I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:47)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the new releases in theatres including the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Andrew Pinsent to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
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 the bed. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the web slinging antics of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the R-rated comedy “I Want Your Sex” and the android dreams of “Sheep in the Box.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “I Want Your Sex,” a new comedy thriller starring Olivia Wilde and now playing in theatres, a naïve young man becomes an intern and muse to a provocative conceptual artist.
CAST: Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, Roxane Mesquida, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs. Directed by Gregg Araki.
REVIEW: Christopher Nolan may be the bold face name of the cinema summer, but, in a lower-case way, Olivia Wilde is giving him a run for this money. A potential Oscar nominee for both director and star of “The Invite,” she hands in another memorable performance in Gregg Araki’s erotic comedy “I Want Your Sex.”
The film opens with a nod to “Sunset Boulevard.” A woman floats face down in the pool of an opulent mansion.
But she is no Joe Gillis, or Norma Desmond for that matter. She’s Erika Tracy (Wilde), world famous neo-pop artist and self-described “outlaw against a puritanical world.” In other words, she’s a conceptual artist whose work surveys various fetishes and straight up kinky behavior.
A job opening for an intern in the weeks leading up to her next big gallery show brings fresh-faced art student Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) into her orbit. He’s broke—his roommate Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) has been paying their rent—trapped in a deeply unsatisfying relationship with disinterested med student Minerva (Charli XCX), and looking for new adventures.
Which is exactly what he finds with his “work” with Erika as his intern role shifts from joe jobs like chewing endless wads of gum for an art piece to sexual muse to something more explicit. “The more I hung out with Erika,” he says, “the more under her control I became.”
As Erika makes Elliot her, “sexual astronaut exploring the outer reaches of experience,” he soon comes to learns to never play it safe.
Gregg Araki’s first film since 2014’s “White Bird in a Blizzard,” “I Want Your Sex” isn’t as subversive as his other works, but his frisky indie edge is still very much in play. A lighthearted rejection of repression, particularly sexual, it embraces the Brat doctrine (although Charli XCX, the Queen of Brat, is the film’s tamest character) of embracing the messiness of life.
The sharp script, co-written by Araki and Karley Sciortino, allows Hoffman’s laidback way with a line to shine. When asked what the difference between Erika’s work and porn is, his response—“Lighting, context.”—is perfect and deadpan hilarious.
His commitment to the role is obvious, from the sexual vulnerability to his sincerity, but it’s Wilde’s performance that rules. She’s fearless physically and steals every scene with a charismatic presence and a natural-yet-heightened line delivery.
“I Want Your Sex” is a peep show that provides a satirical look at the art world, and attitudes about sex and desire, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well without the funny, dedicated performances from the leads.
SYNOPSIS: A mix of classic stunts and new, never-before-seen deeds of derring-do, “Jackass: Best and Last” is a compilation of idiotic behaviour that will puzzle and please audiences in equal measure.
CAST: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England, and Danger Ehren, Poopies, Zach Holmes, Jasper Dolphin, Rachel Wolfson. Directed by Jeff Tremaine.
REVIEW: Depending on your point of view, “Jackass: Best and Last” is either a masochistic pageant passing as entertainment or, as head prankster Johnny Knoxville says, “a celebration of friendship and stupidity.”
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
A mix of footage from the last twenty-five years of “Jackass” absurdity, plus new, never-before-seen pranks and interviews with the cast, the movie is a celebration of punishment in the name of fun.
Longtime fans will remember the wild Brad Pitt’s Abduction and the late Ryan Dunn’s Butt X-Ray gag, which are intercut with new stunts like Poopies’ Penis Shock Collar Balance Beam and the Steve-O’s Peanut Butter Robot Prostrate Exam. Guest star Paul Walter Hauser does not understate the case when he calls it, “Make-A-Wish if it was punishment.”
Not for the faint of heart, it’s a cavalcade of maltreatment and bad decisions that comes across as a love letter to a quarter century of “Jackass” and their unique brand of idiotic cabaret.
Knoxville and Company, though hobbled by age and infirmity, are as enthusiastic today as they were in the early 2000s to shove things in orifices where they don’t belong and risk life and disease in service of their own brand of absurdity. You have to admire the enthusiasm, even if some of the material, like the game of Colonoscopy Prep Twister, is some of the grossest stuff ever committed to film.
Audiences, I think, love the nasty stuff in the same way they like horror movies. Each scare delivers a safe jolt of dopamine and “Jackass” gives viewers that same rush without requiring them to take a kick to the groin.
A movie for people who don’t have enough nonsense in their lives, it’s like watching ninety minutes of bloopers and outtakes. There’s no story, no character arcs, just abuse and camaraderie.
But it is that sense of kinship that elevates “Jackass: Best and Last” from a gleeful Grand Guignol style stunt movie to a portrait of misfits who found a niche and a de facto family. It would almost be sweet if they didn’t spend so much of the runtime covered in feces.
With the release of “Jackass: Best and Last” the anarchic franchise goes the way of dial-up modems and phonebooks. As the curtain falls (allegedly for the final time) there is no epiphany, no lessons learned, just dangerous stunts, hysterical reactions and pure escapism. It’s slapstick that takes the idea that it’s always funny when someone falls and amps it up to eleven.
The very definition of a film that won’t be for everyone, it will leave fans with a sense of nostalgia but may leave non-fans feeling like cast member Ryan Dunn, who said, “I’m really questioning myself right now,” as he prepared to shove a toy car where the sun don’t shine.
SYNOPSIS: Set in 1984, “The Luckiest Man in America,” a new drama now playing in theatres, stars Paul Walter Hauser as Michael Larson, an unemployed ice cream truck driver who was accused of cheating, to the tune of $110,237, by the producers of the game show “Press Your Luck.”
CAST: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Shamier Anderson, Brian Geraghty, Patti Harrison, Haley Bennett, Damian Young, Lilli Kay, James Wolk, Shaunette Renée Wilson, David Rysdahl, Ricky Russert, David Strathairn, Johnny Knoxville, and Maisie Williams. Directed and co-written by Samir Oliveros.
REVIEW: Loosely based on real life events, “The Luckiest Man in America” is a slight story with a kitschy 1980s sheen.
A thriller set against the backdrop of “Press Your Luck,” “the most Vegas game on television,” the action hinges on Paul Walter Hauser and his itchy performance as Michael Larson. “He’s got nerves of steel, this guy,” says showrunner Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn) as Larson’s jackpot grows. Thing is, he’s more desperate than confident. “All I want to do is have breakfast with my family,” he says, “but the only way I can do that is if I’m on the television set. Tune in on the right time, on the right day.”
Show host Peter Tomarken (Walton Goggins) calls Larson “an ordinary man from Ohio,” but there’s more to him than meets the eye. Estranged from his family, Larson figures out how to game the system by memorizing the so-called “random” patterns on the game board. As the prize money grows Larson sees a way out of his financial hole and a way back into his family’s embrace.
But, as the jackpot swells, so do suspicions about his “lucky” streak.
As we learn more about Larson, director Samir Oliveros structures the story as a thriller, carefully doling out info and clues. But Hauser’s character study is the film’s most interesting aspect. Although “The Luckiest Man in America” smooths down some of Larson’s real-life edges, he’s still not particularly likeable. Instead, he’s a delusional dreamer, a guy who has messed up his life and found a far-fetched way to fix things.
Hauser gives him layers. He’s cocky and confident, desperate and determined. Most of all, he’s in over his head. When Carruthers accuses him of memorizing the board, Larson sheepishly replies, “Is that cheating?” He is, as “Press Your Luck” host Tomarken says, “dumbly great,” a guy who stumbles into his fifteen minutes of fame. Hauser embraces Larson’s brokenness, his heartbreak and awkwardness, but adds in a dollop of optimism to add a layer of emotional complexity. He’s a cypher, but an interesting one.
“The Luckiest Man in America” succeeds because of Hauser and the strong supporting cast. Oliveros vividly fashions the flash and trash of the game show set, paying careful attention to the period details, to create a slightly surreal backdrop for this human story of dreams, hope and greed.
“Jackass,” the shock value stunt show that began on MTV in 2000 before branching out to movies, should never have lasted this long. The self-destructive punishment inflicted on the original cast should have broken their bodies, minds and spirits by now, and yet twenty-two years of jackassery continues this weekend. Those purveyors of puerile pratfalls, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and Wee Man, along with a new cast of daredevils, careen back into theatres with more idiotic and dangerous stunts to make you say, “Oh, that must hurt.”
For some, the title “Jackass Forever” may seem like a threat. A promise to further erode the fabric of civilization by banging these extreme stunt movies out until Knoxville and Company have collectively broken every bone in their respective bodies to the delight of their bloodthirsty fans.
For others it’ll be like hanging out with old friends. Old friends who put one another in constant danger, but old friends nonetheless.
Camaraderie is at the core of the “Jackass Forever.” The stunts are dangerous, often gross and most definitely childish, but there is something that bonds the cast other than a Wile E. Coyote-style tolerance for pain. They’re pals who do stupid things and there is something endearing about the way they push the boundaries of safety and good taste, yukking it up all the while.
I think the appeal of “Jackass” is kind of like the appeal of true crime. You get a dopamine rush when terrible things happen, but somehow comforted that they’re happening to someone else.
It’s all about vicarious thrills.
Like the folks who attended the Roman Coliseum for the vicarious thrill of watching public spectacles involving man and beast, audiences will likely pay good money to watch what maybe the most jackassy of all the “Jackass” spin offs. Giggle as Steve-O gets assaulted, below the belt, by a swarm of bees. What’s it like to lick a taser? Step right up! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Folks, watch the Flight of Icarus! See a winged Knoxville get shot out of a canon!
It’s very silly, often cringeworthy but as guest star Eric Andre says, “This ain’t a Mensa convention.” Instead, it is an exploration of the art of the wedgie and other Theatre of Cruelty pranks.
I would love to report that no Knoxvilles were harmed during the making of this movie but that isn’t the case. He takes on a bull and loses, breaking his wrist, some ribs and suffering a traumatic brain injury but the show goes on.
The audience for “Jackass Forever” already knows what to expect. Nudity. Puke. Scorpion Botox. Unnatural Acts, Close-Up Nudity and Humiliation. For the most part they’ll get what they paid for. It’s a chaotic, funny, plotless mix of friendship and don’t-try-this-at-home stunts that is complete fan service for folks who know that it is never not funny to see someone get kicked in the testicles.
For the uninitiated, you have been warned.
