Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 13:38)
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the animated anarchy of “Coyote VS Acme,” the dystopopian “The Dog Stars,” the fresh rom com “Finding Emily,” the silly smarts of “Idiots” and the supernatural slasher “Buddy.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
CAST: Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong. Directed by Ridley Scott.
REVIEW: Like many dystopian/pandemic movies, “The Dog Stars” has several large-scale action sequences where survivors defend their land from feral intruders. They’re big, loud and exciting and entirely not the point of the film.
Set nine years after a flu pandemic and blood disease ended almost all life on earth, former mechanic Hig (Jacob Elordi) lives in an abandoned Colorado airport with his dog Jasper and tough-as-nails former neighbor Marine Bangley (Josh Brolin). “The world that was doesn’t exist,” says Hig. “Here it’s just us… trying to hold on to what was.”
Together they guard against outside threats, other desperate survivors willing to use lethal force to gather supplies and food. “Out there, it’s kill or be killed,” Bangley says. “The only thing left to fear… survivors.”
The new world order sits uneasily on Hig’s mind. “This world fits you, Bangley. Wake up, defend, survive,” he says. “I think you were ready for it 10 years before it hit. I was a mechanic. When I wasn’t doing that, I was kissing my wife and playing with my dog, wondering every day how I got so lucky.”
Still grieving the loss of his wife, Hig holds out hope that there is a better world out there somewhere. His source of hope stems from a faint radio signal from years ago, a voice that pushes him to search for a new life in a new world. “There’s gotta be something better than this,” he says.
Director Ridley Scott, working from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, certainly knows how to stage big action but “The Dog Stars” isn’t exactly an action movie. Instead, it’s a bittersweet story of lost and found relationships that works best when it isn’t trying to fill the screen with fireworks.
After a slow start Scott begins to develop his themes when Hig, on his way to a better world, connects with father and daughter duo Jack (Guy Pearce) and Cima (Margaret Qualley). It’s here the movie begins to differentiate itself from other end-of-the-world/survival films and shows like “The Road” or “The Walking Dead.” In its quieter moments, such as the look of happiness tinged by a sense of what has been lost that spreads across Cima’s face as she hears music for the first time in years, that the movie finds something new to say within the dystopian genre.
The picture “The Dog Stars” paints a grim picture of the post-apocalyptic world but it also understands that all is not lost if the plague survivors hold on to their humanity.
I join the CTV NewsChanel to talk about the return of the king in “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” the dark comedy “How to Make a Killing,” the heist film “Crime 1201” and the inspirational “I Can Only Imagine 2.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to sing “Hm, ooh, yeah-yeah, yeah” Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the return of the king in “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” the dark comedy “How to Make a Killing” and the horror movie “Diabolic.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “How to Make a Killing,” a new class satire now playing in theatres, a man whose mother was disowned by his wealthy family decides to “prune a few branches of the family tree” and reclaim the family fortune. “Since the day I was born my mother told me we were different. Yes, she had been disowned by her family but someday I would become the sole heir. I just had to wait… for all of them to die.”
CAST: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Ed Harris. Directed by John Patton Ford.
REVIEW: A riff on the coal black 1949 British comedy “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” “How to Make a Killing” is a lighthearted look at revenge and murder.
The thin line between life and death is all that stands between 9-to-5er Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) and a windfall inheritance. When he was born out of wedlock, his mother was disowned by her obscenely wealthy family. Broke, and wanting to live the “right kind of life” promised by his late mother, he hatches a plan to stage “accidents” to knock off the family members standing between him and the cash. “There were seven of them,” he says. “Seven rich pricks between myself and $28 billion.”
Told mostly in flashback with narration, “How to Make a Killing” is tightly composed. Perhaps too tightly. Swiftly paced, it rips along at top speed, never pausing long enough to allow the impact of the killings to sink in. In keeping with the movie’s pedal to the metal pace, Becket’s fall into murder and mayhem happens in the blink of an eye. As the bodies quickly pile up, the murders feel a little easy, a little too no-muss-no-fuss, to build any palpable tension.
The movie wants the audience to relate to Becket’s tough luck, but his overall demeanor is so stoic it’s hard to root for him, even as an anti-hero. Powell’s megawatt grin conceals Becket’s psychopathy, but the character is too glib to be funny, too offhand to be dramatic.
It’s in that mushy middle that Becket and the film sit. Not funny enough to be a comedy, it’s not quite dark enough to be a full-on drama.
It does comes loaded with ideas about class mobility, moral ambiguity and plays up the lengths Becket will go to gain social status, but the rapid pacing doesn’t provide time for meaningful exploration.
Some of that exploration may have disappeared in the movie’s plot holes. Large enough for Powell to fly the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet he piloted in “Top Gun: Maverick” through, they are black holes that suck logic (particularly surrounding the final killing) into the void.
If you buy a ticket, check your suspension of disbelief at the concession stand.
“How to Make a Killing” has an intriguing premise, some fun performances—mainly Jessica Henwick as Ruth, Becket’s grounded girlfriend, the ever-reliable Bill Camp as a mentor figure and Zach Woods as the irritating cousin Noah—but its ambition, like its main character’s, exceeds its grip.
SYNOPSIS: “Blue Moon,” the new biographical comedy now playing in theatres, stars Ethan Hawke as legendary Broadway figure Lorenz Hart, songwriter of “Blue Moon,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Manhattan,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “My Funny Valentine,” on one long, melancholy night at the bar at Sardi’s.
CAST: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott. Directed by Richard Linklater.
REVIEW: Anchored by a tour-de-force performance from Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon” is a deceptively simple character study of an artistic genius who was equal parts brilliance and frailty.
Set at the bar of the legendary Broadway restaurant Sardi’s, the action takes place on a single evening, March 31, 1943, opening night of “Oklahoma!” A triumph for composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein, the show’s success left Rogers’s previous partner, lyricist Lorenz Hart, isolated, alone at the bar, save for the company of a bartender Hart nicknames Dr. Bacardi (Bobby Cannavale) and the restaurant’s piano player (Jonah Lees).
“We write together for a quarter of a century,” Hart says, “and the first show he writes with someone else is gonna be the biggest hit he ever had. Am I bitter? Yes.”
Charming, witty but with a deep sadness, Hart props up the bar, slowly losing the battle with the bottle, waiting for 20-year-old Yale student, Elizabeth Weiland (a sparkling Margaret Qualley) to arrive. Though closeted, he loves her, and she loves him, “just not in that way.”
As the evening unfolds, liquor flows in Hart’s direction as he pines for Elizabeth, lobs jabs at his former partner’s use of an “!” in the title of “Oklahoma!” and inspires essayist E. B. White (Patrick Kennedy) to write his novel “Stuart Little” as the evening takes a decidedly bittersweet turn.
A chamber piece—pretty much the whole thing takes place in the downstairs bar at Sardi’s—“Blue Moon” is a complex, humanizing slice of Hart’s life.
Hawke’s remarkable performance embraces the extremes of what Hammerstein and cabaret performer Mabel Mercer said about Hart. Hammerstein commented, “He was alert and dynamic and fun to be around,” while Mercer called him, “The saddest man I ever knew.” Hawke embodies those polarities and touches on many things in between in ways subtle and overt.
An extroverted introvert, Hart put on a brave face, spitting out witticisms—“Leave the bottle,” he tells the bartender, “it’s a visual poem.”—but each barb and every funny line betrays an undercurrent of insecurity and torment.
Hawke is in virtually every frame of the film, reciting pages of dialogue—“Who are you talking to?” asks the bartender. “Me,” Hart replies. “I gotta talk to someone interesting.”—and yet his stream of consciousness always engages because each speech, every word illuminates part of this complicated character.
“Blue Moon” is a showcase for a Hawke—he uses an elaborate combover and director Richard Linklater’s shoots him to reflect Hart’s diminutive stature—but the performance doesn’t rely on the physical transformation. Instead, it is Hawke’s nuances that create this sometimes funny, sometimes sad valentine to Hart.
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Renee Rogers to talk about the thriller “Relay,” the neo-noir “Honey Don’t” and the rock doc “DEVO” on Netflix.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
