I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the drama “Sharper Corner,” the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the cringe comedy “Friendship” and the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Sean Leathong to talk about new movies in theatres including the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the cringe comedy “Friendship” and the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 16:12)
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the cringe comedy “Friendship,” the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow” and the comedy “Please, After You.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I joined CP24 Breakfast to have a look at new movies coming to theatres, including the cringe comedy “Friendship,” the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow” and the Apple TV+ series “Murderbot.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the cringe comedy “Friendship” and suggest cocktails to drink with friends.
Listen as Shane and I talk about the new, proposed Madonna limited series, what movie the new Pope watched during deliberations and how Metallica caused an earthquake HERE.
Click HERE as I review the awkward comedy “Friendship” and suggest some drinks to enjoy with others.
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the cringe comedy “Friendship,” the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow” and the comedy “Please, After You.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Friendship,” a new cringe comedy now playing in theatres, Tim Robinson is Craig, an awkward guy who gets a taste of what it’s like to be included in a friend group when his cool neighbor invites him over for a beer. “I can see the future,” says Craig. “It’s full of pals helping pals and being a boss.” When that relationship sours, his entire life is turned upside down as he goes to extremes to recreate that warm, embracing feeling.
CAST: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer, Josh Segarra, Billy Bryk. Written and directed by Andrew DeYoung.
REVIEW: According to a recent study men have 50% fewer close friendships than women. In the case of Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson), an awkward suburban family man with a disinterested wife (Kate Mara) who still meets up with her ex for coffee, that percentage is far smaller.
Craig is an odd dude. Guaranteed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, he’s content to sit at home, watching television. When a package meant for new neighbor Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd) is delivered to Craig’s house by mistake, he drops it off to the right address. By way of saying thanks Austin invites him over for beers with the boys that night.
Craig has never met anyone quite like Austin. To Craig the weatherman at the local television station is almost impossibly cool. He plays in a punk rock band, has a collection of ancient weapons and is surrounded by good friends. He is, as the food critic Pascal, played by Ian Holm in “The Big Night,” might have labelled him, a “take a bite out of the ass of life” kind of guy.
Initially the pair hit it off. They go urban spelunking, and Craig is embraced by Austin’s very supportive circle of friends, who have a habit of sharing their feelings and singing away the blues. “I’m on the edge of life,” Craig says of his newfound, connected life,” and the view is gorgeous.”
But when their friendship sours, Craig is cut loose, desperate to feel the embrace of friendship once again.
“Friendship” is an awkward, but often funny comedy. A character study of a lonely guy, the success of the film is in its ability to mix the heartfelt reality of Craig’s desperation with Robinson’s heightened performance. He is, by times, needy, abrasive and unhinged, and while much of it is played for laughs, Robinson manages to inspire empathy.
The film’s final shot (NO SPOILERS HERE) follows some unforgivable, over-the-top behavior on Craig’s part, and yet, as we see him for the last time, there is a vulnerability and strange (OK, very strange) sweetness to the image.
“Friendship” is not your average awkward comedy. Adam Sandler and others have played angry, desperate characters, but Robinson takes a different approach. His take on Craig is merciless and he never sucks up to the audience. He’s an open wound, and while the circumstances surrounding him are often amusing, he plays it straight, which, brings a sense of absurdity that amps up the funny.
“Friendship” is an intense take on the loneliness epidemic that feels a bit scattershot in its execution but has enough heart to cut through the hysterics.
Ghostface is back, kicking and screaming—and stabbing, punching and shot-gunning—in another bloody adventure where real life imitates the reel life of slasher movies. Like the other entries in the franchise “Scream VI,” now playing in theatres, sets out to deconstruct slasher movies, but actually delivers the gory slasher goods.
Set following the events of the 2022’s “Scream,” the new film moves the action out of Woodsboro, California, site of the previous Ghostface killings, to New York City at Halloween. The “core four,” the survivors of Ghostface’s latest rampage—sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown)—hightailed it across country to attend school and put the past behind them, but trauma has a way of following a person.
Sam, who killed her boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) when she discovered he was a Ghostface killer, in love with her simply because she is the daughter of the original killer in the screaming mask, is now seeking treatment, but admits, stabbing him 22 times, slitting his throat, and shooting him in the head, “felt right.”
No spoilers here, but suffice to say, the movie follows the “rules” laid out by film student Mindy: Rule one: As the franchise ages, the movies will get bigger. Rule two: Expect the opposite of last time. Rule three: Legacy characters and main characters are cannon fodder. No one is safe.
“Scream VI” feels fresher than you would expect from an almost thirty-year-old movie franchise. A rotating cast of new and old faces helps with that, providing new stories wrapped in nostalgia, but it also has something to do with the franchise’s desire to entertain at almost any cost.
This one is a tightly knit, if familiar-ish, story, amped up with gorier-than-usual killings—I’m sure I saw intestines!—and what Alfred Hitchcock would have called a “refrigerator climax.” That means it seems to make sense while you are watching it, but later, when you’re standing in front of the fridge looking for something to eat, and your mind drifts back to the film, you realize just how preposterous it was. The Grand-Guignol ending is over the top, but hey, remember rule number one?
“Scream VI” doesn’t exactly slash a new path for the franchise, but the expected mix of humor, gore and self-reverence and its willingness to be silly and kinda tense at the same earns it a recommend.
