I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best shows and movies to watch this weekend, including the demonic “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and the non rom com “The Threesome.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:32)
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with guest anchor Zuraidah Alman to talk about new movies in theatres including the demonic drama “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” the non rom com “The Threesome” and what’s happening at TIFF!
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 15:01)
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at new movies in theatres, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and “The Threesome,” and the opening night of TIFF 50!
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the demonic “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” the non rom com “The Threesome” and the gloriously gross “The Toxic Avenger.”
Watch 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 Conjuring: Last Rites” and the non rom com “The Threesome.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “The Threesome,” a look at modern romance now playing in theatres, an impulsive ménage à trois leads to double trouble for Connor, Jenny and Olivia.
CAST: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, and Julia Sweeney. Directed by Chad Hartigan.
REVIEW: A charming, but uneven rom com about adult truths and consequences, “The Threesome” is as narratively messy as the situation it essays.
The action in “The Threesome” begins with an impetuous, slightly stoned ménage à trois between nice-guy Connor (Jonah Hauer-King), his longtime crush Olivia (Zoey Deutch) and Jenny (Ruby Cruz), a random customer at Olivia’s restaurant who was just been stood up by her date.
Long story short, months later Jenny and Olivia let Connor know he’s going to be a father twice over.
The resulting complications are the stuff of farce, but with a heart.
Director Chad Hartigan, working from a script by Ethan Ogilby, plays the situation for light laughs, but keeps one foot firmly placed on the ground. Ogilby introduces some very non rom com elements to the story, and it is the stark realities of the situation that add layers to what could have been standard fare.
The film’s biggest selling point are the three leads, Deutch, Hauer-King, and Cruz. They hold on tight as the story veers from heartfelt to humorous to chaotic, often in the same scene. If not for their wonderful dynamics, “The Threesome” might have ended up feeling more like a hygiene film about the importance of contraception than a complex look at accountability and adulthood.
Structurally “The Threesome” pays tribute to rom com tropes but never falls victim to the genre’s cliches, even as it gallops toward a rushed happily-ever-after ending.
SYNOPSIS: A throwback to the twisty-turny courtroom dramas of the 1980s and 90s, “Juror #2,” now playing in theatres, sees Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) called for jury duty. Like many people, he has a laundry list of reasons why he shouldn’t have to do his civic duty. Nonetheless, he’s chosen to serve at a high-profile murder trial, one that will test his pledge of being fair and impartial in the jury box.
CAST: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Kiefer Sutherland. Directed by Clint Eastwood.
REVIEW: Clint Eastwood’s 40th directorial effort is a potboiler, but with the high-minded purpose of examining issues of justice and the price of doing the right thing.
No spoilers here, what follows is the story of the film, but if you want to go in with a blank slate, skip the next paragraph.
Once seated on the jury, Kemp, a man who has pulled his life together since quitting drinking four years previous, realizes that he, and not the accused, is responsible for the death at the center of the prosecution’s case.
That provides the moral dilemma at the heart of “Juror #2.” Kemp’s feelings of self-preservation versus his responsibility to truth and justice hangs over the entire film like a shroud.
Hoult shows us Kemp’s dilemma rather than tell us about it. It’s an introspective performance, one that relies on his anxious exterior and the tortured look behind his eyes. Hoult isn’t flashy, but in his restraint, he paints an effective portrait of a soon-to-be father who is torn up inside.
For the second time in as many months J.K. Simmons, after his bravura work in “Saturday Night,” swoops in and steals every scene he’s in, and then gets out of the way to let Eastwood and Hoult finish the job.
For the most part Eastwood keeps the storytelling taut, allowing Kemp’s quandary to take center stage. It’s not exactly suspenseful, but Eastwood, who turned 94 last May, unfurls the story of conflicted morals in a solidly entertaining, if not exactly innovative, way. The story beats feel reminiscent of the big courtroom dramas of years ago, but Eastwood carefully, and cleverly works his way through moral conundrums to ends up at a restrained, but devastating finale.
“Juror #2” is a little old fashioned, but in all the right ways. Age has not diminished Eastwood’s ability to tell a story, keep the audience engaged and give them something to think about once the end credits have rolled.
“Not Okay,” a new clickbaity satire starring Zoey Deutch and now streaming on Disney+, sets up an extraordinary situation to comment on an all too ordinary social media phenomenon.
Deutch is aspiring writer Danni Sanders. Her photo editor job at the Buzzfeed-esque website Depravity has yet to help her advance to writer status, as her story pitches fall on deaf ears. Aimless, with no friends, she is desperate to catch the eye of Colin (Dylan O’Brien), the coolest guy in the office, even if he is constantly enveloped in a Vape cloud.
She’s invisible, even on social media.
“Have you ever wanted to be noticed so badly,” she says, “you didn’t even care what it was for? You wake up every day thinking, ‘I want to be seen. I want to be important. I want to have purpose. I want to be known. I want to be loved. I want to matter.’”
To find meaning, purpose and maybe get a few extra followers on social media, she concocts a goofy plan to post faked photos from an imaginary Paris trip to glam up her Instagram account. She photoshops herself in front of the Arc de Triomphe, creates a backstory about being invited to a writer’s retreat in the City of Lights and writes captions like, “Starting my morning right. Now where is my baguette?”
But then real-life tragedy strikes in the form of terror attacks around Paris and all of a sudden, Danni goes from zero to hero. Her account is flooded with comments. “I can’t believe you posted that photograph five minutes before the bombs hit,” writes a concerned follower. “I mean, what if it had been five minutes later? Could you even imagine?”
Danni enjoys the attention, and goes with the flow. She “returns” to the United States and her job as a “survivor,” with a new confident attitude and faux PTSD. As her online fame grows, she befriends school-shooting survivor Rowan (Mia Isaac), leeching off the activist’s popularity. Even Colin now finds her the most interesting person in the room.
Her dreams come true, but, she says, “be careful what you wish for,” as her lies spirals out of control.
“Not Okay” is a social satire that takes aim at the curated life of Instagram influencers and the dark side of the artificial fame of an on-line life. The attention starved user who fabricates a story for money or notoriety, is a ripped-from-the-headlines premise, one that frequently plays itself out in one way or another on social media, but it lays the foundation for the character work done by Deutch and Isaac.
Deutch doesn’t make Danni sympathetic, but somehow makes her actions understandable. Through the performance it is easy to see how this lonely, directionless young woman got caught up in the lust for acknowledgement. The story may be shallow but Deutch’s performance reveals layers.
Contrasting Danni’s wanton ambition is Rowan’s heartfelt crusade for awareness. As a school shooting survivor Rowan is a combustible combination of trauma and anger, and Isaac embodies the earnestness and fear that comes with that lived experience.
“Not Okay” isn’t as hard hitting as it thinks it is. As a breezy look at the social media manipulation it treads familiar ground, but its ingrained sense of humor and performances make it worth a look.
Richard joins host Jim Richards of the NewsTalk 1010 afternoon show The Rush for Booze and Reviews! Today we talk about the the stylish crime drama “The Outfit,” the college horror “Master” and the “adult” scares of “X.” Then, we learn about the most stylish man who ever lived and the drink named after him.
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
