Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about “Young Werther’s” study of complicated friendships, the end of life drama “The Room Next Door” and the audacious “Nickel Boys.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join CP24 to talk about the big movies hitting theatres and streaming this week, including “Young Werther’s” study of complicated friendships, the end of life drama “The Room Next Door,” the audacious “Nickel Boys” and the diamond heist movie “Den of Thieve 2: Pantera.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about “Young Werther’s” study of complicated friendships, the end of life drama “The Room Next Door,” the audacious “Nickel Boys” and the diamond heist movie “Den of Thieve 2: Pantera.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including “Young Werther’s” study of complicated friendships, the end of life drama “The Room Next Door,” the audacious “Nickel Boys” and the diamond heist movie “Den of Thieve 2: Pantera.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: A modern riff on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 18th-century novella “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” “Young Werther,” now playing in theatres, isn’t exactly a love story. Instead, it’s a lovesick story and a study of complicated friendships.
CAST: Douglas Booth, Alison Pill, Iris Apatow, Amrit Kaur, Jaouhar Ben Ayed, Patrick J. Adams. Directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço.
REVIEW: “Young Werther” takes a love-at-first-sight premise, the stuff of rom coms, and uses that as a springboard to examine self-absorbed youth, unrequited love, rejection and the true nature of love.
Douglas Booth plays the narcissistic Werther as an upper-class twit, a guy who slides through life on a runway greased with money, privilege and his personal so-called charm. He is used to getting what he wants, and he wants Charlotte (Alison Pill). Trouble is, she’s the soon-to-be wife of likeable lawyer Albert (Patrick J. Adams).
Over the years, Goethe’s 18th-century novella of unrequited love and the wacky lengths Werther goes to win over Charlotte has inspired many a rom com, and that familiarity blunts some of the effectiveness of this retelling. It feels a bit “been there, done that” because of the origin’s pervasive influence on the genre.
This story of a charming pest (or is he a love-sick stalker and homewrecker?) and his antics doesn’t bring much in the way of reinvention until the film’s final moments. Goethe’s novella is a tragedy, but the film, adapted by Lourenço, is rom commy up until its rushed ending, during which things take a sober turn as Werther lets go of the self-absorption of youth and discovers a modicum of self-awareness. Until then Werther’s alleged charm is more boyish arrogance than actual charisma.
Booth and Pill, however, have good chemistry and bask in the reflected glow of the sparkling rom com sheen José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço liberally applies to every frame. Ditto for Toronto, which, in the lens of cinematographer Nick Haight, looks fantastic.
“Young Werther” is a light and frothy ride, but without the philosophical underpinnings of the source material.
“The Swearing Jar,” a new drama now playing in theatres, is a relationship story about finding the love of your life, not once but twice.
Adelaide Clemens and Patrick J. Adams are married high school music teacher and novelist Carey and Simon. They’re happily married, but change is in the air. When Carey announces she is expecting a baby, their first order of business is to curb the cuss words that so easily flow out of their mouths. “Holy frickin’ poop,” Simon says, embracing the spirit of the new house rules.
The main thorn in their side is Simon’s mother Bev (Kathleen Turner). She is a dark cloud whose visits are filled with passionate passive aggression, and non-stop references to her own failed relationship with her former husband. Unhelpfully, with the new baby on the way, Bev even goes so far to warn Carey that Simon inherited his father’s worst traits.
Still, despite Bev’s worst intentions, things are OK at home. But when Carey has a chance encounter with struggling musician Owen (Douglas Smith), she finds herself charmed by his flirtatious, but slightly awkward presence.
I am leaving out one major detail of “The Swearing Jar’s” plot. It is a crucial one, and I’m trying to avoid spoilers here, so read on with caution (it’s best to go into this one cold) as I try and talk around the plot twist.
Mixing Carey’s past and present, “The Swearing Jar” examines one person’s experience with grief. Dramatically, when her life is turned inside-out, the film takes on a richer texture, while maintaining the dual nature of humor and drama that fuel the first half. It’s the story of perseverance and an emotional reckoning, and it is effectively rendered by Clemens’s heartfelt performance.
“The Swearing Jar” is has its ups-and-downs, both stylistically and emotionally, but emerges as a nicely calibrated, resonant look at grief, love and moving on.
No one will accuse “Clara” director/co-writer Akash Sherman of playing it safe. For his debut feature the twenty-something filmmaker essays no less a topic than the existence of life in outer space.
Suits star Patrick J. Adams is Dr. Isaac Bruno, a university professor placed on sabbatical when his obsession to find life on other planets gets in the way of him doing his job. Time off is no remedy for his fixation and he continues his search with the help of a co-worker Dr. Charlie Durant (Ennis Esmer ) and a research assistant named Clara (Troian Bellisario).
Bruno is a facts and figures guy, a pragmatist who studies the data looking for connections, desperate to fill the hole left in his heart by the death of his child by finding new life in the universe.
Clara is more abstract, a believer in the randomness of the universe beyond the numbers and maps. The push and pull between their approaches makes for a rocky relationship but her spiritualism may hold the roadmap for Isaac’s quest.
Austere, low-key and yet ambitious, “Clara” is about the power of loss and discovery. Add in a big dollop of spirituality and you have a movie that isn’t quite sci fi even though it spends much of its time ruminating on speculative themes. It’s solemn and often feels overwrought, asking question after question without offering much in the way of insight or true emotion.
Director Sherman shows an undeniable eye for composition and atmosphere. It’s in the storytelling that “Clara” wobbles. The push-and-pull between objectivity and intuition is interesting but overplayed to the point of exhaustion. The climax reaches for the stars, offering a hopeful note, that will strike some as poetic, others as the very definition of schmaltz.
