Richard speaks to “CTV News at Six” anchor Andria Bain about television and movies to watch during the pandemic, including a show about collecting movie props, new movies on VOD–“Emma” and “Disappearance at Clifton Hill”–and why we’re going back and rewatching some old favourites.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 34:49)
Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to VOD and streaming services including Shia LeBeouf’s semi-autobiographical story “Honey Boy,” the eco-doc “Spaceship Earth,” the period dramedy “Emma,” the ripped-from-the-headlines “The Assistant,” the family drama “Ordinary Love,” the horror comedy “Extra ordinary,” the ugly divorce proceedings of “Hope Gap” and the neo-realist look at the gig economy “Sorry We Missed You.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:02)
Richard and CP24 anchor Jamie Gutfreund have a look at the weekend’s new movies, the Tatiana Maslany drama “The Other Half,” the rom com “Lovesick” and “Antibirth” starring “Orange is the New Black’s” Natasha Lyonne.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in with Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the weekend’s new movies, the Tatiana Maslany drama “The Other Half,” the rom com “Lovesick” and “Antibirth” starring “Orange is the New Black’s” Natasha Lyonne.
Watch the whole thing HERE!
“Antibirth” appears to have been made with the midnight movie crowd in mind. Surreal, gross and often quite funny, it stars “Orange is the New Black’s” Natasha Lyonne and asks the question, “Who-or what-is growing inside her?”
Lyonne stars as Lou, a hard core stoner who begins the story by blacking out at a rave after partying all night with her blotto best friend Sadie (Chloë Sevigny). Soon she discovers she is pregnant and her memory, skewed by her near constant drug use, offers few clues as to the identity of the father. ” “I’m not pregnant … I’m infected,” she slurs. “Whatever is inside of me is infecting my brain, my body; it’s not just in my crotch.” Her own lifestyle choices, paranoia, surreal visions and a rapidly growing belly hamper her search for answers. Only Lorna (Meg Tilly), a mysterious but helpful stranger, may be able to offer help.
“Antibirth” is pure schlock delirium probably best enjoyed after a night out with Lou. Imagine a splatterpunk “Rosemary’s Baby” or as particularly gross episode of “X-Files” and you get what I mean. It’s an altered state kind of flick that owes a debt to “The Toxic Avenger” and any other movie that values oozing pus and spraying blood as much as it does plot.
Lyonne is the spunky center, brash but compelling. She pulls off lines like, “Let me tell you what I need: candy, money, and whip-its,” and manages, against all odds to make add some humanity to Lou and her situation.
Tilly, who is practically unrecognizable here, keeps things lively while Sevigny doesn’t do much but swing and sway to whatever is playing on the soundtrack.
The real star here is the film’s wild, untamed spirit. It’s not all good—the movie drags in the middle, much of the stoner dialogue is snooze inducing—but “Antibirth” builds up to a body horror climax that, for better and for worse, once seen will not soon be forgotten.
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
The Husband begins with a premise we’ve all heard before, a romantic triangle. There’s a husband, a wife and a lover but, as director Bruce McDonald points out, “in this case the lover is fourteen years old and the wife is in jail.”
The movie is a dark dramedy about Henry, (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, who also co-wrote the script), struggling to deal with the shame he feels when his wife is jailed for having an affair with a minor.
“The script really tries to understand what the male goes through in this crazy situation,” says McDonald. “It’s about regaining your mojo, about reclaiming your masculinity and power and it was written as a suspense story.
There was this ‘What’s this guy going to do’ thing all the way along. It was set up as a revenge movie. We meet our character and he is going through his day-to-day and one day, on the street, he sees the kid. The kid that did the deed. That sets off the movie, so it’s this cat and mouse game throughout the whole movie. I just loved the way it was constructed and the suspense of it. What is our character Henry going to do when he finally confronts the kid?
“He begins to do irrational things. First he’s trying to befriend this kid and get on his good side. To do what? And then other elements come into play where he is preparing something that you might think is a violent end to this confrontation. Henry is a mysterious and enigmatic character looking for some kind of closure on being the humiliated, cuckold husband.”
The edgy film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013. McDonald admits to being “very surprised at the reaction.”
“People were very taken with this movie,” he says. “They went in deep. I think they loved the oddness and the suspense of the story. They loved the situation and I think they loved how authentic and true it seemed to be in terms of the performances by Maxwell and Sarah Allen.
“Usually at the festival there’s two or three screenings. In this case the screening venues kept getting bigger and bigger which is always a bit frightening because the first screening is usually well attended and by the third you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen but our third screening was packed to the rafters.”
