I appear on “CTV News at 6” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the dystopian rom com “One Night Only” and the flavourless “Ice Cream Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 36:43)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renée Rodgers to talk about the dystopian rom com “One Night Only,” the rambunctious “Super Troopers 3” and the flavourless “Ice Cream Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Andria Case to talk about the dystopian rom com “One Night Only,” the rambunctious “Super Troopers 3” and the flavourless “Ice Cream Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:22)
I sit with guest host Jim Richards on NewsTalk 1010 to talk about big nme music artists offering $20 tickets to shows, a Celine Dion lotto, the latest “Heated Rivalry” swag and I tell you about the dystopian rom com “One Night Only.”
Listen to 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 dystopian rom com “One Night Only,” the rambunctious “Super Troopers 3” and the flavourless “Ice Cream Man.”
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 dystopian rom com “One Night Only,” the rambunctious “Super Troopers 3” and the flavourless “Ice Cream Man.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “One Night Only,” a new romantic comedy starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, now playing in theatres, two strangers attempt to make a connection on the one night of the year when pre-marital sex is legal. “How is anyone supposed to find something real on a night like tonight?”
CAST: Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton. Directed by Will Gluck.
REVIEW: Like a mash-up of “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Purge” (only with sex instead of murder), “One Night Only” takes a provocative premise and applies strict rom com rules to the story of two singletons looking for something more than a one-night stand.
“One Night Only” takes place in an alternate New York City where premarital sex is illegal every day of the year except one. “We wanted to go back to a time when sex was reserved for the sanctity of marriage,” says a government official. “Since our resolution passed, teen pregnancy is near zero, STIs are at record lows, and now it’s a badge of honor to be an incel.”
On that day two love-starved strangers, a pizza shop owner Owen (Callum Turner) and a hopelessly romantic jingle singer Allie (Monica Barbaro) have several meet cutes—“Your ears look like car doors,” she says. “Your legs don’t make any sense,” he says.—and begin a flirty and often funny cat and mouse game that will lead them across the city in pursuit of something more than a quick roll in the hay.
“One Night Only” is the rare rom com that uses fascism as a catalyst for the amorous action. But the ban on premarital relations, while central to the story, isn’t the entire story.
The only truly provocative thing in this sex comedy (rated 14A in Canada, R in the U.S.) is the dystopian premise. Strip away the story’s underdeveloped Orwellian satire and you’re left with a charming, mostly chaste search for connection.
Central to the film’s likability are Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner.
Barbaro, an Oscar nominee for her work as Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan-biopic “A Complete Unknown,” channels Meg Ryan with a combination of charm and chutzpah. Equally at home with the dramatic and comedic demands of the role, she’s an effervescent presence whether she’s emoting or doing pratfalls.
Equal parts aw-shucks, sincerity and swagger, Turner clicks with Barbaro as their “After Hours”-style adventures (without the edge of the Martin Scorsese NYC classic) keep them in one another’s orbit.
On one hand “One Night Only” feels like a missed opportunity to examine traditional values in the face of governmental overreach.
On the other, it’s a straight-ahead rom com with nothing on its mind except the happiness of its main characters. It’s no secret how this movie will end. If it comes as a shock, you’ve never seen a rom com, because these movies aren’t about the destination, they’re about the journey, and “One Night Only” is a fun trip despite its reluctance to fully engage with its political premise.
SYNOPSIS: “Presence,” a new ghost movie directed by Steven Soderbergh and now playing in theatres, sees a dysfunctional family, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) and their teenagers, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Calliana Liana), move into a newly renovated hundred-year-old house. As the hard driving Rebekah dives head long into work, Chris flounders, Tyler reveals a mean streak, and Chloe mourns the loss of her best friend. When things mysteriously move on their own, and shelves crash in Chloe’s bedroom, a question arises, Are the odd events manifestations of Chloe’s grief or is there a strange presence in the house? “There is mystery in this world,” says Chris.
CAST: Lucy Liu, Julia Fox, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Chris Sullivan. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp.
REVIEW: Told from the point of view of the ghost, the scares in “Presence” are muted and not particularly supernatural. The horror here is the carefully observed, callous behavior between several of the characters.
Using a flamboyantly handheld camera, Soderbergh personifies the ghostly presence through camera movement. We see what the ghost sees, and that otherworldly surveillance reveals a family at odds with one another. Rebekah favors her athletic son and thinks that Chloe is being self-indulgent. “She cannot take us down with her,” she says. Chris grapples with family issues, fearing for the health of his marriage while Chloe acts out, drinking and hanging out with her brother’s strange friend from school (West Mulholland).
The result is a quietly unnerving movie—an emotional roller ghoster?—that values tension over outright frights.
It’s a stylish, visually interesting twist on a ghost story, so it’s a shame the characters aren’t well developed enough to engage the audience on anything other than a superficial level. As Chloe, Liang does much of the heavy lifting, but she’s surrounded by underwritten characters.
Add to that a third act twist that is much more conventional than you’d hope for a movie with this pedigree, and you’re left with a ghost story that entertains the eye but won’t move the spirit.
“No Sudden Move,” a new Steven Soderbergh film starring Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro and now playing on Crave, is a film noir that gets lost in its knotty plot, but is kept on track by a top-notch cast.
Set in 1954 Detroit, the action begins with Jones, a shady character played by Brendan Fraser, recruiting three low level criminals, Curt (Cheadle), Ronald (del Toro) and Charley (Kieran Culkin), for a job that pays too much to be as easy as he says it will be. They all agree, just so long as someone named Frank (Ray Liotta) won’t be involved.
Their job is to invade General Motors accountant Matt Wertz’s (David Harbour) home, keep his family quiet for an hour while he retrieves a document from his boss’s safe.
Sounds simple, but this is Detroit in 1954. Industrial espionage between the Big Three car companies is a dangerous game, and, of course, Frank is involved. “Everybody has a problem with Frank these days.”
As things spin out of control, greed kicks in and the fast cash the small-time criminals hoped to make causes big time problems.
Soderbergh immerses his characters and the viewer in a world that where secrets propel the action. No one is who they seem and motives are even murkier. It makes for a twisty-turny story that is part crime story, part social history of the spark that ignited the slow decline of Detroit.
To add to the disorientation, Soderbergh shoots the action through a fish eye lens that blurs the edges of the screen, mimicking the script’s moral fog.
“No Sudden Move” almost bites off more than it can chew. It’s occasionally clunky, with too many double-crosses and characters vying for screen time, but the star-studded cast cuts through the script’s noise with ease. The result is a caper that flier by, buoyed by surprises (including a big-name uncredited cameo), snappy dialogue and a great debt to Elmore Leonard.
