Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to reanimate the dead. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers” and the hockey drama “Youngblood.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Youngblood,” a reimagining of the 1986 Rob Lowe hockey drama now playing in theatres, Ashton James stars as a Black junior hockey player in Hamilton, Ontario, who dreams of getting drafted into the NHL.
CAST: Ashton James, Blair Underwood, Shawn Doyle, Alexandra McDonald, Oluniké Adeliyi, Henri Richer-Picard, Emidio Lopes, Donald MacLean Jr., Tamara Podemski, Joris Jarsky, Matt Wells, Keris Hope Hill, Jonathan Valvano, Ty Neckar, Dylan Hawco, Evan Buliung. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: In good sports movies the sport—baseball, basketball, hockey, ping pong, whatever—isn’t just a game, it’s a vehicle for social comment. “Youngblood” reinvents the original film to become a study of the difficulties faced by Black athletes, told with high octane hockey sequences as a backdrop.
A companion piece to director Hubert Davis’s 2022 documentary “Black Ice,” winner of TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary, “Youngblood” casts Ashton James as Dean Youngblood, a young, hotheaded defenseman, still stinging from the death of his mother. His promising career in Detroit was cut when he handed a year’s suspension for fighting and lost his scholarship. Now he’s looking to get back on the ice.
When he gets a second chance, a tryout for the Hamilton, Ontario Mustangs, it’s not his best shot, it might be his only shot at realizing his National Hockley League dreams.
With stern father and mentor Blane’s (Blair Underwood) teachings ringing in his head, Dean arrives thinking the cards are stacked against him. If he is to succeed, he must stomach strict coach Murray’s (Shawn Doyle) who barely gives him ice time and hazing from his new teammates as he learns there is no “I” in team. “It’s the Mustangs,” he’s told, “not the Youngbloods.”
The original film has been given an overhaul. Gone are most of the team’s hockey hijinks, the predatory house mother and star Rob Lowe’s Brat Pack vibe. Instead, perhaps inspired by late co-screenwriter Charles Officer’s time spent as a pro hockey player, the new film digs deeper, examining race, violence and toxicity in hockey, while keeping the puck on the ice with exciting game sequences.
As the title character, Ashton James brings passion for the game tempered by the hurt Dean feels by being overlooked because of the color of his skin and the loss of his mother (Oluniké Adeliyi), who had been a leveling force in his life. It’s nice, authentic work that allows James to hold the film’s center opposite older, more experienced actors.
“Youngblood” occasionally falls prey to platitudes—”Lord knows we all have our moments,” says inspirational house mother Ms. McGill (Tamara Podemski), “It’s what we do next that matters.”—but nice performances, combined with cool hockey footage, courtesy of Stuart James Cameron’s cinematography, bring Dean’s struggles, on and off the ice, to vivid life.
Join me for a special Q&A of the dystopian drama “The Well” with Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis and cast at Cineplex Yonge-Dundas this weekend! Tickets are on sale NOW.
Friday, January 23 · 7pm · SOLD OUT
Saturday, January 24 · 6:45pm
In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight over the precious remaining resources, a young woman’s loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man who discovers her family has a secret supply of freshwater.
(Photo courtesy of @lam.agudelo)
SYNOPSIS: In “The Well,” a new dystopian drama now playing in theatres, survivors of an environmental collapse come into conflict over natural recourses, including a hidden supply of fresh water. “To drink from the waters of oblivion,” days Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy, “is to loose the ties of the past.”
CAST: Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Joanne Boland, Arnold Pinnock, Sheila McCarthy, Idrissa Sanogo. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: Although set in the future, “The Well” resonates with timely themes of ecological disaster, isolationism and polarization.
Set in a world where water is like liquid gold, “The Well” takes place post-apocalypse, with most of the world’s H₂O supply infected with a deadly virus. Into this grim situation come Elisha (Joanne Boland), Paul (Arnold Pinnock) and daughter Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon), a tight family unit living in an isolated home with access to a safe supply of water.
Things are good until Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo), a young man who claims to be a long-lost family member, turns up bringing with him misgivings that infects the family as they decide whether he is to be trusted or not.
When the family well, their sole source of clean water, develops a crack in its filter, Sarah and Jamie are sent off in search of a replacement which leads them to a cult compound run by Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy).
“The Well” uses the backdrop of a poisoned water supply to study ethical dilemmas and what happens when trust, even inside one’s family, is a rare commodity.
Director Hubert Davis, working from a screenplay by Michael Capellupo and Kathleen Hepburn, looks to low key dystopian films like “The Road” and “The Quiet Earth” for inspiration rather than high-octane spectacles like “The Hunger Games” or the “Mad Max” films. “The Well” is an intimate film, focusing on the characters and their interactions in a troubled world with new societal rules.
Key to the success of the film is Pierre-Dixon. It is Sarah’s coming-of-age story, coupled with her instinct for survival, that propels the action. Pierre-Dixon finds a balance between the character’s disillusionment with the world and her desire to do the right thing. That internal battle gives the Sarah emotional weight that brings with it a great deal of poignancy.
“The Well” doesn’t tread much new ground in terms of dystopian storytelling, but does create compelling characters, like Sarah and Sheila McCarthy’s menacing survivalist, while shining a light on the human side of a societal breakdown.
Like most great sports documentaries “Giants of Africa” isn’t about really about the game. Sure much of the film happens on the basketball court but this isn’t about learning to do layups or a final, climatic game, it’s about universal themes of teamwork, survival and empowerment.
Front and centre in Hubert Davis’ documentary is Masai Ujiri, the charismatic Toronto Raptors general manager who founded the Giants of Africa, a program that educates and enriches the lives of underprivileged African youth through basketball.
The Zaria, Nigeria born former player uses basketball to inspire and to bring hope to places where it is often in short supply. In Nigeria he passionately lectures the players about the country and their need to help chance their culture.
“You have to grow up and you have to be better,” he says. “You have to put it in your heart that you have to be a good person and you have to be better. You have to make a difference in this country. We all have to make a difference.
“Go out and make a difference in your life. Make a difference in other people’s lives.”
It’s a pep speech with huge ramifications. Ujiri knows the power of words and uses them to inspire on and off the court.
Davis also gives voice to the players. Through them we learn their personal histories, stories of poverty, abuse and civil war, and gain context as to how the Giants of Africa program can help change their lives.
“Giants of Africa” is a moving, inspirational documentary about change, about how dreams can improve lives and maybe even countries. “In those kids I see myself,” says Ujiri, “and I think this is a little window of opportunity to help them find themselves.”
