LOGLINE: In “Thelma,” a new comedy thriller now playing in theatres, June Squibb plays a 93-year-old grandmother who falls prey to a grandma phone scam. Conned out of $10,000, with the help of a friend (Richard Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, she sets out to find the scammers and get her money back by any means necessary. “What about my money?” she says. “Am I supposed to just let them have it?”
CAST: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell. Written and directed by Josh Margolin.
REVIEW: “Thelma” is something you don’t see very often, a thriller starring a 93-year-old action hero. From a low-speed scooter chase and a show down with the bad guys, to the acquisition of a weapon and a high-octane heist musical score, the movie has all the elements of an edge of your seat suspense film.
But its biggest asset is Squib, who brings steely determination, vulnerability and humor to the title character. She may not exactly be Ethan Hunt, but she’s more endearing and delightful than Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne combined. She’s easy to root for, even if her high stakes mission seems impossible.
At her side is Ben, Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. Shaft, in his final role. His presence is a cool callback to action movies of years gone by, but here he’s a charismatic sidekick, allowing Squibb to mostly take matters into her own hands.
There are also subplots involving Thelma’s grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) daughter Gail (Parker Posey) and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg), but at the film’s core is an exploration of old age, and how, as Ben says, “People these days don’t care about old things.” “Thelma” confronts that idea, dismissing it with panache, humor and some genuine excitement.
This week on the Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet the cast of a new CBC Television show called “Son of a Critch.” If you are a fan of the political commentary and social satire of “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” you already know Mark Critch. Since 2003 he has starred on the political parody show. He’s photo-bombed Justin Trudeau, offered Pamela Anderson a million dollars to stop acting, and poked fun at characters like Rex Murphy, Don Cherry and Donald Trump.
His latest project is much more personal. A couple years ago Mark wrote a warm and funny look back at his formative years, growing up in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the 80s called “Son of a Critch: A Childish Newfoundland Memoir”. That bestseller is now the basis of Son of a Critch, which airs on CBC television and CBC Gem on Tuesday nights.
Later in the show we’ll meet Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who plays the eleven year old Mark on the show, and we’ll spend some time with the legendary actor Malcolm McDowell, the star of “A Clockwork Orange” and so many other films, and who plays Mark’s grandfather. McDowell talks about his new found love of Newfoundland and offers advice to young actors.
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Ethan Hawke, director Brad Bird, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Roberts, Brian Henson, Jonathan Goldsmith a.k.a. “The most interesting man in the world,” and best selling author Linwood Barclay.
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“Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies” calls itself the “definitive documentary” on the subject and it is hard to argue the point. An exhaustive looks at naked folks (although to be fair, it is mostly women) on film from the early silent days to the present, from the Hays Code to #MeToo, it bares all in an attempt to contextualize how nudity changed cinematic culture. “Twenty minutes after they invented film someone started photographing naked people,” says one of the film’s experts
Not for the prudish, “Skin” is illustrated with graphic film clips, ranging from Hedy Lamarr’s “Ecstasy,” the first film to depict a woman having an orgasm, to Malcolm McDowell dropping trou at every opportunity beginning with “If….” in 1968 and culminating with Bob Guccione’s enhancements of “Caligula,” through to the werewolf three-way of “The Howling” to “Boogie Nights,” “American Pie,” Sharon Stone’s unwitting nude scene in “Basic Instinct” and beyond.
Using talking heads like Pam Grier, Shannon Elizabeth, Traci Lords, Mariel Hemingway, Sean Young, all of whom have disrobed for the camera, and directors like Kevin Smith, Amy Heckerling, Peter Bogdanovich who have directed others of them to do so, documentarian Danny Wolf assembles a revealing picture of a business that once thought appearing nude would ruin a career but is now an industry that expects and exploits nakedness.
“Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies,” isn’t exactly clinical in its approach, it veers between the academic, the personal and the leering, but never shies away from real discussions. It’s a history lesson on how political and artistic interests changed the societal landscape, sometimes to be welcoming of screen nudity, others times censorious. It examines gender bias, the creation of sex scene intimacy coordinators and the range of experience of those who have appeared nude for entertainment purposes.
“If I hadn’t done the nudity,” says “American Pie’s” Shannon Elizabeth, “I might not have a career today.” Contrasting Elizabeth’s experience is Chyler Leigh of “Not Another Teen Movie” who says, “I wasn’t prepared for the entire world picking my body apart.”
At two hours “Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies” is everything you always wanted to know about sex in the movies but were afraid to ask.
“Bombshell,” the new film starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and a cast of thousands, is set at a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The T-Rex in the room in this story is Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), the chairman and CEO of Fox News. Much of the action is set in 2016 but the attitudes on display are positively prehistoric.
Ailes died on May 18, 2017, aged 77, but when we first meet him, he reigns supreme. He helped elected presidents, walked the halls of power with confidence and, most importantly for the purposes of this story, created the conservative cable news juggernaut Fox News. Specializing in covering stories that, according to producer Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon), “will scare your grandmother and piss off your grandfather,” Fox became Ailes’s mouthpiece to counter “liberal” CNN.
Ailes altered how Americans consumed the news, making stars out of Greta Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and the two women at the heart of “Bombshell’s” story, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). Kelly is one of the network’s biggest stars, an outspoken lawyer engaged in a war of words with then candidate Donald Trump. The feud was good for ratings, so despite his pro-Trump stance, Ailes allowed it to continue. Not as good for the ratings was Carlson, a former prime time anchor demoted to midafternoons following disagreements with her boss.
Eventually fired, Carlson levelled accusations of sexual misconduct against her former boss, alleging she had been fired for rebuffing Ailes’ advances. When the expected support from other women inside Fox who had been auditioned by Ailes with the words, “stand up and give me a twirl,” or “lift your skirt up higher so I can see your legs,” Carlson fears her allegations will fall on deaf ears.
On the insider Kelly weighs her options. Despite a “Support Roger” campaign from colleague Jeanine Pirro (Alanna Ubach) she bides her time before opening up about her own experiences.
The title “Bombshells” is a double entendre, referring to Ailes’ objectification of his on-air talent and to the accusations leveled against him, which sent ripples throughout the male dominated corporate world of news.
“Bombshell” echoes the story recently told in the mini-series “The Loudest Voice.” Both tell of a toxic workplace where one man ruled by intimidation, sexual harassment and micromanagement. “We have two, three and four donut days,” says Ailes’ executive assistant (Holland Taylor). “These aren’t donuts he eats. They’re donuts he throws.” His, “if you want to play with the big boys you have to lay with the big boys,” credo is dramatized in his interactions with Kayla Pospisil, a composite of several Fox employees, played by Margot Robbie. It was the days before #MeToo and the film does a good job of showing the apprehension some of the abused women feel about revealing their lurid treatment by Ailes.
At the film’s helm is Theron, with the aid of an incredible make up job, disappears into the role of Megyn. She pierces the icy demeanor of Kelly’s on-air persona to reveal a heroine torn between loyalty to a man she knows has done terrible things and doing the right thing. It’s tremendous work that humanizes a character often portrayed in the real-life press as a divisive figure.
“Bombshell” is a torn-from-the-headlines story about the people behind the headlines that serves as a reminder of the importance of the #MeToo movement in shining a light on the kind of inappropriate behavior that placed women in peril in the workplace. Good performances, aided by makeup and prosthetics bring the story to vivid life.
On Wednesday the two most popular items on my Facebook site were a picture of a kimono wearing David Bowie playing ping-pong, the other a mention of my upcoming interview with Malcolm McDowell.
My reference to McDowell, the menacing actor who famously played the man who killed Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Generations and became an icon starring as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange, drew dozens of comments.
The interview was meant to promote Silent Night, a Winnipeg-shot slasher flick about a killer Santa Claus, on DVD next week, but before we get into talking about the film, however, I tell him about the postings. He connects the dots between table tennis and his most famous film.
It seems director Stanley Kubrick and McDowell played ping-pong on the set of A Clockwork Orange. When I ask who usually won, he said:
“He never ever took a set from me. I wiped the floor with him such great relish because it was the only thing I could really beat him at. He was tormenting me as the character and I’m sure deep down he enjoyed it. He was a little bit sadistic. I went through quite a lot of nasty injuries from the eye thing and horrible things like being dunked in water and almost drowned. There was a lot of physical abuse. So when I could get my own back, I really loved it.”
When I ask if he still plays the game he replies, “No, I haven’t played in years.”
Hasn’t had time I guess.
An on-going role in the series Franklin and Bush and seventeen other IMDB credits for 2012 alone are proof that at age 69 he keeps as busy as most actors half his age. He says Silent Night was a welcome change, however.
Usually cast as a baddie, he was chuffed to play the brave sheriff of a town terrorized by a slaying Santa. “Without pandering to the audience I just wanted to bring a little lightness and humor to it without chewing the scenery, “ he says. “Well, not too much.”
Not that he’s unhappy playing villains.
“In my early career I started playing heavies,” he says. “Clockwork Orange is one of the great heavies. If I had been playing heroic types I would have had a very short career. Playing heavies has allowed me to work no matter what my age.”
