I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:03)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the new releases in theatres including the alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch 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 alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night” (VOD/Digital).
Listen to 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 alien adventures of “The Outer Threat,” the moody “Her Private Hell” and the existential sci fi of “Lars Shrike Walks the Night.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Her Private Hell,” a new sci-fi mystery thriller from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, and now playing in theatres, a mysterious killer comes into contact with characters in two timeframes.
CAST: Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, Hidetoshi Nishijima. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
REVIEW: Few things are worse than listening to someone explain their nightmares. Watching the dreamlike “Her Private Hell” is one of them. Nicolas Winding Refn’s impenetrable endurance test strains patience as much as the most long-winded dream recounting.
A story of fathers, daughters and a nasty serial killed named The Leather Man, “Her Private Hell” is set against the surreal backdrop of a fog drenched netherworld that recalls a Billy Squier video from 1984. “Don’t fight the mist, just move through it.”
Sophie Thatcher plays actress Elle, star of a cheesy sci-fi film called “Candy Floss.” A cross between “Star Wars” and “Barbarella,” it also features Hunter (Kristine Froseth), a newbie obsessed with the trappings of fame.
Elle’s job is complicated when her movie producer father Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott) announces his wife, Dominique (Havana Rose Liu), who happens to be Elle’s former lover, will be taking over as producer.
“This movie’s gonna be hell,” Elle says and at this point it’s as if she’s warning the audience about the film they’re watching not the fictional one she’s starring in.
When Elle and Hunter witness The Leather Man gruesomely kill a young woman, the story suddenly switches to postwar Japan, and a GI named Kay’s (Charles Melton) quest to find and destroy The Leather Man.
Both beautiful and banal, “Her Private Hell,” Refn’s first film in ten years, is all style and no substance. It indulges in his trademarked aesthetic—scenes bathed in neon light, hypnotic long takes and graphic violence—while offering little in the way of a comprehensible story. Despite its gloss, and high-minded ideas about revealing each character’s personal hell, it is crushed under the weight of its own moody pretention.
Refn, who now goes by the brand name NWR, isn’t afraid to take chances—his story is all over the place and he even has his characters speak in a wolf language at one point—but it’s all in service to a story that is more punishing than pleasurable.
Despite a title that sounds like it could be a reboot of Jason Statham’s wild ‘n wooly “Transporter” series, “Drive My Car,” the Japanese Oscar entry for best international feature and now playing in theatres, is not an action film. It is a slow, meditative film about self-acceptance and regret whose only action comes in the form of emotional reckoning and keenly observed human behavior.
Based on a short story by Murakami Haruki, the three-hour “Drive My Car” centers on Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an actor-director grieving the sudden passing of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima). Even though he walked in on his wife and her lover shortly before she died, he is devastated by her death. After a two-year break from work, during which he tried to piece his life back together, he accepts a job directing a production of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” at a theater festival in Hiroshima.
He drives solo to Hiroshima in his vintage Talladega Red Saab 900 Aero coupe but is told that during his stay he’ll have to have a chauffeur named Misaki Watari (Toko Miura) drive him from place to place. Although his car has been a welcome isolation chamber for him during his bereavement, he reluctantly agrees to allow the 23-year-old woman control of the car.
Meanwhile, at work, Kafuku makes some odd choices. He casts the role of Sonya with an actress who uses Korean sign language and hires a scandal ridden TV star, Koji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) in “Uncle Vanya’s” lead role.
The show’s rehearsals are difficult but outside the theatre, in the Saab, Kafuku and Watari become close, sharing stories about the most troubled aspects of their lives. Ultimately, lessons about moving forward are learned as the unlikely pair get to know one another.
“Drive My Car” is a quiet, introspective, odd-couple movie. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi is unafraid to set his own pace as his characters search for answers to the questions that have rooted themselves in their psyches. It is slow but not listless. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a deeply felt relationship movie that sees two characters working through their personal recoveries to find a path forward in life.
The performances by Nishijima and Miura are understated but as they connect there is an undeniable sense of growth and, by the end of their time together, a sense of freedom from the memories and events that have dented their spirit.
