I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the weekend’s best movies and shows including the Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony,” the Kristen Stewart stoner comedy “The Wrong Girls” and the Prime Video series “Sterling Point.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 11:37)
I join CTV Atlantic’s Stephanie Tsicos to talk about the biopic “Tony,” the dino drama “The End of Oak Street,” the kid’s flick “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie” and the stoner comedy “The Wrong Girls.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about the biopic “Tony,” the dino drama “The End of Oak Street,” the kid’s flick “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie” and the stoner comedy “The Wrong Girls.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:06)
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Wrong Girls,” a new stoner comedy starring Kristen Stewart, and now playing in theatres, a case of mistaken identity throws the lives of codependent best friends into chaos. “Two girls. One wrong move. Zero clue what to do.”
CAST: Kristen Stewart, Alia Shawkat, LaKeith Stanfield, Kumail Nanjiani, Geena Davis, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Kate McKinnon, Cate Blanchett, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Allison Rose Carter, Jon Read, Maggie McLean, Dylan Meyer. Written and directed by Dylan Meyer.
REVIEW: A testament to the dual powers of friendship and very strong drugs, “The Wrong Girls” is a trippy throwback to the anything goes style of stoner comedies like “Pineapple Express” and “Half Baked.”
Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat are perpetually stoned roommates and best friends Frankie and Molly. Frankie, quit Stanford and now eeks out a living as a delivery person who can’t be bothered to ditch her joints before dropping off packages at people’s homes. At the same time, a spread sheet for Molly’s most recent project has disappeared, leaving the BFFs short on their rent… again.
In a case of mistaken identity Frankie comes into possession of a briefcase filled with vials of powerful experimental psychedelic drugs. After sampling them, they not only trip out hardcore, but also develop telepathic and psychokinetic abilities, allowing them to read their cat’s (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani) minds and move things with their thoughts. “I have no idea why you thought it would be a good idea to take the drugs,” says Dr. Chapman (Kate McKinnon). “You are dumb as rocks, and you should be dead.”
Their newfound abilities place them in the sights of operative named Not Metal Head Dave (LaKeith Stanfield) and a group of Danish killers eager to get their hands on the drugs. “We’re very important fugitives. We’re runaways.”
Loudly and proudly silly, “The Wrong Girls” features opinionated cats, bad choices, giant spliffs, psychedelic freak outs and an a-list cast of kooks and killers, but its strongest asset is its portrayal of female friendship. Stoner comedies have long been the domain of the dudes, but Stewart and Shawkat’s off-the-charts chemistry and great comic timing, not only bring these chaotic women to vivid life but also add some emotional stakes to the absurd story.
“The Wrong Girls” is a stoner comedy with all the good and bad that comes along with the genre but even its rough spots go up in smoke courtesy of Stewart, who has never been looser on screen, Shawkat and the steady hand of writer/director (and Stewart’s real-life spouse) Dylan Meyer.
SYNOPSIS: In “Ella McCay,” a new dramedy written and directed by sitcom legend James L. Brooks, and now playing in theatres, the idealistic 34-year-old titular character must juggle family, marriage and responsibility when she becomes governor of her state.
CAST: Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Julie Kavner, Spike Fearn, Rebecca Hall, Albert Brooks, and Woody Harrelson. Written and directed by James L. Brooks.
REVIEW: A mix of family drama and political underdog tale, “Ella McCay” is a kernel of a good idea with a good cast wrapped up in an over-stuffed melodrama.
British actress Emma Mackey plays all-America go getter Ella McCay. She scored top marks in class, became a lawyer, married her high school sweetheart and unexpectedly became governor of her state when the sitting governor (Albert Brooks) is offered a cabinet position in the federal government.
As she works to secure free children’s dental services, among other pet programs, family drama threatens to undo everything she’s worked to achieve.
In a story about a dysfunctional family, the most dysfunctional thing about the story is the script, written by James L. Brooks, who also directs.
Brooks specializes in television shows (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi”) and movies (“As Good as It Gets” and “Broadcast News”) that effortlessly flip flop between humor and heartache. Those elements are all present in “Ella McCay,” but they feel strained and unfocussed, like puzzle pieces that don’t fit together. The idiosyncratic script veers all over the place, leaping from one contrived situation to another, never finding an overall tone to tie the episodic story together.
As a result “Ella McCay” makes for baffling viewing.
Despite handing in a committed performance as the title character, Emma Mackey battles against overwritten dialogue in a movie that wants to be a character-driven look at life, love and loyalty, but is, instead, a collection of feels, raked up like fallen leaves in the fall, and thrown haphazardly at the screen.
Like the title character, the movie “Ella McCay” wants it all, but succeeds only in proving that sometimes, more is less.
After a quick detour to Summerville, Oklahoma, the fifth movie in the Ghostbusters Universe sees the Spengler family back where the story began. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” now playing in theatres, grafts a proton blast of nostalgia to a new supernatural story of tiny Stay Puft Marshmallow Men, Spenglers and an iconic New York City firehouse.
In 2021’s “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” OG (Original Ghostbuster) Egon Spengler’s daughter Callie (Carrie Coon), her two teenage kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), move to Egon’s abandoned Oklahoma farmhouse. When apocalyptic entity Gozer the Gozerian enters the scene, the family, along with mentor Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and some familiar faces—Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson)—team to keep the world safe.
The new film sees Callie, the kids and Grooberson, now Callie’s boyfriend, bustin’ ghosts in New York City. Using Egon’s tools, they zoom through the streets in the classic Ectomobile, and operate out of the firehouse made famous in the first film. Zeddemore now owns the building, which has become dangerously overstuffed with trapped ghosts.
On top of that, when the fast-talking Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) sells Stantz an ancient orb, it releases Garraka, an ice demon with the power to harness an army of escaped ghosts and trigger a new Ice Age. “The Death Chill,” says Stanz. “Your veins turn onto rivers of ice. Your bones crack. And the last thing you see is your own tear ducts freezing up.”
To stop this “unimaginable evil” the Ghostbusters, old and new, must once again band together.
Another face from the past also resurfaces. Forty years after their first run in, former EPA inspector Walter Peck (William Atherton), is now NYC’s mayor, and still holds a grudge. “The Ghostbusters are finished,” he says.
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is busting at the seams, and not just with ghosts. A jumble of old and new characters, mythology and fan service, it’s overstuffed and yet feels lacking.
Aside from Mckenna, Aykroyd and Emily Alyn Lind as Melody, a lonely ghost who befriends Phoebe, none of the other characters make much of an impression, other than looking cool while posing with proton packs. It’s fun to see Hudson in an expanded role, but Murray doesn’t really appear, it’s more like he arrives, leaving a trail of Venkmanesque one-liners in his wake.
Rudd, Potts and most of the new proton pack slingers, however, all take a backseat to the busy story.
Fans will get a kick out of Slimer’s return, a haunted pizza is funny and the new Ice Demon, for the brief time they occupy the screen, is a creepy and cool addition to the Ghostbusters menagerie of meanies, but the script, penned by director Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, doesn’t deliver the laughs. There are amusing moments, but the broadly comedic tone established by the classic “Ghostbusters” movies has been replaced by an earnest, nostalgic flavor.
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” isn’t exactly a bust, but there isn’t as much life left in the franchise as die-hard fans may have hoped.
“Migration,” a new animated film from Illumination Studios, starring the voices of Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina and Kumail Nanjiani, and now playing in theatres, is a story about broadening horizons, set against the wild blue yonder.
The story focusses on the Mallards, a family of ducks who lead a quiet, happy life on New England’s bucolic Moosehead Pond. Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) is the protective father who keeps his kids, son Dax (Caspar Jennings) and daughter Gwen (Tresi Gazal), in line by telling them terrible stories of the perils of predators in the world outside their watery home.
When another flock uses the pond as a pit stop in their migration south, it sparks the imaginations of Dax, Gwen and mother Pam (Elizabeth Banks). Mack is not as inspired. He says he’ll only leave the pond if he can find a safer place for his family to live, but the rest of the family wonder what exciting things happening beyond their little corner of the world.
“I don’t want to miss out on life because you’re afraid to leave this pond,” Pam says, scolding Mack.
Mom and the kids are keen to hit the sky, see the world, and migrate to tropical Jamaica for the winter. Mack is reluctant, but is convinced to take flight with Pam, the kids and his curmudgeonly Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) in tow.
“There’s a whole world we’ve been missing out on,” Pam says. “Things we didn’t even know existed.”
At a stop in New York City they liberate homesick Jamaican parrot Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key) from his prison inside a Manhattan restaurant, run by a Chef (Jason Marin) who specializes in Duck a l’orange.
“What’s Duck a l’orange?” asks Gwen.
“It’s you,” says Chump (Awkwafina), the hardnosed leader of an NYC gang of pigeons, “with l’orange on top.”
As they to stay off the Chef’s menu, the Mallard’s migration morphs from vacation, to journey of discovery as they are exposed to the great big world.
“We’re going to finish this crazy, wonderful adventure,” says Mack.
“Migration” is a fun, but slight, movie for the whole family with good messages about personal growth and overcoming fears. The lessons are simple, presented in a likable, fast-paced fashion, that don’t try too hard to moralize or teach. It’s a lighthearted adventure with none of the darkness implied by the presence of co-writer Mike White of “White Lotus” fame.
From the mild horror of an encounter with an elderly heron (Carol Kane) who may, or may not, have a taste for mallard chicks to the chaotic landing in NYC, the epitome of all of Mack’s fears, each of the big set pieces offer up a new high-flying adventure. It’s episodic, which offers up the chance for the Mallards to interact with new characters at every stop, providing variation in the story, and new opportunities in each chapter for situational humour.
“Migration” doesn’t have the same anarchic brashness as Illumination’s “Despicable Me” films. If you’re hungry for more Minions madness, be sure to arrive on time to see “Mooned,” a stand-alone short from the Minion Universe that opens the show. It rounds out “Migration’s” brief run time (under an hour-and-a-half) and contains a healthy dose of Minion magic.
Slight, but funny and fast-paced, “Migration” is an enjoyable, escapist movie with lively voice work—kids will love baby duck Gwen—and an adventurous spirit.
Richard Crouse and “Eternals” star Lia McHugh talk about her mother accidentally hanging up on a very important phone call, the influence of director Chloé Zhao on the story and cast and how she auditioned for the movie, even though she didn’t know what exactly what part she was trying out for.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
