital after a lawn mowing accident. Concerned and looking for help for her out of control daughter, mother Dina (Nancy Kerr) calls Faye (Erin Carter), Ronnie’s former best buttoned-down friend and Garrett’s ex-girlfriend. Faye responded differently to Garrett’s death. Although they broke up a year before his passing, she is troubled that she didn’t pick up a phone call from her ex just days before his death. Cue intimacy issues.
When an intervention of sorts fails Faye kidnaps Ronnie—ie: puts her passed out body in the front seat of Garrett’s Mustang convertible—and heads for Garrett’s family cottage in Invermere, British Columbia. What was planned as a time of introspection and sobriety becomes something else as the women’s differences take center stage. Each processes their grief in a different way as they try and find some common ground other than their relationships with Garrett. The longer they spend in the country the more insight into each other and into the nature of their time with Garrett, for better and for worse.
“Suck it Up” is anchored by two great performances from Glowicki and Carter. As Ronnie and Faye they are polar opposites bound by a single factor, Garrett. Thrown together, they are an odd couple, damaged and not so sure of their resilience. As surprising revelations about Garrett (who we never see) emerge the leads shift and change in believable ways. At the risk of making this bouncy little film seem heavier than it actually is, I’ll say that it understands and conveys how grief and perspective are two entirely different things and does so with heartfelt humour. It’s a not exactly a startlingly new observation, but it is earnest and well portrayed.
I could have done without the climatic and cathartic mud fight scene but the movie sparkles in enough ways to make up for one grubby misstep.
