“Float,” a new romance starring “Kim Convenience’s” Andrea Bang and “Upload’s” Robbie Amell, and now playing in theatres, is an old-fashioned romance about having to choose between family expectations and love.
Set during the summer before Waverly (Bang) is set to do a medical residency in Toronto, the story begins with the young protagonist making a detour from a planned visit with her parents in Taiwan. She hasn’t seen them in years, not since she began studying medicine in Chicago. “They make sure I have everything I need,” she says, “but they don’t really know me.”
At the last minute she detours, and stops over to visit with her hippie-ish aunt (Michelle Krusiec) in Tofino, British Columbia.
“I haven’t had time off since med school,” Waverly says. “Now is my chance. I haven’t told my parents”
It’s a rare impulsive move for Waverly, who until this point has followed a path in life predetermined by her mother and father.
When she almost drowns, charming and handsome lifeguard Blake (Amell) comes to her rescue. He’s a local, tethered to the town by family obligations. The two hit it off, and as Waverly settles into life in the beach town, Blake gives her swimming lessons.
“Why are you doing this?” she asks.
“I like spending time with you,” he says.
They fall in love, but will the expectations of Waverly’s parents prevent them from having a life together?
If you can’t figure out how “Float” ends, then you may want to rethink your Harlequin Book of the Month subscription. The escapist story, about finding a path forward in life using love as a compass, may be predictable, but writer and co-director (adapting a wildly successful Wattpad story by writer Kate Marchant) Sherren Lee provides just enough conflict between Waverly and her parents and Blake and his sister to keep the movie on a low dramatic simmer throughout.
This is a story about, as Waverly says, finding creating a logical family over a biological family. It’s about the joys of friendship and love, and opening oneself up to new experiences and people. To that end Lee casts an appealing supporting cast with King Bach, Rukiya Bernard, Sarah Desjardins, Ghazal Azarbad and Tristan Arthurs, playing members of Waverly’s supportive new family.
It’s fitting, that given the setting of the film, that “Float” is the equivalent of a summer beach read. Despite some clunky, earnest dialogue—”I want to stay here with you but I want to be a doctor,” sounds like a rejected line from a Hallmark movie—the movie does what it set out to do, put a new spin on a classic genre.
Thanks to Mongrel Media for having me in to host the Q&A at the Canadian premier of “Simulant” with director April Mullen and actors Sam Worthington and Robbie Amell.
The movie’s synopsis: With androids (SIMS) and humans coexisting, Simulant centers around FAYE (Jordana Brewster) who has already pulled the plug on her late husband, now she can’t bring herself to do the same to EVAN (Robbie Amell), his android counterpart. Instead of deactivating Evan, Faye sets him up in an apartment to live illegally on his own. While there he meets Casey (Simu Liu), a brilliant programmer who helps him become more human in order to win Faye back. Unbeknownst to Evan, his new friend is wanted for questioning by a determined Artificial Intelligence Compliance Enforcement (AICE) agent Kessler (Sam Worthington). Evan has to win over Faye’s heart before they are both discovered and he loses everything.
On Friday April 7, 2023 I’ll be hosting a Q&A with the director and cast of the new sci fi film “Simulant” at the Scotiabank theatre in Toronto. Guests include director April Mullen and cast members Sam Worthington, Robbie Amell and Alicia Sanz.
Here’s some info on the film: With androids (SIMS) and humans coexisting, Simulant centers around FAYE (Jordana Brewster) who has already pulled the plug on her late husband, now she can’t bring herself to do the same to EVAN (Robbie Amell), his android counterpart. Instead of deactivating Evan, Faye sets him up in an apartment to live illegally on his own. While there he meets Casey (Simu Liu), a brilliant programmer who helps him become more human in order to win Faye back. Unbeknownst to Evan, his new friend is wanted for questioning by a determined Artificial Intelligence Compliance Enforcement (AICE) agent Kessler (Sam Worthington). Evan has to win over Faye’s heart before they are both discovered and he loses everything.
Gamers will recognize Raccoon City as the name of the once prosperous home base of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corp. That we’re talking about it on this page can only mean one thing, a new “Resident Evil” movie. The seventh film in the series, “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” now playing in theatres, reboots the videogame-inspired franchise, taking the story back to the beginning.
Raccoon City once thrived. A company town, from the 1960s to the late 90s the Midwestern city grew and prospered as pharmaceutical giant Umbrella set up shop there, and invested heavily in infrastructure and the townsfolk, who made up the bulk of their employees.
Everything changed in 1998 when a genetically-altered organism named Queen Leech attacked the facility, kicking off a series of events that left the city a desolate wasteland with a zombie problem.
It’s into this world director Johannes Roberts drops college student Claire Redfield (Kaya Scodelario) and rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy (Avan Jogia) on one terrifying night in Raccoon City. Claire has come to the dying city to locate her brother Chris (Robbie Amell). The T-virus, Umbrella’s top-secret biological weapon isn’t much of a secret anymore, and the infected residents of Raccoon City are now terrifying zombies. Over the course of one night Claire, Chris, and others from the video game series like Leon (Avan Jogia), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen) and Albert Wesker (Umbrella Academy’s Tom Hopper), fight to survive.
Adapted from the first and second “Resident Evil” games by Capcom, “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” returns the series to its video game roots. The previous films emphasized action over horror. This time around Roberts reverts to scary vibe of the videogames, paying homage to both the games and vintage John Carpenter for the atmosphere of dread that builds throughout. Stylistically, as a videogame tribute, that approach works quite well.
As a movie, however, it comes up lacking. Despite some good gooey and gory zombie action and some fun action scenes, it takes too long to get where it is going. While we wait for the going to get good, we’re subjected to dialogue straight out of the Handbook of Horror Clichés and too much exposition.
The opening feels long winded and the ending rushed, but, especially for gamers looking for Easter Eggs, “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” has enough moments in between to satisfy fans of the series.
Mild mannered office worker Sid Straw, played by “Veep”/”Arrested Development” star Tony Hale in the new V.O.D. comedy “Eat Wheaties!,” claims to be a close acquittance of “Huger Games” star Elizabeth Banks.
“There is no such thing,” says her manager (Sarah Chalke).
As the cringe comedy begins Sid is unlucky in love, an expert in saying the wrong thing, misreading signals and trying too hard. “I understand that I am not the most exciting person out there,” he says. When he is named co-chair of the upcoming University of Pennsylvania’s reunion it is the beginning of a spiral. Setting up a Facebook page to publicize the event, he repeatedly messages Banks, an alumnus he claims to have been acquainted with decades ago.
Not realizing the posts are public, he bombards her account with a series of personal notes inviting her to the reunion. His many messages go unnoticed by the star but not her team, who file a restraining order against him. When the posts go viral—“What does that mean?” he asks.—his life unwinds as he is publicly and personally humiliated.
Based on the novel “The Locklear Letters” by Michael Kun, “Eat Wheaties!” (that was Banks’ catchphrase in school), is a mix of tragedy and comedy, made human by Hale’s performance. Sid could have been a collection of quirks but Hale paints him differently. Sid is a lovable loser and Hale plays him as a sweet, lonely guy, oblivious to the hole he’s digging for himself.
Hale is supported by a great supporting cast, including Paul Walter Hauser, Elisha Cuthbert, Lamorne Morris and Robbie Amell, who play off Sid’s social awkwardness with good-natured sympathy.
“Eat Wheaties!” is a tightly paced comedy which is more about kindness and doing the right thing than it is about knee slapping jokes. It is occasionally knee-slapping funny but the laughs come from kind-heartedness, not cruelty and that makes this quirky comedy a winner.
The crowd-funded “Code 8” is speculative fiction, set in the future, but addresses real world issues like marginalization and the healthcare crisis.
Robbie Amell is Connor Reed, one of the 4% of the population born with extraordinary powers. Instead of being celebrated, however, Reed and his kind are discriminated against, forced to live in poverty.
Blessed—or cursed, depending on how you look at it—with the ability to generate electricity, Reed lives a quiet life, working in construction. The low profile job keep him off the radar of Agents Park in Davis (Sung Kang and Aaron Abrams), leaders of a militarized police unit, but doesn’t earn enough to pay for his mother‘s (Kari Matchett) mounting hospital bills.
To make some much-needed cash he agrees to expose his abilities to aid crime boss Marcus Sutcliffe (Greg Bryk) and his sadistic henchmen Garrett (Stephen Amell).
The aura of “X-Men” hangs heavy over “Code 8.” Director and co-writer (with Chris Pare) Jeff Chan has re-contextualized the idea of superbeings being persecuted for their powers—they don’t wear costumes, have character names like Electro or attend tony private schools—but all roads lead back to artist/co-writer Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee’s timely take on the mistrust of those seen as different. There’s more grit here and the characters aren’t as showy, they are simply trying to survive in a world that is inhospitable to them.
Chan does a good job balancing the action with ideas, effortlessly mixing and matching real word and sci fi elements to create a movie that has enough to say about the fear of diversity and tolerance to earn a look.
The facts are thus: Dogs have served in the military since World War I and over three thousand dogs have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also a sad but true fact that “Max,” a new film starring Thomas Haden Church, Lauren Graham and Carlos as best friend, hero and Marine, Max puts the hole in wholesome.
The family friendly action starts in Iraq where Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell) is a young, brave Marine, fighting alongside his best friend Tyler (Luke Kleintank) and their beloved bomb sniffing dog Max (Carlos the Dog). Stateside Kyle’s family—Mom (Graham), Dad (Church) and bratty little brother Justin (Josh Wiggins)—stay in touch via Skype and pray for his safe return. When Kyle is killed in action Max and Tyler return. Tyler tries to fit into civilian life but Max has a hard time. Suffering from PTSD—having bonded so closely with Kyle the dog is now at loose ends—and snarls and growls at everyone… except Justin. The Wincotts take the dog in—“This family looks after it’s own,” says Mom.—and Justin, with the help of his dog lover friends tries to rehabilitate Max.
There’s more—teenage romance, betrayal, a gun cartel, bootlegged video games and some good old action adventure—but for the most part “Max” is little more than an episode of “The Littlest Hobo” with slightly higher production value. In fact this may be the “Citizen Kane” of “Littlest Hobo” shows, but make no mistake, the Canadian series about a helpful, ownerless dog did it first and did it better than anything in “Max.” The bungled action scenes and cardboard characters will have you longing for the halcyon days of “Lassie” and “Rin Tin Tin.”
The dog, it must be said, is a pretty actor. Perhaps it’s his large, expressive Bette Davis eyes, or perhaps it’s the general level of incompetence around him, but he comes off well.
“Max” feels like a direct-to-DVD movie that somehow escaped the pound and made it’s way to theatres.
According to the movies high school is made up of a few, very specific characters. There’s the good-looking jock whose life isn’t nearly as rosy off field as it is on. The standard issue mean girl with an attitude and feathered hair, the supportive best friends and the outsider who discovers they’re more of an insider than they ever could have imagined.
Based on the book by Kody Keplinger, “The Duff” mixes and matches these stereotypes, shaking things up just enough to keep things interesting… at least until recess.
“Parenthood’s” Mae Whitman is Bianca, a senior whose idea of a good time is taking in a horror movie marathon and hanging with BFFs Jess and Casey (Skyler Samuels & Bianca Santos). Her happy life is turned upside down, though, when the best looking guy in school, Wes (Robbie Amell), informs her that she is a DUFF, the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. As the gatekeeper to her prettier friends she is the approachable one who boys befriend to get closer to Jess and Casey. The news drives a wedge in her friendship with the girls, forcing her to turn to Wes to reverse-DUFF her. In her mom’s (Allison Janney) words when she gets proactive her problems get subtractive. Wes builds her confidence and soon a date with the boy of her dreams (Nick Eversman) teaches her an important lesson about the place of DUFFs in the world.
“The Duff” is a typical teen comedy, sprinkled with some funny lines—when the school institutes a cell phone ban one student complains, “I just thought of something funny and now no one will know!”—the usual examination of the all-important school social hierarchy and for the first half of the running time it works well in a low-to-no expectations kind of way.
Elevating “The Duff” from a C- to a B is Mae Whitman. Funny and charismatic she has a Bette Midler-esque way with a joke and enough pathos to make you care about her teenage crush. She delivers the movie’s best lines and, not surprisingly, has the best delivery of anyone in the film. Hopefully next time out she’ll graduate from high school shenanigans to more grown-up material.
“The Duff” is “Mean Girls Lite,” a school comedy so predictable the screenwriters should be sent to the principal’s office but with a central performance worth skipping last period for.
For Canadian actor Robbie Amell his latest starring role was all about chemistry. To make sure he had the kind of spark needed to play opposite potential The DUFF co-star Mae Whitman he not only had to audition, he then had to try out again at a “chemistry read.”
“They narrowed it down to a few guys,” says the youthful looking twenty-seven year old. “They had signed Mae and they brought us in one after the other. Before I went in my best friend Nick, who’s very funny, and I sat down and figured out some alternate lines. I thought I’d have a shot at this if I could make her laugh.”
Preparation aside, he says for Whitman, fresh off a stint on Parenthood, it wasn’t love at first sight.
“Mae didn’t want to drive in for the chemistry read,” he says. “She was already sour and she said she was not excited. I walk in and she said, ‘Screw this guy.’ But I dropped some really rude improv line on her and she totally busted out laughing. I think that was the turning point.”
Then it was a waiting game. “My chemistry read was at 11 on a Friday morning,” he says, “which means there is nothing else I am thinking about for the next couple of days. It slowly started to disappear and it got to a point where I thought, ‘If I’m the guy, great. If I’m not the guy, I’m not. I just want to know.’”
Two weeks later he had the part of Wes, the best looking guy in Bianca’s (Whitman) school, who informs her that she is a DUFF, the Designated Ugly Fat Friend. He tells her she is the gatekeeper; the approachable one boys befriend to get closer to her prettier friends.
The all-important high school social hierarchy is the backbone of the story. Bianca and Wes are at opposite ends of the ecosystem, but Amell explains, “the movie is about knocking down these labels, embracing what makes you, you.”
Amell, who in real life graduated from Toronto’s Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute in 2006, says his school experience was very different than the one depicted in the movie.
“I didn’t have great skin in high school so that was kind of my DUFF moment but I always joke around that I grew up in Canada and everyone is polite so no one would call anyone the DUFF.
“I went to high school not that long ago but not every kid had a camera in their hand. Now everything is so documented you can’t get away with anything. It sucks. I don’t know if I could be an actor if there were camera phones when I went to high school. Everybody makes mistakes and you should be allowed to make a few without them being documented in HD.”
