Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to tie a bowtie! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the Pharrell Williams Lego music doc “Piece by Piece,” the crime thriller “Woman of the Hour” and the origin story “The Apprentice.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “The Apprentice,” the controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn, now playing in theatres, paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.”
CAST: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Gabriel Sherman. Directed by Ali Abbasi.
REVIEW: In 1972 photographer Robert Frank was given carte blanch to follo and film The Rolling Stones on their American tour. The result was “Cocksucker Blues,” a film deemed unleasable by the band, but not because of the overwhelming amount of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll on display. Rumor has it the band banned the film because Frank unblinkingly showed the tedium of life on the road and revealed the real lives of the band members.
It’s hardly the high glam life that would be expected from the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” although these are the scenes that humanize the group and put a pinprick in the bubble of fame that surrounded the Stones in their glory days.
Director Jim Jarmusch said, “It makes you think that being a rock star is one of the last things you’d ever want to do.”
I mention all this because I think there is a correlation between “Cocksucker Blues” and “The Apprentice.” The Trump campaign unsuccessfully worked to suppress this film, and I would guess—and that’s all this is—they wanted it shelved not because of the harder edged portrait of Trump in the film’s second half, which falls in line with the candidate’s strongman image, but because of the softer, more humanist tone of the first hour.
When we first meet Trump (Sebastian Stan) he’s a desperate man, going door-to-door in his father’s buildings to collect rents from tenants who clearly loathe him, a lawsuit looms that could potentially bankrupt the Trump family and his brother Freddy is a drunk who is slowly losing his battle with the bottle.
Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer Trump affectionately calls “evil incarnate.” The prosecutor in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of suspected communists, he had a fearsome take-no-prisoners reputation. The closeted lawyer took Trump under his wing, greasing the wheels for him socially and professionally in 1970s New York City.
“You’re the client,” says Cohn, “but you work for me. You do what I say, when I say.”
The ambitious Trump begins as a lump of clay but is soon molded into an effigy of Roy Cohn, merciless in business and in life.
“The Apprentice” is several things. It’s the making of a monster. It’s a story of unchecked ambition. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s a period piece of New York City in the go-go 1980s.
Mostly though, it’s an entertaining character study of one of the world’s most famous people that comes with the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good? Stan, who (mostly) avoids doing an “SNL” style Trump caricature. In the last hour, when he has absorbed Cohn’s lessons and the student has surpassed the master, he’s recognizably Trump.
Before that, he is more fully rounded as a character. There are flashes of compassion when he interacts with Freddy, frustration at being under his father’s thumb and vulnerability. When he becomes the blustery Trump we’re more familiar with, it becomes less interesting, but still avoids imitation.
As Cohn, Strong is serpentine, to the point of predatorially flicking his tongue. Eyelids at half mast, he exudes maximum confidence in his ability to control every situation. When the tide turns for him, Strong manages to create empathy for a character who never had any in real life. When he complains to Trump that “he’s lost the last trace of decency you ever had,” the words hit hard.
The bad? While Maria Bakalova, who plays Trump’s first wife Ivana, is credible in the role, it feels a bit cheeky to cast her, given her headlining encounter with Trump associate Rudy Giuliani in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”
The ugly? The casual venality on display. It’s the kind that powerful people use to intimidate and control the people in their lives, and it is gruesome. It’s an ugly glimpse into the halls of power where cold-blooded mercenaries like Cohn will do anything to win.
There’s also a graphic and cruel scene of sexual assault, unflinchingly captured by director Ali Abbasi’s camera.
Donald Trump dismisses “The Apprentice” as “pure fiction” and for sure it isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth. An opening title card acknowledges that, announcing that “some events have been fictionalized for dramatic effect,” but it does capture the tenor of the times and the dynamic between Trump and Cohn. It’s an origin story, and while you may not learn anything new, it paints a potent picture of pure ambition run amok.
I’ll be reviewing three movies this week, everything from Lego musician’s life story and a horrifying game show guest to an origin story of a president of the United States.
In “Piece by Piece,” the life of musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, fashion designer and cultural icon Pharrell Williams, told through the lens of LEGO animation.
In “Woman of the Hour,” a new stranger-than-fiction true crime story directed by and starting Anna Kendrick, and now playing in theatres, a single woman looking for a suitor on a hit 1970s TV show, chooses charming bachelor Rodney Alcala, unaware that, behind the man’s gentle facade, he hides a deadly secret.
“The Apprentice,” the controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn, now playing in theatres, paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.”
I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Pauline Chan to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at the return of two highly anticipated series, “Succession” and ” Yellowjackets” on HBO and Crave, and, in theatres, the bloodthirsty ballet of “John Wick” Chapter 4.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:58)
I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week I have a look at Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway, the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 37:37)
I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres. Today we talk about Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway, the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile,” the coming of age story “Armageddon Time” and the drama “The Swearing Jar.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including Harry Styles in “My Policeman,” the Jennifer Lawrence drama “Causeway, the music doc “The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile,” the coming of age story “Armageddon Time” and the drama “The Swearing Jar.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Another semi-autobiographical movie adds itself to the ever-growing list of films about filmmakers. Recently movies like “Belfast” and “The Fablemans,” lovingly detailed the young lives of Kenneth Branagh and Steven Spielberg. Now, “Armageddon Time,” starring Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong, and now playing in theatres, treads similar ground, as an edgy Reagan-era period piece about director James Grey’s early life.
Set in Queens, New York, the story takes place over two months in the run-up to Reagan’s election in 1980. Red-headed sixth-grader Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), is an artistically inclined kid, who lives with his second-generation Jewish American parents, Ester and Irving (Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong). His older brother Ted (Ryan Sell), now studying at private school, is an over-achiever, whose example has set the bar very high for the head-in-the-clouds Paul.
Only his doting grandfather Aaron (Anthony Hopkins) seems to understand him, and support his artistic ambitions. “You can be an artist if you want to be,” Aaron says. “Nothing’s going to stop you.”
At school his stuffy teacher Mr. Turkletaub (Andrew Polk) doesn’t appreciate a caricature Paul draws of him and punishes him, along with African-American classmate Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb), a more worldly youngster, who dreams of being an astronaut. The two dreamers hit it off, forming a friendship that teaches Paul difficult lessons about the nature of friendship and family.
“Armageddon Time” draws its name from a Ronald Reagan news interview, seen in the film, where the former “Bedtime for Bonzo” star warned that, unless he is elected to straighten the world out, “We might be the generation that sees Armageddon.”
On a more direct level, the titular Armageddon refers to the battle Paul wages between his good intentions and evil deeds. The impulsive sixth-grader is torn between Ester and Irving’s desire for him to excel at anything, it seems, except for the thing he loves most, his grandfather’s advice to always be a mensch and his friendship with Johnny, and it pushes him to act out, without regard for the consequences.
It is in that push-and-pull that Paul makes the mistakes that will shape the film’s study of race and class, and inform his relationships and, presumably, his future.
The melancholy movie finds its drama within that push-and-pull. At the start Paul and Johnny are goofy troublemakers, bonded by a shared enjoyment of walking their own path, but as their stories become intertwined, their innocence is soon stripped away as the disparity of their life situations is highlighted. Both young actors bring a palpable sense of confusion, disappointment and eventually resignation, to their roles. It is remarkable work from each, performances that shine a harsh light on adolescence, rather than the usual coming-of-age wistful glimmer.
“Armageddon Time” features predictably interesting work from the entire cast, who come together in an ensemble that often feels like a real, dysfunctional family. There is also a subtle showstopper of a scene between Hopkins and Repeta that packs an emotional punch by what it doesn’t say, rather than what it does, but director Grey’s biggest achievement may be the uncompromising, unsentimental and uncomfortable approach to his own coming-of-age story.
Richard and “CP24 Breakfast” host Pooja Handa have a look at some special streaming opportunities and television shows to watch over the weekend including the nature documentary series “Tiny World” on Apple TV+, the Aaron Sorkin written and directed drama “The Trail of the Chicago 7,” and Rihanna’s music and fashion hybrid “Savage “X” Fenty Show Vol. 2″ on Amazon Prime Video.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
