UPDATE: It was a pleasure hosting the In Conversation With… Sheila McCarthy at the Victoria Film Festival on Saturday February 7. As expected, Sheila was hilarious, insightful, and the hour just flew by. Thanks to the festival and to everyone who attended the sold out interview!
I’ll be hosting the British Columbia premier of “Dancing on the Elephant,” a comedy about two women who form an unlikely alliance over a shared distaste for their nursing home. Soon they are plotting one last rebellious adventure. After the screening I’m thrilled to greet the movie’s star, special guest Sheila McCarthy from the Academy Award-winning “Women Talking.”
The VFF goes all in with elbows up as we present two of Canada’s greatest gems, Sheila McCarthy in conversation with Richard Crouse. Following the liveon-stage conversation, we present the BC premiere of their latest film, Dancing on the Elephant.
Dancing on the Elephant
Directors: Julia Neill & Jacob Z. Smithunt
2025 / Canada / 94min / Drama
Atlantic International Film Festival – Outstanding Performance
Join me for a special Q&A of the dystopian drama “The Well” with Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis and cast at Cineplex Yonge-Dundas this weekend! Tickets are on sale NOW.
Friday, January 23 · 7pm · SOLD OUT
Saturday, January 24 · 6:45pm
In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight over the precious remaining resources, a young woman’s loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man who discovers her family has a secret supply of freshwater.
I join CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisco to talk about the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian drama of “H is for Hawk,” the thriller “Honey Bunch” and the dystopian drama “The Well.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk about the new movies coming to theatres including the sci fi action flick “Mercy,” the avian adventure of “H is for Hawk,” the thriller “Honey Bunch” and the eco thriller “The Well.”
SYNOPSIS: In “The Well,” a new dystopian drama now playing in theatres, survivors of an environmental collapse come into conflict over natural recourses, including a hidden supply of fresh water. “To drink from the waters of oblivion,” days Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy, “is to loose the ties of the past.”
CAST: Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Joanne Boland, Arnold Pinnock, Sheila McCarthy, Idrissa Sanogo. Directed by Hubert Davis.
REVIEW: Although set in the future, “The Well” resonates with timely themes of ecological disaster, isolationism and polarization.
Set in a world where water is like liquid gold, “The Well” takes place post-apocalypse, with most of the world’s H₂O supply infected with a deadly virus. Into this grim situation come Elisha (Joanne Boland), Paul (Arnold Pinnock) and daughter Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon), a tight family unit living in an isolated home with access to a safe supply of water.
Things are good until Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo), a young man who claims to be a long-lost family member, turns up bringing with him misgivings that infects the family as they decide whether he is to be trusted or not.
When the family well, their sole source of clean water, develops a crack in its filter, Sarah and Jamie are sent off in search of a replacement which leads them to a cult compound run by Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy).
“The Well” uses the backdrop of a poisoned water supply to study ethical dilemmas and what happens when trust, even inside one’s family, is a rare commodity.
Director Hubert Davis, working from a screenplay by Michael Capellupo and Kathleen Hepburn, looks to low key dystopian films like “The Road” and “The Quiet Earth” for inspiration rather than high-octane spectacles like “The Hunger Games” or the “Mad Max” films. “The Well” is an intimate film, focusing on the characters and their interactions in a troubled world with new societal rules.
Key to the success of the film is Pierre-Dixon. It is Sarah’s coming-of-age story, coupled with her instinct for survival, that propels the action. Pierre-Dixon finds a balance between the character’s disillusionment with the world and her desire to do the right thing. That internal battle gives the Sarah emotional weight that brings with it a great deal of poignancy.
“The Well” doesn’t tread much new ground in terms of dystopian storytelling, but does create compelling characters, like Sarah and Sheila McCarthy’s menacing survivalist, while shining a light on the human side of a societal breakdown.
The new film “The Middle Man,” a new dark comedy now playing in theatres, is the story of Frank (Pål Sverre Hagen), an unemployed man who takes a job in the accident capital of America.
The setting is Karmac in Any Midwest State, USA. Terrible things happen on an almost daily basis. It’s so grim there the flags at City Hall are permanently at half-mast. The only growth industry in town is accident clean-up, the crew that comes in to tidy up after bad things happen.
The city is going broke, pretty soon they won’t be able to turn on the streetlights, which, says the local doctor (Don McKellar), will lead to even more mishaps, so they need to hire a Middle Man, someone to deliver bad news to the families of the bereaved.
Frank, out of work for three years, applies, even though his only qualifications are a hangdog demeanor and telling his mother that his father fell off a ladder, hit his head and died.
He gets the gig, learns the ropes—”Crying is a privilege that belongs to the next of kin,” says the sheriff (Paul Gross), “not the middle man.”—and forms a bond with receptionist Blenda (Tuva Novotny). When Bob (Trond Fausa Aurvåg), Brenda’s ex-boyfriend and failed Middle Man candidate, strikes and kills Frank’s best friend, it sets into motion of events that causes an overwhelmed Frank to wonder if his new position is right for him or not. “It’s a busy job,” he says, “accidents don’t keep office hours.”
Norwegian director Bent Hamer, who also wrote the script based on a novel by Norwegian-Danish writer Lars Saabye Christensen, may have set the story in the Midwest, but his dark, deadpan humour is purely Scandinavian. This semi-comedic study of loss and grief, is macabre in tone but maintains a quirky, if bleak, sense of itself. Dialing up the farcical aspects of the story may have increased the film’s commercial appeal but may have chipped away at Hamer’s thoughtful consideration of life in a small, unusual town.
“The Middle Man” won’t be for everyone, but viewers with a taste for unconventional but restrained absurdism will find much to enjoy.
Becoming a new parent is scary, filled with unknowns. Will the baby be healthy and happy? What kind of parent will I be? A new film called “Isabelle,” starring Amanda Crew and Adam Brody, imagines the unimaginable, the unknowable psychological torment that follows a miscarriage.
Larissa (Crew) and Matt (Brody) are a happy young couple. Expecting a baby, they move to a new house to start their new life as parents. Next door is a stately old home, occupied by the schoolmarm-ish Ann Pelway (Sheila McCarthy) and eerie daughter Isabelle (Zoë Belkin), who is usually only seen peering through a second story window. After an encounter with Ann on the street Larissa is rushed to the hospital. Though clinically dead for a minute Larissa survives. Sadly, the child does not. Once at home Larissa is plagued by guilt and depression. She hears her dead child crying in the other room and is tormented by Isabelle’s seemingly unbreaking gaze.
After a brief set up director Rob Heydon sets a fast pace for the brisk 80-minute movie, diving right into the psychological terror. Much of the horror is subtle but effective as we learn about why Ann and Isabelle seem so otherworldly and follow Larissa on her terrifying journey. Midway through, however, “Isabelle” becomes cluttered with plot devices; there’s a hospital priest (Dayo Ade), demonic possession, a spiritual healer (Michael Miranda), Devil worship and more. More is sometimes less, and in this case the film feels rushed, over-stuffed with every trope out of the Supernatural Drama Handbook.
“Isabelle” does have its pleasures. McCarthy is a standout as Ann, a pious woman tormented by the past, and Brody and Crew who humanize the horror of the aftermath of a tragedy.
Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again,” but some people do it anyway. Take Valerie (Sheila McCarthy), protagonist of “Cardinals.” After spending a decade in prison for vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated she returns home to an unexpected reception.
The story begins the night of her crime. Without spoiling the film’s set up I can tell you we see Valerie guzzling vodka in the front seat of her car as a lifeless body is illuminated by her tail lights. Fast-forward ten years. On the day of her release from prison her daughters (Grace Glowicki and Kate Boland) welcome her back. Not everyone is happy to see her, however. Next door neighbour and victim’s son Mark (Noah Reid) has waited ten years to confront her, to find out what, exactly, happened that fateful night. Valerie’s stoicism and lack of contriteness stonewalls Marks’ attempts to uncover the truth. Is there more to this story than he originally thought?
“Cardinals” is a slow burn that focuses on the reaction to Valerie’s actions. She brought tragedy to two familes, Mark lost a father and her daughters lost their mother, but as details are revealed in a harrowing climax, more questions about culpability and consequences are raised. It’s an interesting “Dateline” worthy crime story with an effective central performance from McCarthy.
UPDATE: It was a pleasure hosting the In Conversation With… Sheila McCarthy at the Victoria Film Festival on Saturday February 7. As expected, Sheila was hilarious, insightful, and the hour just flew by. Thanks to the festival and to everyone who attended the sold out interview!
