I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” the documentary “You Can See Everything” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:21)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko to talk about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
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 whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” the extraordinary doc “You Can See Everything” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to wind your watch. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the whale of a tale “Whalefall,” the pulpy and pious “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” and the rock ‘em, sock ‘em action “Street Fighter.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” a new action thriller starring Mahershala Ali now playing in theatres, a devoutly religious hitman attempts to care for his family after his wife suddenly passes away.
CAST: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali, Tramell Tillman, Tiffany Boone, Laith Nakli. Directed by Bassam Tariq.
REVIEW: Oscar winner Mahershala Ali plays Latif, a devout Muslim contract killer torn between his faith, family and the morality of his deadly work when his wife suddenly passes away. “I see her everywhere,” he says. “You take her from me. And you expect me to bow down to you. I thought I was your sword. Now I have to fill her shoes. I’m breaking.”
The soft-spoken ex-military hitman, now solely responsible for their three children, including the youngest, an infant child allergic to baby formula, finds himself distracted from his desperate citywide mission to find a supply of breast milk by a gangster (Laith Nakli) demanding a favor, the disapproving imam (Giancarlo Esposito) who leads his local mosque in Houston and a Charismatic Christian leader (John Cho) who spreads his gospel via violence.
“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” is arthouse action that works because the stakes are high. This isn’t just a story of good and evil; it’s the story of a father trying to feed his innocent baby as his life spins out of control.
At the center of it all is Ali. As Latif, he’s a coiled spring, ready to go at any minute. Capable of great violence, he’s also, by times, warm, grief stricken and even funny. It’s a character of great depth and complexity that affords Ali the opportunity to do top tier work that mixes the sacred with the profane.
It also feels like a faraway echo of a movie that might have been. For a time, Ali and director Bassam Tariq worked on a reboot of “Blade,” the sword wielding Marvel Comics half-vampire, half-human vampire hunter. The project was abandoned after years of development, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Latif, like the superhero, has a dual identity, uses a blade to dispatch his victims and radiates a brooding, quiet intensity. If “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” wasn’t such a great movie, it could easily play like a trailer for a film we may never get to see.
Pulpy and pious, and with, it must be said, some unexpected humour, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” uses its unusual breast milk inciting incident to weave a parable laced with tension, bloodshed, but, most of all, devotion.
Glen Keane brings 43 years of Disney character animation experience to a new film now streaming on Netflix. From “The Little Mermaid’s” Ariel, “Beauty and the Beast’s main character—the Beast, not the Beauty—to the eponymous folks in “Aladdin,” “Pocahontas” and “Tarzan,” he’s the Disney Legend who created some of the most indelible characters of several eras.
This week he turns his eye, as character designer and director, to “Over the Moon,” a fanciful animated musical loosely based on the Chinese legend of Chang’e, starring the voices of Sandra Oh, Phillipa Soo and Ken Jeong.
The action begins in modern China, four years after the passing of Fei Fei’s (Cathy Ang) mother. She’s smart, funny and a romantic who believes in the legend her parents told her about Chang’e (Phillipa Soo), the Moon Goddess who yearns to be reunited with her true love. Fei Fei is still grieving her mother’s loss when her father (John Cho) becomes involved with another woman Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh) and her 8-year-old child, Chin (Robert G. Chiu).
To prove that love is forever and that her father’s affection for Mrs. Zhong is misplaced, Fei Fei concocts a plan. She builds a rocket ship to visit the moon so she can get evidence of Chang’e existence to prove to her father that love burns eternal. Unbeknownst to her Chin stows away on the adventure to the moon that will help her appreciate what she thinks she is missing on Earth.
“Over the Moon” isn’t a Disney picture, but it feels like one thanks to the Keane touch. The familiar tropes, a deceased parent and adventure, are given a zippy new life with colourful, fun animation and some beautiful sequences like the cross cut between the CGI to the more traditional hand drawn animation in the telling of the legend. There are flashier more fluorescent sequences later on, particularly in the vivid and abstract Lunaria scenes, but the use of an organic style of animation to illustrate a time-honored story is the first of many of the film’s good decisions.
Also strong is the voice work. As Fei Fei, Ang is feisty and smart as a self-sufficient youngster on a journey of self-discovery. She is no damsel in distress, just a kid looking to make things right in her world. The supporting cast, like Margaret Cho in a dual role and Ken Jeong as Fei Fei’s sidekick Gobi bring the goods as does Soo, who earned a Tony nomination for her work on Broadway in “Hamilton,” but her work leads to one of the film’s minuses.
Soo is a great singer, and has one of the movie’s show-stoppers, a Broadway-by-way-of-Beyonce tune called “Ultraluminary,” but each of the songs feels tacked on in an effort to sell soundtrack downloads. A mix of show tunes, K-Pop and pop music, with the exception of “Rocket to the Moon” none of the tunes feel necessary.
“Over the Moon” is a beautiful movie that celebrates Chinese culture, tells a story of overcoming grief and has some great animation and while the main story beats feel familiar, the high gloss visuals are unpredictable and consistently interesting.
The actor Ike Barinholtz is best known for playing the dim-witted Morgan Tookers on “The Mindy Project.” What’s less known is that in real life Barinholtz is a news junkie who was inspired to write his new film, “The Oath,” during the first Thanksgiving Dinner following Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral victory.
This Thanksgiving is set against a backdrop of sweeping new legislation that will affect every American. Called the Patriot’s Oath, it’s a document the government expects every red-blooded American to sign as a declaration of their loyalty. One couple, the hot-headed ideologue Chris (Barinholtz) and his unflappable wife Kai (Tiffany Haddish), refuse to sign. As their extended family, including Chris’s sister Alice (Carrie Brownstein), conservative brother Pat (Jon Barinholtz) and his Tomi-Lahren-Lite girlfriend Abbie (Meredith Hagner), convene just days before the Loyalty Pledge signing deadline, the situation spirals out of control. Two officers from the Citizen’s Protection Unit (John Cho and Billy Magnussen) show up at Chris and Kai’s front door, armed with questions, toxic masculinity and a disregard for the law.
“The Oath” is part political satire, part home invasion movie. Pitched just a hair under hysterical, it’s a timely dark comedy that seeks to shine a light on the political chasm that divides the left and right wings. Under some well-crafted jokes bubbles a righteous rage worthy of Alex Jones if he leaned left rather than alt-right. Barinholtz uses a sledgehammer to explore the basis of belief, the very thing that can either bring us together or, more often than not, tear us apart. Subtle it is not.
“The Oath” doesn’t dig much deeper than that, however. It skims the surface of how divisive politics drives wedges between friends and family but tends to lean toward broad comedy to make its point rather than insight.
We all do internet searches everyday but a new film ups the stakes. “Searching” is a high tech missing person’s story.
We first meet dad David (John Cho), mother Pam (Sara Sohn) and daughter Margot (Michelle La) through a cleverly edited montage of their on-line activity. From e-mails and YouTube videos to log-ins and Facebook pages, we learn about their lives including Pam’s cancer diagnosis. The tight family is torn apart by Pam’s illness, with 16-year-old Margot retreating pulling away from her father until one night when she disappears without a trace after a study group meeting. When she fails to answer any of David’s texts he calls the police. Working with Detective Vick (Debra Messing) he sifts through Margot’s online life in a desperate search for clues. The deeper his cyber investigation goes the more twists appear. “I didn’t know my daughter,” he says.
From Google Maps and app controlled surveillance cameras to FaceTime and Instagram, the story is told through a series of browser windows via laptops and iPhones, any device with a screen. It sounds like it will sterile, like an afternoon of web surfing with higher stakes, but director Aneesh Chaganty humanizes the story. Technology tells the tale but the beating heart of the narrative is David’s determination to find his daughter. The film’s style is very specific and very modern but the theme of connection between parents and children is universal.
“Searching” feels like high tech Hitchcock as David uncovers the details of his daughter’s life. The more browsers, the more suspense. Chaganty uses our familiarity with these sites—many of us go to them everyday—to ground the story in reality and underline the alienating quality of social media that fails to fill the hole left by loneliness and grief. Also, who would have thought a Norton antivirus reminder that Pam’s account hasn’t been scanned in 694 days could take on such poignancy?
We’ve seen these screen-shot movies before—2014’s “Unfriended” comes to mind—but none have had the emotional arc of “Searching.” It’s a little too conventional in its climax and conclusion but John Cho’s terrific performance and some genuine thrills elevate the story past its visual gimmick.
