I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Akshay Tandon to talk about the new releases in theatres, including the World War II drama “Pressure,” the romantic crime drama “Tuner” and the existential horror of “Backrooms.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to brush your teeth. Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the World War II drama “Pressure,” the romantic crime drama “Tuner” and the existential horror of “Backrooms.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Backrooms,” a new psychological thriller starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve and now playing in theatres, a man finds a portal to a strange reality.
CAST: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell. Directed by Kane Parsons.
REVIEW: The Kafka-esque story of “Backrooms” centers on wannabe architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a broken man with a broken marriage, reduced to sleeping in a bedroom display in his furniture store.
The action begins when a mysterious portal appears in the basement of his store. Behind the portal are a maze of dingy rooms, with all the charm of an abandoned call centre, that could easily be as big as the New York subway system. “I’ve been here every night since I found the place,” he says, “and I still barely scratch the surface.”
Intrigued, Clark disappears into the otherworldly labyrinth of identical yellow rooms prompting his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) to enter the nightmarish nest of rooms to find and rescue him.
With a dollop of David Lynch and a surreal slice of “Severance,” “Backrooms” defies easy explanation. “Nothing in recorded history means more than this,” says Phil (Mark Duplass), “but I don’t understand it.”
And neither do I.
An introspective exploration of the effects of difficulty of escaping destructive personal patterns, the film uses a hellscape of endlessly connected rooms, the likes of which would make M.C. Escher’s head spin, that appear to be manifestations of “everyplace that ever was.” Each interconnected space represents Clark and Mary’s fears, and the unbroken loop of dysfunction and victimhood which define their lives.
At least that’s what I think it’s about. You may disagree.
What we may agree on, however, is director Kane Parsons’s effective use of an anxiety inducing score and sound design to accentuate the growing sense of dread.
That feeling is enhanced by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve who anchor the story, with vulnerability and quiet intensity.
“Backrooms” is unique, introspective, psychological horror that relies on anxiety over jump scares.
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about the big movies from the weekend, including Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man,” rhe magical thieves of “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” the Oscar worthy “Sentimental Value” and the animated “In Your Dreams.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “Sentimental Value,” a new Norwegian drama directed by Joachim Trier, and now playing in theatres, sees an acclaimed film director’s efforts to make a personal movie about their family’s troubled past starring his two estranged daughters,
CAST: Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning. Directed by Joachim Trier.
REVIEW: A portrait of legacy within a dysfunctional family, “Sentimental Value” is ultimately about the healing power of art.
The story begins at the funeral reception for Sissel, mother of estranged sisters Nora and Agnes Borg. The already fraught afternoon is made more so when Sissel’s charismatic ex-husband Gustav arrives after having little contact with the family for many years.
The sisters, Nora (“The Worst Person in the World’s” Renate Reinsve), a serious theatre actor who puts her work before everything else, including personal happiness, the other, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) is a wife and mother with a stable job, have had only sporadic contact with Gustaf (Stellan Skarsgård) in the years since he left.
A once famous director, Gustaf abandoned the family as his career took off and has returned to try and convince them to be part of a new film he’s planning on making about the family’s darkest secrets.
Despite the title, “Sentimental Value” is not a sentimental film. Tender, but edged with steel, it’s not in search of easy reconciliation between the disparate characters. Director Joachim Trier, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eskil Vogt, is more interested in an uneasy truce tinged by understanding between Gustav and his daughters.
These characters are unapologetically who they are, so don’t expect great epiphanies. Instead, we are dropped into their dysfunction, their ancestral home and all the baggage that comes with that. It’s a slice-of-life, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes funny, sometimes devastating. Most importantly, the artifice that usually clouds stories of floundering families is missing. What’s left is raw and real.
As the tightly wound actress and daughter Nora, Reinsve displays the remarkable ability to convey a range of conflicting emotions, often in the same scene. It’s award worthy work, delivered with the precision of a master artisan.
As good as Reinsve is, she is given a run for her money by Skarsgård, whose mix of charm and smarm is as compelling as it is repulsive. A vivid portrait of a man who prioritized his art over his family, it allows the actor to dig deep but never resort to theatrics. His work in the close-ups is subtle but reveals a deep well of emotion just behind the eyes.
With stellar performances and nuanced, grounded storytelling, “Sentimental Value” hits the heart in its portrayal of family bonds and the spaces that sometimes can bring people closer together.
SYNOPSIS: In the existential comedy “A Different Man,” now playing in theatres, Sebastian Stan plays Edward, a man who undergoes an experimental medical trial to “cure” the neurofibromatosis that has caused large tumors to grow along the nerves of his face and neck. Post procedure, he becomes obsessed with the actor playing him in an Off-Broadway production about his life and relationship with next-door neighbor Ingrid (Renate Reinsve).
CAST: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson, C. Mason Wells, Owen Kline, Charlie Korsmo, Patrick Wang, Michael Shannon. Written and directed by Aaron Schimberg.
REVIEW: A postmodern mix-and-match of “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cyrano de Bergerac” propelled by b-movie energy, “A Different Man” is a Kafkaesque tale about the perception of beauty. Writer/director by Aaron Schimberg examines the perception of beauty and what it means to be “normal.”
When we first meet Edward, played by Stan under a thick layer of make-up, he’s jumpy, a bundle of anxiety and paranoia. He draws stares on the subway from curious lookie-loos who turn their heads when he makes eye contact.
An aspiring actor, he dutifully goes to auditions but is frustrated by the lack of opportunity for a man with his facial deformity. When he is “cured” he begins anew, metaphorically killing off Edward. He changes his name to Guy, gets a new career and friends.
Trouble is, while he now has acceptance from others, he isn’t any happier as Guy than he was as Edward. That feeling is compounded when he meets the flamboyant Oswald, played by Adam Pearson, the English television presenter, actor and neurofibromatosis activist.
Oswald is everything Edward/Guy isn’t. He’s comfortable in his skin, moves through the world with impunity and doesn’t allow his genetic condition to define his life. That dynamic sets up the film’s gonzo second half as Guy’s obsession with Oswald forces him to examine the real reason for his insecurity and misery.
“A Different Man” tackles the big issues that shaped Edward/Guy’s life. He wants to be seen for who he is, but is, instead, gawked at, made to feel like an outsider every time he leaves his apartment.
Stan’s remarkable performance transcends the character’s heavy make-up. Stan portrays the “facially different” Edward’s complex inner life through his outward physicality. It’s a full body performance that vividly captures Edward’s self-loathing, melancholy, anger and occasional fleeting moments of happiness.
As Guy, Stan is all frustration. His life takes a surreal turn as he proves to be inadequate at playing himself on-stage in a play based on his life. As a result, he becomes fixated on clawing back the life he left behind.
On the flipside is Pearson whose charming performance cuts through much of the film’s sturm und drang. Without an iota of self-pity Oswald embraces the thing that makes him different and lives a life Edward wants but will never have.
“A Different Man” is a singular movie. Schimberg digs deep to examine the skin-deep notions of attractiveness, and the effect of beauty on the eye of the beholder.
