I join NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the wick-ed action of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the dramedy “The Lost King” with Sally Hawkins and the romantic drama “You Can Live Forever.”
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to talk about the wick-ed action of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the addiction drama “A Good Person” with Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh, the dramedy “The Lost King” with Sally Hawkins and the romantic drama “You Can Live Forever.”
I sit in with CKTB morning show guest host Stephanie Vivier to have a look at the wick-ed action of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the addiction drama “A Good Person” with Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh, the dramedy “The Lost King” with Sally Hawkins and the romantic drama “You Can Live Forever.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the wick-ed action of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the addiction drama “A Good Person” with Morgan Freeman and Florence Pugh, the dramedy “The Lost King” with Sally Hawkins and the romantic drama “You Can Live Forever.”
“You Can Live Forever,” a new queer romance set against the backdrop of a Jehovah’s Witness community, is a restrained, poignant look at teenage love.
Set in the early 1990s, the story focusses on transplanted Thunder Bay teenager Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll). She’s a typical teen of the time, with a taste for getting high, movies, Siouxie and the Banshees T-shirts and playing video games. She’s also gay, but hasn’t told anyone in her family.
Following her father’s sudden heart attack and her distraught mother’s subsequent nervous breakdown, she’s sent to live with her Aunt Beth (Liane Balaban) and Uncle Jean-Francois (Antoine Yared) at a Jehovah’s Witness community in Quebec’s Saguenay region.
Suffering claustrophobia within the tightly-knit community, Jamie feels repressed, like an outsider at the Kingdom Hall meetings she is forced to attend—”What am I supposed to do?” she asks. “Nobody wants me here.”—until she meets Marike (June Laporte).
There are several paths the low-key, deliberately-paced “You Can Live Forever” could have walked, but it chooses warmth and empathy over everything else. Co-directors Sarah Watts—who grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness community—and Mark Slutsky, take pains to paint a portrait of life inside the religious community, but from a thoughtful, not judgemental point of view. Ditto the relationship at the center of the movie. Their bond is taken seriously, not simply a high school fling.
It is not a complicated story but it is a delicate one, handled respectfully by Watts and Slutsky, who also wrote the script. The community’s beliefs are recognised in a story that sees Jamie disagree with her family’s dogmas, but still empathize with them as people. It is a tricky balance, and the way Jamie accepts Marike’s religious background is a tangible sign of the deep affection she has for her.
“You Can Live Forever” pays careful attention to the characters to avoid falling into stereotypes or hitting inauthentic notes. It is a little too methodical in its approach, but the emotional impact of this story of star-crossed lovers is hard to deny.
Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to cast a spell! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the wick-ed action of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the dramedy “The Lost King” with Sally Hawkins and the romantic drama “You Can Live Forever.”