Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including the timely period piece “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “On the Rocks,” the re-teaming of Bill Murray and Sofia Coppola, the cerebral sci fi of “Possessor Uncut” and the unusual Gloria Steinem biopic “The Glorias.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
We have seen movies about assassins and we’ve seen movies about mind control but “Possessor,” the new film by Brandon Cronenberg (yes, he’s David’s son and seems to share some of his obsessions) now playing at select theatres and drive ins, mixes and matches the two in an unsettling, surreal hybrid of sci-fi and horror.
Anyone with trypanophobia—fear of needles—may want to cover their eyes during the film’s opening minutes as a young woman (Gabrielle Graham) impales herself with a long needle, right through the cranium. The needle is attached to a box with a dial. A twist of the dial and soon she is gruesomely stabbing a man in the neck, in public.
Turns out, it’s not really her brandishing the knife but a mercenary named Tasya (Andrea Riseborough), a mind control assassin who “possesses” people’s minds via brain-implant technology and forces them to do her bidding. Her handler, Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh), helps her find her way back to her own identity after sublimating herself in someone else’s brain.
Tasya’s latest gig involves parasitically getting into the mind of former cocaine dealer Colin (Christopher Abbott), a trainwreck of a man whose girlfriend Ava’s (Tuppence Middleton) father (Sean Bean) is John Parse, a high-powered executive. A rival wants Parse dead and Colin is the perfect patsy to do the deed.
From the film’s savage opening minutes through the sex and gore splattered landscape of the middle section to the climax “Possessor” is like a nightmare. Surreal visuals of Tasya and Colin as one hideous being or a severed hand unfurling its fingers are direct from night terrors, but Cronenberg takes pains to ensure that, unlike nightmares that are disconnected scenes that play in our heads, his psychodrama has depth and meaning. His highly developed visual sense—and a bloody colour palette that would make Dario Argento envious—is eye-catching and consistently interesting but it is the film’s ideas that linger like the unsettled feeling after you wake from a nightmare.
The movie’s exploration of how technology and humanity intersect is an increasingly timely question. “Possessor” takes that crossroads to a narrative extreme but Tasya and Colin’s technological melding is a terrifying vision of a future that feels like it might be right around the corner.
Cronenberg’s sophomore movie, after 2012’s “Antiviral,” is disturbing and ambitious with an icy, cerebral veneer that will linger in your mind for a long time afterward.
A weekly feature from from ctvnews.ca! The Crouse Review is a quick, hot take on the weekend’s biggest movies! This week Richard looks at the Charlize Theron in the mothering dramedy “Tully,” the political drama “Backstabbing for Beginners” and the down ‘n dirty flick “Lowlife.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard joins CP24 anchor Nick Dixon to have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the Charlize Theron in the mothering dramedy “Tully,” the political drama “Backstabbing for Beginners” and the down ‘n dirty flick “Lowlife.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Richard sits in with CTV NewsChannel anchor Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the weekend’s big releases, the new Charlize Theron mothering dramedy “Tully,” the political drama “Backstabbing for Beginners” and the down ‘n dirty flick “Lowlife.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
The name “Backstabbing for Beginners” sounds like a nasty teen drama, a high school how to on how to survive in the mean hallways of twelfth grade. “Mean Girls” with an edge. Instead, it’s a political drama, the kind of thriller that relies more on the cerebral inner workings of backroom manoeuvrings than the kind of things the newspapers write about. Proving the old adage that everything is high school, however, it turns out the two milieus are not dissimilar.
Based on the memoirs of Michael Soussan, the film details the corruption within the United Nations Oil-for-Food program during the early years of the Iraq War. Theo James is Michael, a principled but naive aide to an influential U.N. undersecretary Pasha (Ben Kingsley). A greenhorn, he is soon schooled in the crafty way Pasha does business. “The first rule of diplomacy,” says the older man, “is that the truth is not a matter of fact but a matter of consensus.” As the United Nations Iraq War-era Oil-for-Food program goes south Michael begins to poke around into the suspicious death of his predecessor. Coming into the orbit of Nashim (Belcim Bilgin) Michael struggles with where his loyalties should lie.
“Backstabbing for Beginners” isn’t a thrill ride. Deliberately paced, it covers a lot of ground. To guide the viewer through the story’s socio-political unpredictability Danish director Per Fly layers exposition throughout, in the form of explanatory dialogue and narration. He limits the detail to the ins and outs of what turns out to be a global conspiracy, but it slows down the action, sucking away much of the tale’s inherent tension.
The conspiracy and whistleblowing does not provide the rollercoaster ride it could have been but it provides Kingsley with the opportunity to chew the scenery. It’s a plum role for the 74 year-old actor who unleashes a controlled but spirited performance as the morally compromised, foul mouthed Pasha. It’s also a pleasure to see Jacqueline Bisset as his nemesis, a stern enemy who isn’t afraid to get under the skin of the undiplomatic diplomat.
“Backstabbing for Beginners’s” story of corruption from our recent past, complete with Pasha’s self-serving doublespeak about the “the growing pains of a new democracy,” is timely, if not exciting.
By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada
Paul Gross didn’t plan on directing two war movies back-to-back, that’s just the way it turned out. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he says with a laugh.
Seven years ago his film Passchendaele, a hybrid of romance and war based around the gruelling 1917 battle of the same name, was highest-budgeted Canadian-produced film ever.
That film was based on the experiences of his maternal grandfather, Michael Joseph Dunne, who served in the First World War. Hyena Road was born out of Gross’s own experiences after visiting Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
“I was mesmerized by the complexity of it and it was nothing like I had been told by the press,” he says, “let alone our government. I thought I should go back with a camera team because they were talking about pulling out of combat operations. I didn’t have a story in mind or the intention of making anything, I just thought it would be a good idea to film it.”
Returning with a modest crew, he shot footage and had long conversations with the soldiers.
“I would pick various guys and jot down their stories. Out of that the story emerged. Nothing in it is actually mine. The assembly of it is mine. That includes the characters. All the characters are based on people I met or composites of people I met.”
He says the story of a young Canadian sniper (Rossif Sutherland) struggling with the ambiguity of the missions his superiors (Gross and Christine Horne) are sanctioning was “written by the soldiers in a sense.”
“I finished the script and gave it to my producing partner Niv Fichman and he was just furious. He said, ‘Why did you have to do another war film?’ Then he read the script and said, ‘Damn you, it’s good. Now we have to make it.’”
Gross, who stars and directs, blended the film he shot in Afghanistan with locations in Jordan to create a seamless look at a very complex subject.
“I look at Hyena Road and think, ‘This sort of the polar opposite of Passchendaele in terms of a war film.’ Passchendaele was partly the way it was because it was the bridge between the romantic period and the modern era. I think Hyena Road is post-modern in that the nature of warfare contains almost no romanticism anymore. It’s very complicated. As one of the characters says in it, ‘There’s no winning, there’s just an end state.’”
“Hyena Road,” the new war film starring, written and directed by Paul Gross, opens with a heart stopping sniper sequence. Rossif Sutherland is Ryan Sanders of the Canadian Armed Forces and a crack shot. He eliminates a Taliban target only to find himself and his team up against a much larger group of insurgents. Seeking safety, they take refuge offered by a mysterious villager, who may or not be on their side.
It’s a wildly effective introduction to the world of “Hyena Road.” It sets up the complicated nature of the warfare and shifting alliances in that part of the world. It’s exciting and kicks off the search for a mysterious mujahideen, known as The Ghost (Niamatullah Arghandabi). High-ranking officer Pete Mitchell (Gross) is convinced The Ghost, a legendary former warlord, is the key to establishing peace—or something close to it—between the diverse factions who seek to destabilize the government.
On a less geopolitical level Sanders is romantically involved with his commanding officer, Jennifer Bowman (Christine Horne), and the couple must decide whether or not their relationship will get in the way of being effective soldiers.
Gross, who based the screenplay on conversations he had with Canadian troops in Afghanistan, hasn’t made a war film in the traditional sense. He clearly has great affection for the Canadians who serve but isn’t afraid to highlight the ambiguity of the missions Mitchell is sanctioning. It’s a complicated part of the world, but this isn’t a complicated movie. It’s a film that clearly and concisely states its thesis that this conflict isn’t a matter of winners or losers, but of uncertainty that will eventually lead to an end state. In that way it’s more “Zero Dark Thirty” than “American Sniper.”
“Hyena Road” doesn’t maintain the urgency of its opening moments and the romantic subplot feels unnecessary (although it eventually delivers an emotional wallop) but for all the war movie cliché it embraces, it avoids others—like xenophobia and noble warrior banalities—to paint a picture of the difficulty in fighting a war in very confusing times.
