I join CP24 to talk about the reimagination of the classic gothic romance “Wuthering Heights,” the time travelling farce “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie,” the nostalgic b-movie “Cold Storrage” and the drama “Sirāt.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChanel to talk about the reimagined “Wuthering Heights,” the time travelling farce “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie” and the nostalgic b-movie “Cold Storage.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at movies in theatres including the reimagined “Wuthering Heights,” the time travelling farce “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie,” the nostalgic b-movie “Cold Storrage” and the drama “Sirāt.”
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 reimagined “Wuthering Heights,” the time travelling farce “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie,” the nostalgic b-movie “Cold Storrage” and the drama “Sirāt.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: “Moor, moor, moor. How do you like it?” “Wuthering Heights,” a reimagined take on Emily Brontë’s grand gothic tale of bodice-ripping and obsessive love, stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as lovers with an unbreakable bond. “Love twisted by time. Desire that won’t die.”
CAST: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell. Directed by Emerald Fennell.
REVIEW: More (or should that be “moor”) explicit than previous iterations of the Brontë classic, Emerald Fennell’s take on the story is a study in how obsessive love can lead to ruin.
Set in the late 1700s, Charlotte Mellington plays Catherine Earnshaw, the young, free-spirited daughter of Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes), a booze-hound who brings home an illiterate, orphaned boy (“Adolescence” star Owen Cooper) from the city to the family’s decaying Yorkshire estate. She names him Heathcliff, after her dead brother, and they form a fast bond.
Cut to years later. Catherine and Heathcliff, now played by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, are head over heels but Cathy desires the kind of social standing Heathcliff cannot provide.
Despite Heathcliff’s promise to “follow you like a dog to the end of the world,” she marries the refined gentleman Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), a handsome rich man but without the intensity that defined her relationship with Heathcliff.
Rejected and devastated, Heathcliff leaves the only home and real love he has ever known, only to return five years later, wealthy and with revenge on this mind. “Why did you leave me?” she asks. “Why did you betray your own heart?” he replies.
Simply put, Emerald Fennell, the director of “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn,” has turned “Wuthering Heights” into something best described as a light “Fifty Shades of Bridgerton.”
Despite a reputation for pushing the envelope, Fennell seems restrained here, save for a brief scene of bizarre doggie-style degradation and the worst consent scene ever committed to film. Those moments are memorable for the kind of provocation and boundary-pushing we expect from the director. For much of the film’s runtime, however, she’s on a low simmer, stuck somewhere between the Brontë’s melancholic passion and the director’s usual decadent discomfort.
As the young Catherine and Heathcliffe, Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper provide a proper setup for the soul-deep connection to come. When the characters grow up Robbie and Elordi bring intensity but the heartfelt spark that lit the flame of passion years before is replaced by a romantic appetite that manifests itself in cruelty and muddled motivations.
At its most basic, Catherine and Heathcliffe straddle the thin line between love and hate, not an uncommon romantic position, but Fennell confusingly blurs the line into a gaping incoherent hole.
Robbie and Elordi look the part of impossibly beautiful star-crossed lovers, and they share chemistry, but their thirst for one another feels skin deep, even as it grows obsessive and destructive.
Like its stars, “Wuthering Heights” looks lovely—opulent interiors, moody moors—but the reimagination of Brontë’s novel feels lackluster, unable to truly grasp the passion or the tragedy inherent to the original story.
SYNOPSIS: In “Magpie,” a new neo-noir thriller starring Daisy Ridley, and now available on all major platforms for digital rental and purchase, Ben (Shazad Latif) and Anette’s (Daisy Ridley) young daughter (Hiba Ahmed) lands a co-starring role alongside 20-something movie star Alicia (Matilda Lutz). Trouble brews as Anette, stuck at home in the suburbs with a new baby, becomes suspicious that Ben has fallen in love with the actress.
CAST: Daisy Ridley, Shazad Latif, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Hiba Ahmed, Cherrelle Skeete, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Alistair Petrie. Directed by Sam Yates.
REVIEW: Based on a story idea by star Daisy Ridley, “Magpie” is a revenge drama disguised as a study of a toxic relationship.
That the self-absorbed Ben is a needy man who falls for a glamorous woman while gaslighting his wife and children is nothing new. He’s a cad who thinks his wife has changed, not him, and he’s more than open to the charms of someone younger and shinier. “You made me feel alive,” he whispers to Alicia, “for the first time in years.”
Been there done that in dozens of other movies.
What is unique is Anette’s way of equaling the playing field. No spoilers here, but let’s just say comeuppance is on “Magpie’s” menu in the form of a flashback montage that reveals what was really happening all along. It’s a satisfying way to wind up this tale of twisted relationship dynamics, even if it is somewhat preposterous.
It succeeds because of Ridley’s committed performance. Her recent work in films like “The Young Woman and the Sea” and “Sometimes I Think About Dying” displays a range and an interest in textured material. “Magpie” allows her the chance to dig into another layered character. As Anette battles depression and low self-esteem, but Ridley brings a stoic intensity that sizzles. We’re not told that much about her, but we don’t need to be, it’s all in the performance.
“Magpie” is a slow burn pulpy thriller that pays off with a satisfying third act, but you’ll need to suspend your disbelief during the not entirely believable events in the film’s last few minutes.
“What’s Love Got to Do with It,” starring Lily James, fresh off “Pam and Tommy,” and Shazad Latif, and now playing in theatres, is a rom com that examines the customs surrounding arranged marriages.
James plays Zoe, an award-winning British documentary filmmaker focussed on her work. She swipes right from time to time, but says, “I’m still interviewing. I haven’t met the one yet.”
“I’m fine without a boring old prince,” she says.
Her childhood next door neighbor, Kaz (Latif), now a handsome and successful doctor, doesn’t use dating apps, because he’s agreed to follow the example of his traditional Pakistani parents.
“I’m going old school on this one,” he says. “I’m getting an arranged marriage. Well, ‘assisted marriage.’ That’s what we’re calling it these days.”
“What,” Zoe jokes, “like assisted suicide?”
When he spouts data that suggests the divorce rate is lower among those with arranged marriages, she proposes that she follow the process, from introduction to marriage, with camera in hand. Her bosses go for the idea, even if they jokingly call the planned documentary, “Love Contractually.”
Zoe interviews other British couples with arranged marriages until Kaz gets engaged via Skype to Maymouna (Sajal Aly), a law student from Pakistan. “Love at first Skype,” says Zoe. Travelling to Lahore for the wedding, Zoe focuses her camera on Kaz as he “walks into love.”
“What’s Love Got to Do with it?” refreshes the usual rom com formula while still hewing the line enough to be recognizable within the genre. Director Shekhar Kapur, working with a script from Jemima Khan, embraces most, but not all, of the tropes of the genre. They forgo the most obvious—and often most odious—rom com conventions, in favor of something deeper. It’s still a rom com, but the absence of the usual meet cutes and airport runs are welcome omissions.
Kapur tugs at the heartstrings in the film’s closing moments, amping up the melodrama to provide an unexpectedly emotional finale, even if the actual ending of the film is completely expected. Much of that impact is due to the chemistry between James and Latif. An easy charm exists between them, the kind of vibe that makes the audience feel like they really did grow up next door to one another. That relationship goes a long way to adding dimension to their story, both platonic and possibly even romantic.
“What’s Love Got to Do with It?” is an elevated rom com which challenges the idea of love as a sweet old-fashioned notion.
