I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the new hockey drama “Youngblood,” Rachel Weisz’s new limited Netflix series “Vladimir” and, in theatres, the return of Tommy Shelby in “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 38:18)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Todd Battis to talk about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers,” the hockey drama “Youngblood” and the teen drama “Sweetness.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to reanimate the dead. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the monstrous and messy “The Bride!,” PIxar’s “Hoppers” and the hockey drama “Youngblood.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Youngblood,” a reimagining of the 1986 Rob Lowe hockey drama now playing in theatres, Ashton James stars as a Black junior hockey player in Hamilton, Ontario, who dreams of getting drafted into the NHL.
CAST: Ashton James, Blair Underwood, Shawn Doyle, Alexandra McDonald, Oluniké Adeliyi, Henri Richer-Picard, Emidio Lopes, Donald MacLean Jr., Tamara Podemski, Joris Jarsky, Matt Wells, Keris Hope Hill, Jonathan Valvano, Ty Neckar, Dylan Hawco, Evan Buliung. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: In good sports movies the sport—baseball, basketball, hockey, ping pong, whatever—isn’t just a game, it’s a vehicle for social comment. “Youngblood” reinvents the original film to become a study of the difficulties faced by Black athletes, told with high octane hockey sequences as a backdrop.
A companion piece to director Hubert Davis’s 2022 documentary “Black Ice,” winner of TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary, “Youngblood” casts Ashton James as Dean Youngblood, a young, hotheaded defenseman, still stinging from the death of his mother. His promising career in Detroit was cut when he handed a year’s suspension for fighting and lost his scholarship. Now he’s looking to get back on the ice.
When he gets a second chance, a tryout for the Hamilton, Ontario Mustangs, it’s not his best shot, it might be his only shot at realizing his National Hockley League dreams.
With stern father and mentor Blane’s (Blair Underwood) teachings ringing in his head, Dean arrives thinking the cards are stacked against him. If he is to succeed, he must stomach strict coach Murray’s (Shawn Doyle) who barely gives him ice time and hazing from his new teammates as he learns there is no “I” in team. “It’s the Mustangs,” he’s told, “not the Youngbloods.”
The original film has been given an overhaul. Gone are most of the team’s hockey hijinks, the predatory house mother and star Rob Lowe’s Brat Pack vibe. Instead, perhaps inspired by late co-screenwriter Charles Officer’s time spent as a pro hockey player, the new film digs deeper, examining race, violence and toxicity in hockey, while keeping the puck on the ice with exciting game sequences.
As the title character, Ashton James brings passion for the game tempered by the hurt Dean feels by being overlooked because of the color of his skin and the loss of his mother (Oluniké Adeliyi), who had been a leveling force in his life. It’s nice, authentic work that allows James to hold the film’s center opposite older, more experienced actors.
“Youngblood” occasionally falls prey to platitudes—”Lord knows we all have our moments,” says inspirational house mother Ms. McGill (Tamara Podemski), “It’s what we do next that matters.”—but nice performances, combined with cool hockey footage, courtesy of Stuart James Cameron’s cinematography, bring Dean’s struggles, on and off the ice, to vivid life.
SYNOPSIS: In “Out Come the Wolves,” a new survival drama now playing in select theatres and day-and-date on VOD/Digital, Sophie (Missy Peregrym) chooses a hunting trip at a remote cabin in the woods, to introduce her childhood best friend Kyle (Joris Jarsky) to fiancé Nolan (Damon Runyan). The idea is to for Kyle to teach Nolan how to hunt for an article he’s writing, but jealous tension hangs in the air. When the two men are ambushed by a ferocious wolf pack, Sophie must rely on her hunting prowess to come to the rescue.
CAST: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan. Directed by Adam MacDonald.
REVIEW: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Well, in “Out Comes the Wolves,” Sophie, Kyle and Nolan are, but the biggest threat isn’t the wolves. This a survival film, but the animals, despite their lupine snarls, fierce presence and taste for humans, are symbolic predators.
The real threat here is human nature. The specter of jealousy hangs over this trio’s interactions like a shroud—“He’s not the one for you,” Kyle says about Nolan—infecting their behavior, leading to tragedy.
That’s the metaphorical big, bad wolf.
The actual wolves provide the bite, quite literally, but “Out Come the Wolves” works best when it concentrates on the interpersonal dynamics. When Kyle reminds Sophie they once made a deal to marry if they weren’t otherwise engaged by age forty, she snorts, “Weren’t we, like twelve?” not realizing that, for him, it was more than just a childhood joke. It opens a discussion about “real” predators, who, as Kyle states, “are fascinating. They see an opportunity and they take it.”
When the movie moves away from the true nature of, well, nature, human and otherwise—“In nature,” Kyle says, “what you see is what you get.”—it becomes more visceral, but less interesting.
“The Little Things,” a Los Angeles-set crime drama now available in select theatres and on PVOD, features a trio of Oscar winners in a dark story that shows the soft underbelly of the glamour capitol.
Set in 1990, pre-DNA testing, this is a story of old-fashioned police work. Wits, stakeouts, payphones and bleary eyes are their tools. Obsession and black coffee fuel them.
Oscar winner number one Denzel Washington is Joe Deacon, a deputy sheriff in small town California, whose job as a big city detective is long in the rearview mirror. When he joins strait-laced LAPD detective Sgt. Jim Baxter (Oscar winner number two, Rami Malek) on the hunt for a serial murderer, they focus on Albert Sparma (Oscar winner number three, Jared Leto) an off-kilter character they suspect is the killer. Turns out, their case reverberates with echoes from Deacon’s troubled past.
“The Little Things” sets up an interesting mystery. The SoCal setting resonates with an eerie Golden State Killer sun-dappled vibe and there are enough cryptic clues to keep you—and Deacon and Baxter—guessing. Washington and Malek play an odd couple, brought together by their shared obsessions, and Leto is suitably sideways to lend an aura of menace to his character. But, taken as a whole, the elements feel let down by the climax of the story. No spoilers here, but Baxter’s behavior in the minutes leading up to the film’s resolution don’t feel authentic, as though they are not driven by the character and what he would do in the situation. Instead, the ending feels informed simply by the need to wrap up the story in a dramatic way.
It’s too bad because most of what comes before is quite good. Deep characterizations, worthy of the trio’s Oscar wins, help set the scene. Writer and director John Lee Hancock avoids the visual clichés of most Los Angeles sets dramas; there’s palm trees, but no Hollywood highlights, just rundown motel rooms and skid row streets. It all adds up, until Baxter’s inexplicable decisions (AGAIN, NO SPOILERS HERE) take the viewer out of the story.
As Deacon says several times in “The Little Things,” life and, in this case, storytelling are all about the little things, the details that come together to tell the tale. Hancock gets most of the little things right, but not all.
One story, three directors. “Ordinary Days” is a crime drama told from a trio of perspectives that proves the mystery is more interesting than the resolution.
College student Cara Cook (Jacqueline Byers) has disappeared without a trace leaving behind her grieving parents Marie (Torri Higginson) and Rich (Richard Clarkin).
The film’s first third, directed by Jordan Canning, shows us the emotional turmoil her parents endure as they grapple with their daughter’s fate. Was she assaulted? Kidnapped? Left for dead? As the uncertainty eats away at them, panic sets in.
Kris Booth directs the middle segment, the story of Jonathan Brightbill, a troubled cop played by Michael Xavier. Under pressure to resolve the case he pushes his own personal boundaries.
Part three is the resolution directed by Renuka Jeyapalan. No spoilers but it’s here we learn more about Cara, her disappearance and inner strength.
“Ordinary Days” is an interesting twist on a crime story. Essentially three short films, with different casts, based around one theme, it never feels disjointed. Tension builds in the first two segments, along with some nice character work, leading to a satisfying if not exactly riveting conclusion. The seamlessness of the overall vision begs the question, “Why use three directors?” but there is no denying the emotional power of the underlying story.
