I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the dark comedy “The Christophers,” the east coast crime drama “Little Lorraine,” the documentary “Lorne” and the Montreal coming-of-age “Mile End Kicks.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 12:11)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Scott Hirsch to talk about the recently announced “Top Gun 3” and new releases in theatres, including the dark comedy “The Christophers,” the east coast crime drama “Little Lorraine,” the documentary “Lorne” and the Montreal coming-of-age “Mile End Kicks.”
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 dark comedy “The Christophers,” the east coast crime drama “Little Lorraine” and the Montreal coming-of-age “Mile End Kicks.”
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 your bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the dark comedy “The Christophers,” the east coast crime drama “Little Lorraine” and the Montreal coming-of-age “Mile End Kicks.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” to talk about hoiw big album drops may be related to traffic accidents, the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, a head banging prime minister and I review the east coast crime drama “Little Lorraine” and suggest some Cape Breton drinks to go along with the movie.
Listen to the entertainment news HERE!
Listen to Booze & Reviews HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Little Lorraine,” a new true crime drama starring Stephen Amell, Sean Astin, J Balvin and Stephen McHattie, a seaside fishing village in Nova Scotia becomes the center of an international cocaine smuggling ring in the 1980s.
CAST: Stephen Amell, Sean Astin, J Balvin, Matt Walsh, Rhys Darby, Stephen McHattie, Steve Lund, Sugar Lyn Beard, Hugh Thompson, Mike Dopud, Kaelen Ohm, Joshua Close, Auden Thornton, Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, Mark A. Owen, Dax Ravina, Luis Javier, David Mortimer. Directed by Andy Hines.
REVIEW: Inspired by true events, “Little Lorraine” is a crime story set amid Cape Breton’s post-coal mining difficulties, that authentically depicts how far desperate people will go to support their families.
As the movie begins, hard times have come to Cape Breton’s tight-knit blue-collar community Little Lorraine. A faltering fishing industry coupled with a coal mine explosion that killed ten men and led to the closure of the local mine has left many of the community’s 60 inhabitants unemployed, desperate for work.
To keep food on the table former miner Jimmy (Stephen Amell) and two locals, Tommy (Joshua Close) and Jake (Steve Lund), accept an offer of good-paying jobs on a lobster boat run by Jimmy’s shady great-uncle Huey (Stephen McHattie).
Unfortunately, the honest work is anything but.
Turns out Huey’s boat and the secluded town are part of a global cocaine smuggling ring, with Jimmy, Tommy, and Jake unknowingly moving the drugs. The operation distributes cocaine via funeral homes, hiding it in coffins.
Faced with the choice of breaking the law to feed their families, Jimmy and his friends debate what to do as an Interpol agent, played by Colombian musician J Balvin, closes in.
Rich in atmosphere, “Little Lorraine” paints a vivid picture of a town and its people plunged into crisis.
Urgent and realistic, it succeeds because isn’t just about the crime, it’s about the people.
There’s loads of suspense, but director Andy Hines (who co-wrote the script with Adam Baldwin) makes sure that the cocaine smuggling takes a backseat to the effect of Uncle Huey’s scheme rather than the scheme itself.
As Jimmny, Amell leaves behind the high gloss of his best-known role as the crime fighting Green Arrow on the CW superhero series “Arrow” to find a welcome grittiness that serves the everyman character and the story. A man roiled by guilt, his self-destructiveness cuts through his stoicism to reveal the moral dilemma at the heart of the film.
As good as Amell is in the movie, it’s McHattie who steals scenes. A charismatic rogue, he drips menace through the malevolent smile on his face.
“Little Lorraine” is a stranger-than-fiction exploration of economic desperation, loyalty and moral dilemmas that finds the humanity in the situation without ever romanticizing or sensationalizing it.
