I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the cringe comedy “Friendship,” the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow” and the comedy “Please, After You.”
Listen to 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 cringe comedy “Friendship,” the gleefully gory “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” the musical drama “Hurry Up Tomorrow” and the comedy “Please, After You.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: The story of “Please, After You,” a new Canadian comedy now on VOD, begins with Iranian immigrant Ali (Sammy Azero) searching for a better life in Canada. Having earned an engineering degree, he spends his time interviewing for a job in his field. That is, when he’s not working as a security guard at the downtown parking lot that allows him to eke out a meager living. His life is on track until his cousin Omid (Neema Nazeri) shows up, seeking political asylum to stay in Canada after getting caught up in an anti-government demonstration in Iran. “If I go back I will face jail,” he says. “Or even worse.”
CAST: Sammy Azero, Neema Nazeri, Juno Rinaldi, Kris Skiddiqi, Julie Nolke. Directed by Rob Michaels.
REVIEW: These days stories of potential deportations are no laughing matter but “Please, After You” is a surprisingly lighthearted movie. An odd couple story of an ambitious guy with his eye firmly on the future and his well-meaning but bumbling cousin, it is about starting life in a new country, resilience and finding community and a logical family wherever you may be.
Sammy Azerohas the less showy role. His job is to react to his hopelessly naïve cousin’s frequent inconveniences. Stand-up comedian and actor Neema Nazeri is all enthusiasm as Omid, a character who means well, but can’t get out of his own way, or Ali’s way for that matter, in his attempts at assimilation.
They make an engaging pair, even if some of their misadventures—like going for lunch and discovering the buffet is inside a strip club—feel a bit contrived. Still, there is a playfulness to the filmmaking by “Playback’s” 2021 10 to Watch director Rob Michaels, and in the performances.
“Please, After You,” with its story of finding a place in a new place, is meant to uplift and it does. It may err on the side of sentimentality from time to time, but unlike its main character, it never gets derailed by Omid’s antics.
