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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 May 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

ENDLESS COOKIE (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver 

Through a series of vignettes -- some tragic, some funny, all a little bizarre -- this animated feature documentary explores the complex bond between two half brothers, one Indigenous, one white, spanning bustling 1980s Toronto to the present day isolated First Nations community of Shamattawa. 

One thing for sure is that the animated feature ENDLESS COOKIE does not feel like a documentary, though it is classified as one.  For one, it is animated and goofy, so it has a Looney Tunes characteristic uncommon in a doc.  Also, the story about two brothers meeting up in an indigenous country to make a movie sounds like made-up fiction.   Truth be told, these two half-brothers did get together to try to make an animated movie after winning a movie grant.  So all of it is true and making the film with animation also does not disqualify the film from being a documentary.   The result is a weird, very amusing. original indigenous animated documentary that is a one-of-a-kind.   The humour is funny with a lot of indigenous slants and the animation is also kooky, making up for Hollywood-style expensive special effects computer animation.

The two half-brothers are Seth from Toronto and Pete from Manitoba.  Seth, now 47, says that Pete, 62, is “one of the best storytellers I know.”So he decided to audio-record Pete’s stories and then animate them.  This is the birth of the documentary ENDLESS COOKIE, which took an endless time to make, according to Pete’s daughter Cookie, one of Pete’s nine children, owing to too many disruptions, as humorously depicted in the film.

Though the film is amusing for its spontaneity and humour, the very trait can also be distracting and annoying.  The film lacks a strong narrative, which could be strengthened with fewer distractions.   It is a delicate balance that the directors are not balancing.

ENDLESS COOKIE ends up a fresh, innovative,e indigenous animated documentary with loony and arguably accurate depictions of what it is to live in the Manitoba reservations.   Anything can happen with the director’s often amusing distractions that sometimes distract from the main idea at hand, the idea of which is never made clear for the most part.

ENDLESS COOKIE is the Audience Award winner for Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs 2025!   opens June 13 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox), Vancouver (VIFF Centre),

Winnipeg (Dave Barber Cinematheque) and Montreal!

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THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME(USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson’s latest feature THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is as exasperating as it is inventive and entertaining, due largely to Anderson’s unique method of storytelling, often with his characters narrating the story to the camera amidst vivid sets, wardrobe, and music, this one again by Academy Award Winner French Alexandre Desplat.

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME Plays like Anderson’s last two films, ASTEROID CITY and THE FRENCH DISPATCH, so if these two films were too much for you, best avoid this latest effort.  Anderson toned down the excesses several notches with his recent spate of Roald Dahl short films, one of which, THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, won him the Oscar last year for Best Short.

The film is a stylized black comedy that only Anderson can best deliver in his own stylized way.   Set in the fictional 1950s nation of Greater Independent Phoenicia, the film follows Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), a flamboyant European tycoon embroiled in financial misconduct and an ambitious infrastructure project, the latest called THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, the details of which are left to the audience to imagine.  Korda is part of an ambitious multi-part attempt to industrialise Phoenicia via a series of gargantuan infrastructure projects and he hopes to pocket 5% of revenue for the next 150 years.  Korda has secured the investment to pay for it, but unfortunately, the international bureaucrats manipulate the price of a vital construction component, making everything much more expensive.  In essence, the story follows Korda, accompanied by Liesl and Michael Cera’s hapless Norwegian tutor Bjorn, as he tries to extract more money from his investors as he enacts his grandest plan yet to protect his family fortune.

Facing international scrutiny and assassination attempts, Korda appoints his estranged daughter, Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a 21-year-old nun, as his sole heir.  Together with her tutor, Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), they navigate a world of industrial espionage, political intrigue, and personal redemption.  These are the three main characters of the story though many others appear, many of whom are played by an impressive cast of cameos that include Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem DeFoe, Scarlett Johansson, F. Murray Abraham, Rupert Friend, Tom Hanks, Richard Ayoade, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray among many others.

The film as like his previous two films, boasts meticulously crafted sets and a whimsical visual style that should delight his fans.  Needless to say, there is always something at the corner of every scene that will surprise.  But Anderson does not care about scientific accuracy.  The scene in which a plane in flight has its window smashed open does not result in Korda sucked out of the plane.  Another is the quicksand segment in which Korda sinks into the quicksand with only his head above the quicksand.  For quicksand, this does not happen as the body never sinks below waste level due to the density of the body and the fact that he pulls himself out is not possible.  It takes tremendous strength to achieve this feat,

Filming took place at Babelsberg Studios in Germany (the film being an American and German co-production) with production designer Adam Stockhausen and set decorator Anna Pinnock creating elaborate indoor sets, including a surreal depiction of heaven featuring Willem Dafoe as a moral interrogator.  The great amount of effort director Anderson has put into the film can be observed if one stays to the end to read all the closing credits, in which he thanks all those who have donated their craft to the film.

The film premiered at Cannes and opens widely on June 6th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 26 May 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY (Lijepa večer, lijep dan)(Croatia/Canada/Poland/Cyprus/Bosnia/Herzegovinia 2024) ***
Directed by Ivona Juka

Despite the bright and cheery title of the film, BEAUTIFUL EVENING, BEAUTIFUL DAY is a very solemn, serious and tough film to watch, depicting a time in the history of then, Yugoslavia when homosexuality was outlawed and gays were punished, imprisoned and beaten almost to death.

The film begins in 1944 where 4 friends fight as rebels against the Nazis, thus deemed heroes.  But their sexual orientation cannot be forgiven and they are then exposed and punished.

The film is shot in Croatian and in black and white.

The film follows four close friends—Lovro, Nenad, Stevan, and Ivan—who, as young students, joined the Partisan resistance during World War II to fight against the Ustashas and Nazis. Sixteen years later, in 1957, they had become renowned filmmakers in Communist Yugoslavia. However, their sexual orientation raises suspicion among the authorities. A Communist Party loyalist named Emir is assigned to sabotage their careers and lives. As the friends strive to maintain their artistic integrity and personal freedom, Emir's own beliefs are challenged.

Of all the film;’s characters the most intriguing one is that of Emir.  At one point, he invites the 4 friends to his cottage by the sea while the 4 frolic around.  He sympathizes with them, yet turns them in.   This is a troubled soul who is always wrestling with his conscience.  His love life is also empty and he longs for companionship.   The film shows him finally doing the right thing.

One thing about the film is that the actors portraying the characters with a 16-year difference do not age at all, in looks, which makes it all look a bit weird.

The film is more positive in the first half before turning really harsh in the second half, with a few very hard-to-watch segments like the beating of the gay characters.  The segment really makes the audience wonder why there is so much hate and disgust for fellow human beings.

Director Juka grew up with a family member who was never allowed to "come out" and lived in the shadows of his true self.  Juka was inspired to shed light on a dark time in history. Through the director’s extensive research, which included PhD theses on homosexual persecution in communist Yugoslavia, he discovered the remarkable resilience and unwavering strength of those who fought for their right to be different and authentic, which he depicts in the film. Despite the persecution and imprisonment, they never gave up.  This film pays tribute to their courage, but it is also about our power of love to conquer hate and a call for acceptance and understanding in our polarized world.  Homosexuality was just barely acceptable in the new (Yugoslavian) regions in the 1990s.

The film also delves into the other themes of love, loyalty, artistic expression, and political oppression.

It was selected as Croatia’s official submission for the 97th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, though it was not shortlisted.   The film opens in theatres across Canada (at the Imagine Cinemas in Toronto) on May 30th.

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BRING HER BACK (Australia 2025) ****

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

Bring Her Back is an upcoming Australian horror film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman. The Philippou brothers wowed the film world with their debut horror film  TALK TO ME a year ago.  Their latest horror feature is impressively better and scarier, covering the subjects of bringing the dead back to life and the trauma of children losing their parents and moving into a foster home.

Following the death of their father, step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), who is visually impaired, are placed in foster care with Laura (Sally Hawkins), a woman mourning the loss of her own daughter. Laura also cares for a peculiar, mute boy named Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips). As the children adjust to their new home, they uncover a terrifying ritual linked to Laura's attempts to cope with her grief.

For a horror film, the performances are top-notch, especially those of the children.  Billy Barratt is excellent as the tormented elder brother, Andy and Jonah Wren Phillips is really scary as the troubled Oliver, made even more frightening by the excellent horror make-up.   But the main acting prize belongs to British actress Sally Hawkins.   Hawkins is one of the best actresses working today, having earned an Oscar nomination playing Cate Blanchett’s sister in Woody Allen’s BLUE JASMINE.   She broke into fame in Mike Leigh’s HAPPY-GO-LUCKY.  Hawkins is an inspired casting, she always plays roles of troubled characters.  In BRING HER BACK, she gets to show the scariest of all the characters that she has played, one that changes from victim to predator to just a confused human being.  Hawkins is excellent to watch, and BRING HER BACK has Hawkins in one of her best roles.

The film explores the depths of sorrow and the lengths one might go to alleviate it. There is great emotional distress, well played and delivered in the film making BRING HER BACK a realistic and disturbing feel-bad film, but in a good way.

The Philippous have created one horror segment in this film that is so scary that it is guaranteed (almost) to have anyone turn away.  This is the scene in which Andy hands the disturbed Oliver a piece of melon at the edge of a sharp knife.   Another scene has Andy in his room on the bench lifting a heavy barbell.  Whenever someone lifts a barbell on a bench in a horror film, one can guess what is going to happen.

The film also has an excellent beginning in which the words “This is not s Cult” appear on the screen.   Blurred but disturbing images are shown on the screen, illustrating the fact that one need not see everything, but much is left to the imagination to experience true horror.

BRING HER BACK has so far garnered rave reviews.  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 45 critics' reviews are positive.   It is truly the best horror film opening this year and is on my list for the top 10 films of 2025.

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THE HEART KNOWS (Corazón delator)(Argentina 2025) **
Directed by Marcos Carnevale

After a heart transplant, Manuel feels a personality shift and explores his donor's life, leading him to meet the widowed Vale and her community.

Though the film explores themes of love, loss, identity, and redemption, offering a poignant narrative about how lives can intertwine in unexpected ways, the film feels condescending to its audience, with too much sentimentality all mired in cliched territory, the script cannot seem to escape from.  Those who enjoy the romances of Harlequin novels should not be disappointed.

Though the film caters towards a female target audience, the film's central character is a male.  Juan Manuel (Benjamín Vicuña), a wealthy and emotionally distant businessman who undergoes a life-saving heart transplant.  Following the surgery, he begins to experience profound emotional changes that lead him to investigate the life of his heart donor, Pedro, a humble and kind-hearted man.  Many suspense thrillers have the same narrative, but this film opts for romance.

As Juan Manuel delves into Pedro's past, he meets Valeria (Julieta Díaz), Pedro's widow, and becomes deeply involved in her close-knit community.  Concealing his true identity and the fact that he carries Pedro's heart, Juan Manuel finds himself falling in love with Valeria.   It is a little too convenient that the script calls for Juan to just break up with his girlfriend before meeting Valeria.  He also takes it upon himself to support and uplift the community (the community is about to face eviction) that Pedro cherished, all while grappling with the complexities of his secret.

THE HEART KNOWS (Corazón delator) is a Netflix original movie and opens for streaming Friday.

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WE WERE DANGEROUS (New Zealand 2024) ***
Directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu

The abuse of young women in WE WERE DANGEROUS reminds one of a similar Irish 2002 film, Peter Mullan’s THE MAGDALENE SISTERS.  In that film, three young Irish women (just as the three girls in WE WERE DANGEROUS) struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.  In both films, the three girls attempt an escape.  While the escape is more difficult in WE WERE DANGEROUS, as the girls are housed on an island, an escape means escaping by sea, the MAGDALENE SISTERS, ironically, escape just through a door that was unlocked - so easy an escape that no one ever tried.  The abuse of the Magdalene sisters was much worse.   Both films are excellent pieces for the examination of abuse in institutionalized systems.  And both films celebrate the resilience of the abused young women, working together to survive a corrupt system

It should be noted that though the film feels as if it is based on true events, it is not.  The film is a fictional narrative; however, it draws significant inspiration from real historical events and systemic issues in 1950s New Zealand.  Director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu and writer Maddie Dai crafted the story by researching New Zealand's eugenics movement, the Mazengarb Report, and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.  They also consulted with survivors of state care institutions, including Stewart-Te Whiu's own father, to ensure authenticity in depicting the experiences of marginalized youth during that era.  While the characters and specific events are fictional, the film successfully reflects the broader historical context of institutional abuse and the suppression of indigenous culture in mid-20th-century New Zealand.

The story centres on three of the 12 girls, imprisoned on the island for reform.  Daisy (Manaia Hall) and Nellie (Erana James), who are both Māori and from working-class backgrounds, are arrested for petty theft. Daisy, we are told, had been in the care of seven different foster families by the age of 12 and tried to escape from all of them. Louisa (Nathalie Hall) is from a wealthy white family. She is sent away as a “sex delinquent” in an attempt to “cure” her of homosexuality.  The “school” is really a prison, located on a small and otherwise uninhabited island.  The girls’ education consists of mind-numbing Bible study and absurd “etiquette” classes (all of which are played more for entertainment than for reality) where they are taught how to make polite conversation and how to sit properly and be ladies.  The girls are frequently slapped by the Matron (Rima Te Wiata), who runs the school, an unhinged and violent religious fanatic.  The matron is too easy a target, and the film would have benefited Mohave to make her feel a bit of sympathy.

The film is entertaining to the point of fault.  Though the abuse of the girls is displayed, the physical and mental torture is not as brutal or as violent as in Peter Mullan’s film (THE MAGDALENE SISTERS)..  The result is that WE WERE DANGEROUS finally comes across as a feel-good film of escape, compared to one where mental anguish and physical abuse have long-lasting effects.

WE WERE DANGEROUS opens in Toronto May 30, and plays at imagineNATIVE June 5 while debuting digitally across Canada June 3.

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A WIDOW’S GAME (La viuda negra)(Spain 2025) ***

Directed by Carlos Seles

True crime documentaries are among the most intriguing genres to watch. Netflix seems to have cornered the market with recent hits like COLD CASE: THE TYLENOL MURDERS, a docu-series that also opens this week, AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR, and two other series, THE STAIRCASE and MAKING A MURDERER.

Premiering on May 30, 2025, A WIDOW’S GAME, a Spanish-language film, dramatizes the 2017 murder of Antonio Navarro (“Crime of Patraix”) in Valencia, orchestrated by his wife, María Jesús Moreno (known as Maje), and her lover. The film combines fidelity to the actual events with a focus on psychological intrigue, utilizing real police recordings and judicial documents.  It can be best described as a fiction film inspired by true events.

The story is set in Novelda.  Maybe and Mariawere from there before moving to the city of Valencia.   Novelda is a town located in the province of Alicante, Spain. As of 2009, it has a total population of 27,135 inhabitants.  Novelda has important quarries and mines of marble, limestone, silica, clay and gypsum. It is a major centre of the marble industry.

In August 2017, Antonio Navarro Cerdán was found stabbed to death in a parking garage in Valencia. His wife, María Jesús Moreno Canto—known as “Maje" (Ivana Baquero) —initially appeared as a grieving widow.  However, investigations revealed she had orchestrated the murder with her lover and coworker, Salvador Rodrigo (Tristan Ulloa). Salvador confessed to the stabbing, claiming he was manipulated by Maje, who alleged her husband was mistreating her.   The investigation is doggedly carried out by a no-nonsense investigator, Inspector Eva (Carmen Machi).

The film unfolds in Chapters, each offering the audience a different point of view, beginning with the investigator Eva, followed by Maje, and then Salvo.   The dates that have elapsed after the murder are also shown on the screen as the audience watches how the investigation progresses.

“You might know your way around the office.  But you do not know your way around the streets,”   says an angry Eva to her boss after being taken off the case of her good friend and colleague being murdered.  She says her homicide department has a 98% successful closing, much better than Madrid's, as her boss was passing the case on to the Organized Crime Unit, which is the reason Eva is so upset. 

One flaw of the film is that the audience knows at the very start that the widow is guilty.  The Spanish title, which translates to Black Widow, says it even more clearly.   The fact is also made known to the audience quite early in the film, around the 20-minute mark, after Eva hears the recordings from Maje’s trapped telephone line.   

Carmen Machi steals the show as the murder investigator.   She is in her middle age, plump, efficient, and takes no nonsense, playing like an expert sloth to the likes of class detectives like the fictional Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.

 A WIDOW'S GAME opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 17 May 2025

HORROR films are taking the limelight this year with films like THE SURRENDER streaming on Netflix this week and the film BRING HER BACK set to open next week.

FILM REVIEWS:

AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Matt Wilcox

AIR FORCE ELIT: THUNDERBIRDS provides an inside look at the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds flight squadron.

As the documentary title implies, AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS, the doc cannot help but keep touting the elite group.  No doubt it is an elite group.   The voiceover at the beginning tells us that the Thunderbirds are the best of the best and they are to prove that being good is not enough, but to be excellent and to inspire.  Of course, the job is also a highly dangerous one, with accidents and deaths not being common.

The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF).  The Thunderbirds, as they are popularly known, are assigned to the 57th Wing and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created 72 years ago in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946.  The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures.

It is good to note that it is mentioned in the film, the different formations of the Thunderbirds.  Two Thunderbirds perform a calypso pass. Much of the Thunderbirds' display alternates between maneuvers performed by the diamond and those performed by the solos. They have a total of eight different formations: The Diamond, Delta, Stinger, Arrowhead, Line-Abreast, Trail, Echelon and the Five Card.

In the doc, the audience gets to meet the team of Thunderbirds for the year 2023.  The audience is informed that the team is always changed every year, with 50% of the members rotated out.  The 2023 team has members named Thunder, Threat (a female among the other males), Astro, among others.

The doc touts only the trait of being better than others.  It ignores the fact that one should also care for others, like one team member for another member, to work in a team.  And typical in Trump’s America, the need to prove oneself ‘great’  and ignoring everything else is the typical point that Americans are so unpopular, not only now but also at other times.  Glaringly absent is the omission of other air display pilots around the world.  Most countries have their equivalent of Thunderbirds.  (This reviewer hails from Singapore, where the SAF also has an elite air display team.  The reviewer's brother is a Singapore Air Force Fighter Pilot, so the reviewer is aware of the sacrifices this industry faces.  Singapore is not at war with any other country, but the dearth toll of the air force pilots is high, most of the fatal accidents occurring during the exhibition air shows.

AIR FORCE ELITE: THUNDERBIRDS is a Netflix original documentary that opens fro streaming this week on Netflix.  Despite its flaws, the doc provides solid insight into the risk and training of the individuals, gaining one’s respect, undoubtedly for bravery, coverage, and dedication.

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BAD SHABBOS (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Daniel Robbins

The new Jewish comedy/drama BAD SHABBOS follows a Jewish family experiencing a bad shabbos.  The film plays like one of the too familiar Hollywood dysfunctional family gatherings, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, so do not expect anything new except maybe humour on the Jewish tradition.

Shabbos, also known as Shabbat or the Sabbath, is the Jewish day of rest, observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. It's a time for rest, reflection, and communal observance, remembering the biblical creation story and the Exodus from Egypt. Shabbos involves abstaining from work and certain activities, focusing on family, prayer, and spiritual renewal. Driving is also supposed to be frowned upon, and the characters hide the fact that they have driven to the dinner.

Directed by Daniel Robbins and written by long-time collaborators Robbins (Pledge, Citizen Weiner, Uncaged) and Zack Weiner (Pledge, Citizen Weiner), is a comedy drama about an engaged interfaith couple who are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental death gets in the way.

It all begins when David (Jon Bass) and his fiancée Meg (Meghan Leathers) gather for his family's traditional Shabbat dinner on New York's Upper West Side, things spiral faster than you can say “hamotzi” when an accidental death (or...murder?) derails the evening entirely.  With Meg’s devoutly Catholic parents due any moment to meet David’s very Jewish family, soon Shabbat becomes a comedy of biblical proportions.  The chamber piece becomes a ‘hide the corpse’ comedy.

Hiding the corpse resulting in a death to be hidden for whatever reason is a familiar premie, as can be seen in the recent film, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA in which Jessica invites herself to a friend’s dinner party and then hangs herself, with the result of the two couples trying to hide Jessica’s body.

In BAD SHABBOS, the motive for hiding the body is not as credible as in THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, nor are the comedy or performances (JESSICA had stars like Rufus Sewell) as good, but BAD SHABBOS boasts a good Jewish slant to he proceedings.

BAD SHABBOS is what one would call an uncomfortable comedy - one in which the audience is supposed to laugh at the mishaps and trials of the characters.  Another example of the uncomfortable comedy is THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS, in which mishap after mishap happens to the poor couple (Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis in the original) that visit New York City.  One feels sympathetic to the unfortunate couple but yet the audience is supposed to laugh at the mishaps.

The film has an overall good, happy ending in which every family member ends up in a good place.  The happy ending appears to be too much of a cop-out and too good to be true

BAD SHABBOS has played in multiple Jewish Film Festivals around the United States and has won the Audience Choice Award at the Boston Jewish Film Festival.  The film opens in Theatres in Canada on May 23rd.

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FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Matt Palmer

FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is a new 2025 slasher horror film and the fourth installment in Netflix’s Fear Street series, inspired by R.L. Stine’s 1992 novel The Prom Queen.

(Fear Street is a series of American horror films based on R. L. Stine's book series of the same name. Involving slasher and supernatural elements, the films' overall story revolves around teenagers who work to break the curse that has been over their town for hundreds of years.  The first 3 films were released in 2021.)

FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is set in the cursed town of Shadyside during the 1988 prom season.  As the popular "It Girls" at Shadyside High vie for the prom queen crown, a mysterious killer begins eliminating the candidates one by one.  The story centres on Lori Granger (played by India Fowler), a determined outsider who enters the race and finds herself entangled in the deadly mystery.

The films pays homage to a whole spate of horror films like PHATASM 2 (there is a segment of it in the film as characters enter a cinema to watch PHANTASM 2), of course CARRIE which also deals with a build girl at Prom, the SCREAM films, all the slasher movies of curse and the Friday the 13th franchise as well.   Besides paying homage, one can say that director Palmer steals a lot from these successful films.   There is no complaint here, as Palmer is quite blatant about it, not hiding the fact and using the stolen or homage scenes to the best of their entertaining capabilities.   The result is very fast and entertaining, rather violent (there are dismembered limbs, electrocutions and a tossed head in the punch bowl.   The film contains no original songs, but uses popular spirit lift songs, including hits like "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics, and ‘Gloria’, all the songs released prior to the year 1988, the year the story is set.

The 1988 setting means there are cell phones invented yet, which means that the girls at the prom cannot contact each other to know the whereabouts of the killer.

The film also pays homage most of all to MEAN GIRLS and the story pushes the point to the limit.   Even the parents of the meanest girl are just as mean to poor Lori, who has to endure all their belittling.   The film also works well as a whodunit, with the audience curious as to the identity of the killer.  The identity is revealed near the climax and just as one would think one has got the identity correctly, for example, perhaps the geek, Devil, Devlin, is killed, or perhaps the mean girl’s date, he is killed as well.   The film moves on with a plot twist even after the killer’s identity is revealed.   The film is good old, violent and dirty fun, especially for teens, as most of the adults in the film are depicted as grown idiots.

FEAR STREET: PROM QUEEN is available for streaming on Netflix starting May 23, 2025.

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LILO AND STITCH (USA 2025) **½

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp

The main live-action character is Lilo, a young adolescent Hawaiian girl played with zest by Maia Kealoha.  She is an orphaned six-year-old Native Hawaiian girl "who loves hula, surfing, and wildlife, with a special affinity for all things ‘gross'."  She is portrayed, expectedly, as very imaginative yet rebellious, which gets her into trouble often and ostracizes her from her classmates, who consider her a "weirdie".   When the film opens, her parents have already passed and she is being taken by social services unless she and her sister are successful in the conditions set up by the councillor.  Which, of course, they do at the end.

So, as the story goes, Lilo adopts a dog-like alien named Stitch to mend her fractured family, unaware that Stitch is genetically engineered to be a force of destruction, and is being pursued by aliens and social workers, while Lilo teaches Stitch the idea of family.

Films with surfing as a backdrop often contain gorgeous bodies to look at.  In the case of this film, though it is one for family and little children, the fact is true.  The winner turned out to be the male with the two actors, Billy Magnussen playing Agent Pleakley, a Plorgonarian agent of the United Galactic Federation and their "expert" on Earth and Kaipo Dudoit playing local surfer, David Kawena.  Girls in the audience for the film targeted more for a female audience can go wide-eyed.

The combined animation and live-action film is more catered to the kids who should have no problem enjoying the film.   For the older folk, the film tends to be quite a bore, with childish jokes, an unimaginative and silly plot and a lack of adult humour.

LILO AND STITCH opens in theatres May 23rd, for America’s Memorial Day Weekend, counter-programming for the Tom Cruise blockbuster MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie.

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING is a 2025 American epic action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.  The sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), it is the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series.  Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett reprise their roles from the previous films.

There is much more plot in this film than in the previous MI film titled THE RECKONING Part 1.  Set Action piece-wise, this latest installment comes pale in comparison to the last.   The underwater and airplane flying sequences cannot be compared to the more exciting train and hang-gliding sequences of the former.  One reason is that it is hard to convey suspense and thrills in an underwater segment.  Most of the difficulties, like the need not to hold one’s breath but to exhale while that deep is conveyed by dialogue before the dive rather than during it.  But still, this film, running at close to three hours (211 minutes), is an absorbing action piece that Marley keeps the audience glued to the screen for the most part.  At a budget of a reported 300 - 400 million dollars, really high, the film should undoubtedly make its money back.   After all, the film boasts Tom Cruise and a well-known, successful action franchise. So far, the film has premiered everywhere, including at Cannes.

IMF (Impossible Mission Force, not International Monetary Fund)  agents Ethan Hunt and Grace pursue Gabriel, an agent working for the Entity artificial intelligence.  Yes, the film is updated to include AI.  Instead, Gabriel captures them and coerces Hunt into retrieving the core module, revealed to be the "Rabbit's Foot”, from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol for him, which would give him control over the Entity's source code.  Hunt and Grace escape with the aid of IMF agent Benji Dunn and new recruits Paris and Theo Degas. They discover a device that Gabriel used to communicate with the Entity, which shows Hunt a vision of a coming nuclear apocalypse. Hunt realizes the Entity needs access to a secure digital bunker in South Africa to ensure its survival.  Hunt sends his team to retrieve the Sevastopol's coordinates, while he rejoins Luther Stickell to disarm a nuclear device Gabriel planted in London. Stickell reveals that he developed a malware for the Entity called the Poison Pill, but Gabriel has stolen it. Sacrificing himself, Stickell stays behind to stop the bomb. Hunt then surrenders to U.S. President Erika Sloane, who urges cooperation due to the Entity's escalating control over global nuclear systems. With only four days before it launches global strikes, Hunt convinces Sloane to let him act independently to locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge's objections.  Hunt's team travels to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War–era sonar array that detected the Sevastopol's sinking.

St. Matthew Island is an uninhabited, remote island in the Bering Sea in Alaska, 183 miles west-northwest of Nunivak Island. The entire island's natural scenery and wildlife are protected as it is part of the Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and as the Bering Sea Wilderness

The script emphasizes how each task is almost impossible to complete, but nevertheless, Hunt succeeds in all his endeavours.  It is remarkable to see Cruise as Hunt gets his entire wetsuit ripped off his body, except his specially designed underwear that stays on his body during the underwater segment, where he grabs a torpedo to take him halfway up to the surface.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING opens in theatres in North America on May 23rd, and should hold first in the box office in its first few weeks.  Nothing can keep the Mission: Impossible fans from getting excited, not to mention the excellent Lalo Schifrin MI score.

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THE SURRENDER (USA/Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Julia Max

When the family patriarch, Robert (Vaughn Armstrong), dies, a grieving mother, Barbara (Kate Burton) and daughter, Megan (Colby Minifie), risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual and bring him back from the dead.

Taking care of a sickly elderly parent is one of the most formidable tasks given to a son, daughter, or spouse.  THE SURRENDER captures, in its first 30 minutes, the torture a daughter and wife of the ailing family patriarch have to go through in his dying days.  Giving medication, taking care of his bowel movements and just watching him move in and out of consciousness while arguing constantly with each other, it is just too much for mother and daughter to bear.  (I, and like many others, the situation is familiar.  I had to look after my father with kidney disease and my mother with Alzheimer’s, so I appreciate the candidness of the story.)   I am sure many in the audience will be able to identify with a similar situation.

THE SURRENDER is, at best, besides being a horror film succeeds more of a dark black comedy drama about family loss and grief.  Being a caregiver of a loved one is an emotionally wrenching process and often when the person passes, it is a relief and life can go on as before.  But not for Meghan and her mother, Barbara.  They attempt to bring their dead loved one back to life.  The big scene is when Barbara and Megan sleep beside Robert with Robert in the middle, only to wake up in the morning to find Robert dead with his mouth open.

It's an exploration of letting go of a loved one, but more important, letting go of the complex emotions surrounding our memories of them. When a family member dies, there's a moment when it feels unreal, as if there isn't a clear distinction between life and death.

Director Max also adds in some humour to the situation - humour that hits the nail on the head.  The mother at one point tells the daughter to move her negative energy away, while the daughter pokes fun at the mother’s yoga instructor, whom the mother takes advice from.  Funny too is when Megan first makes fun of what she calls her mother’s voodoo.

The mother and daughter's troubled dynamics play well, and the two actresses, Minifie and Burton, are both excellent, and they are a total hoot to watch.  One can definitely observe how well the humour plays without it becoming silly.  The segment when the mother confesses to Megan that she intends to bring Robert back to life is a case in point.  The situtaion is well constructed and executed, funny but not silly,   Megan to Barbara:  “This (bringing Robert back to life) is fucking crazy!”

The film’s humour turns into gory violence in the second half, with director Max upping the ante in her scary tale with segments too gruesome to watch.

THE SURRENDER is director Max’s first film, and it is an impressive debut at that.  Julia Max will definitely be a talent to look out for and a talent to be reckoned with.

THE SURRENDER is a Shudder original horror film that opens this week for streaming on the horror streaming service.  This is one of Shudder’s better films.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 03 May 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

FRIENDSHIP (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Andrew DeYoung

Premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness Section, FRIENDSHIP is that rare non-horror, non-violent, non-action-packed piece that makes it into that special section.  FRIENDSHIP is, though, a very odd bromance comedy that works occasionally, most of the time, which is a waste.   Pacing is the main issue, with the film containing slow pauses of movement with bouts of tedium that, if absent, would have lifted the film several notches.

FRIENDSHIP is about film, obviously about friendship, or its failure as one such friendship falls apart, leading to an individual’s life totally falling apart.

It all starts with the meeting of the two males forming a friendship.  When an errant delivery pulls suburban dad Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) into the orbit of his mysterious and charismatic new neighbour Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a sweet bromance seems to blossom over an innocent evening of urban exploration, punk rock, and a mutual appreciation for paleolithic antiquities. But what should have been the start of a beautiful friendship is soon waylaid as Craig’s obsessive personality begins to alienate his new pal, subsequently inducing a spiral that threatens to upend Craig’s entire life.

The film has problems with pacing from the very start.  The first seven have Austin’s wife speaking in a group therapy session involving her recovery from her cancer.  She talks about orgasms, which is echoed by the male person beside her.  It gets confusing as the male is later revealed to be her husband.  It is also a problem that the cancer recovery does not really affect many of the incidents that follow.  Another problems is the ending as writer/director DeYoung seems indecisive as to whether his protagonist Craig ends up a likeable or unlikeable person,   He shows Craig finally at peace with his wife after a disastrous incident and the 3wo looks as if they are reconciled waiting to have sex, only to be followed by another incident which results in Craig being taken away in a police cruiser.

Paul Rudd has star credits in the film, though he has only a supporting role, not to mention that he is mostly unrecognizable with his moustache.   The star of the film is Tim Robinson.  Despite the script’s occasional and directional flaws, he is the one who steers and holds the film as a whole.  He plays the man-child Craig with control and emotion, balancing humour and dramatic tragedy.

FRIENDSHIP has received largely rave reviews from both audiences and write alike, but truth be told, there are flaws in the film’s delivery and pacing.   The film contains too many parse slow and sections that break the flow of the story’s momentum.   

FRIENDSHIP, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, makes its debut in theatres on May 15th.   It could have been a straight-to-TV movie except for its bold and strange theme. The one thing that stands out in the film is the lead, Tim Robbins, as Craig, the man-child so desperate for a friend that he puts his family second to that.

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HURRY UP TOMORROW(USA 2025) *

Directed by Trey Edward

It is usual that a song be written for a film, but occasionally it turns the other way around.  A case in example is the song and film YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE. The film was made after the Debby Boone song became famous.  Of no surprise, the film directed by Joseph Brooks was not a critical hit.  The film did win an Oscar for Best Song.  In the case of HURRY UP TOMORROW, the self-indulgent artistic film based on the album is a complete piece of smelly, awful brown stuff.

HURRY UP TOMORROW is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd. It was released through XO and Republic Records on January 31, 2025. It also serves as the soundtrack to the film of the same name.   Hurry Up Tomorrow is primarily an R&B, synth-pop, and trap album, while exploring a wide variety of genres such as Brazilian funk and hip-hop.   The album is the final installment of a trilogy following the Weeknd's previous two studio albums, After Hours and Dawn FM (2022). The Weeknd has hinted Hurry Up Tomorrow may be his final album under his stage name and revealed that it was partly inspired by losing his voice while on tour in 2022.

Abel Tesfaye is the artist behind the name Weekend.

In the promo/press screening of the film, the film opens with a 10-minute piano recital and song performed by Abel.  The entire audience is wondering what is going on. At the end, it is revealed that the sequence was an  ad for the album.  This brought unsolicited laughter from the audience.

The film begins the continues with a woman (Jay Ortega) torching a farmhouse, burning it to the ground.  This is followed by a segment with what actually happened on a Saturday night in 2022, when Abel Tesfaye got up onstage. The physical and mental stress associated with the constant demands of superstardom put a strain on his singing voice, and that night, he was dealing with the effects. 

The 10-minute ad that followed Abel’s stage performance is almost too hard, totaling 20 minutes of watching him, except for the Ortega break.  This is definitely bad pacing and execution of the movie.

Depressed and resentful after his girlfriend leaves him, Abel (also known as "The Weeknd") indulges on heavy drugs and parties with his friend and manager, Lee, while embarking on a world tour. He loses his voice during his Halloween performance as a result of his stress and substance use. While trying to avoid Lee and his angered fans, Abel stumbles upon Anima, a mysterious and troubled young fan who is on the run after burning a house down.

Feeling a connection, Abel and Anima run away to Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, enjoying a night of anonymity. The two spend the night at a hotel, where Abel plays a sample of his upcoming song to Anima. She relates to the track, as she shares similar struggles with loneliness, abandonment and regret. In the morning, Abel is eager to return to his world tour, but decides he cannot bring Anima along after he hears her on the phone, tearfully arguing with her mother. Feeling betrayed and used, Anima argues with him before knocking him unconscious.

But the film that follows is a complete mess. HURRY UP TOMORROW feels and is a vanity project that is badly conceived and executed, and arguably the worst film opening this year.

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THE LIVER KING (USA 2025) **
Directed by Joe Pearlman

Who is the celebrated liver king, aka Brian Johnson, and why did Netflix make a new documentary on him to be released this week?

In 2023, Brian Johnson claimed that his net worth was $310 million. However, MoneyMade took a look and judged the Liver King's liquid net worth to be closer to $12 million.  The site reports that Johnson has invested in four supplement brands and that each brand is performing at over $1 million in annual revenue.

Brian Johnson, known by his online alias Liver King, is an American fitness social media influencer and businessman.  He is known for promoting what he calls an "ancestral lifestyle", which includes eating large amounts of raw, unprocessed organs and meat, focusing on a daily intake of liver.  His dietary advice has been criticized by nutritionists for promoting potentially dangerous misinformation,  Myself, this critic hailing from Singapor,e where consuming liver, kidney intestines, ears, lover and other innards are common (but to uncooked meats like beef tartar), some dishes might be ok for some and not for others.

But is the liver king genuine?  Apparently not, no one is perfect, liver king.  Johnson's lifestyle is based around nine "ancestral tenets”.   He had denied having used steroids to achieve his physique until 2022, after which a leak of private e-mails revealed that he had spent over $11,000 a month on anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. He then apologized for his conduct in a YouTube video.   The man is buff,

The doc avoids answers to questions like whether or not eating raw meat all day is really the key to health and happiness.  The site's description of the documentary reads, "The Liver King is less concerned with what it takes to build a physique than with what it takes to build a brand.  What happens when a person becomes a persona? How does a family live inside a myth? And what's the cost of becoming your own hero?”

“I can’t believe all the people who believe in this guy.”  “This is all bullshit.”  These are just a few of the sayings of the naysayers who do not believe the Liver King.  The Liver King is also not a great enough person for a doc to be made entirely on him.  In fact this is arguably the doc about the most unrespected person on Earth.   There is nothing good to say about this conceited man, except maybe that he cares for his two sons, who were sickly when young.  It is surprising, then, that this doc, thankfully a short one, is watchable.

Every doc has some unforgettable, though necessary, impressive set pieces.   Scenes in the documentary include Johnson's wife, Barbara, talking about how their son did not know what pain medication was when he broke his leg.  In another scene, the whole family kills a bull together and eats it raw.

Ultimately, THE LIVER KING is about someone disgusting (like Trump?), typical America - their nonsense and what stupid Americans believe in.  It is an ok observation of The Liver King, but not really worth watching as a documentary.  It opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE (South Korea 2025) **
Directed by Min Kyu-Dong

The reason South Korean action thriller made such a splash at the recent 2025 Berlinale, THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE, is likely because it is based on the much-loved South Korean novel of the same name by Gu Byeong-Mu.

The old woman who goes by many names like Nails, Grandma, and Hornclaw is largely an aged assassin at the age of 65 in the film.  She has seen her heyday when she was a top-notch killer who disposed of her victims under an agency that gets paid and pays her to kill insects or vermin of society, like drug dealers and other assorted villains.  Hornclaw feels the aching weight of all her experiences and losses. In a body that isn’t as strong as it used to be, she works to carry out her remaining kill contracts and hopes that her name won’t end up on a target list one day.    Fate strikes its ugly hand when a job goes wrong, sending her straight into the lives of a young doctor and his family, awakening desires long dormant inside her.  And at her age, it doesn’t feel worth it to ignore them anymore, even if it means making herself vulnerable to certain ghosts from her past.

Hornclaw’s life is like that of other film assassins like JOHN WICK, who are loners.  Her only friend is an old dog she has rescued.  The segments with the dog that bring tenderness demand mention.  Hornclaw occasionally forgets to feed her, forgets to leave her water, but never for very long.   And much to Deadweight’s credit, she never seems to hold a grudge against her owner. Before Hornclaw leaves for a job, she cuddles and talks to her, almost ritualistically. “So when the time comes, get out of here and go where you need to go. Before you’re considered worthless, even though you’re still alive.” Hornclaw says this to Deadweight, as though the dog can understand her verbal instructions to leave their home, should she fail to return from a job alive.  There’s a feeling, however, that Hornclaw sees herself in Deadweight. It’s like a prayer, something the reader can imagine she’s told herself, every time she feels dismissed as old, frail, and insignificant. And even though she tries to prepare the dog for the very real possibility that she won’t return, she still says “I’ll be back” each time she leaves. She is reassuring herself as much as she is the dog, and that’s a tender and vulnerable thing for a contract killer to do. The audience learns that it was with similar tenderness that she was first, as a young girl, indoctrinated into the world of for-hire killing.  

Director Min directs the action set-pieces with finesse, on par with Hollywood blockbuster action films.  But here the film fails in the storytelling.  Laboured by too many flashbacks, many too confusing moving to and from the present to the past, the story appears too confusing, despite its relative simplicity.  The animosity between the young killer, named Bullfight, and Hornclaw does not work that well either.

THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE — a Berlinale & Brussels Selection opens in theatres in the U.S> and Canada May 16th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 May 2025

CAPSULE REVIEWS of  Select Films will be posted once embargoes have lifted.  Embargo dates listed.

 Please click on this link, which will take you to our sister site.

https://toronto-franco.com/article/21-cinema-movies/421-cannes-2025-capsule-reviews-of-select-films

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 May 2025

FILM REVIEW:

BRITAIN AND THE BLITZ (UK 2024) ****
Directed by Ella Wright

The Battle of Britain and The Blitz were distinct but connected events in World War II. The Battle of Britain was a series of aerial engagements between the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) in the summer and autumn of 1940. The Blitz, which followed, was a sustained campaign of night bombing raids on British cities by the Luftwaffe from September 1940 to May 1941. 

Following the failure of the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe shifted its focus to bombing British cities, aiming to demoralize the population and cripple the war effort.  The Blitz involved relentless night bombing raids on London and other major cities across Britain.   The Blitz resulted in significant civilian casualties and widespread destruction, but the British people demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination. While the Blitz inflicted significant damage and casualties, it ultimately did not break the spirit of the British people, and the Luftwaffe eventually withdrew from the campaign. 
BRITAIN AND THE BLITZ tells the story of the Blitz - during the 8 months when Nazi Germany bombed London but mostly concentrated on how the people responded.  The documentary, assembled from archival footage, colourized and some joined together for dramatic effect, is as expected, moving, emotional, gut-wrenching,  nostalgic, but mostly shows the resilience of the human spirit over adversity. 

The doc also contains a strong female slant with a segment told from a female’s point of view, a teen called Edith Heap, barely twenty, who was involved with the planning during the Blitz.  The doc is also directed by a female, a change from war films directed by males.

The most moving moments involve the children.  Many were separated from their parents and evacuated by trains to Northern towns and cities for safety.  They were told to be bold and not to cry or to give their parents a last hug.  The film focuses on a 5-year-old boy called Eric Brady.  He had to look after his big sister, Kitty, but he was more comforted by knowing that she was looking after him.  The camera shots of the faces of young children as they are separated from their parents are nothing short of emotionally wrenching and guaranteed to bring out tears.  The recent film BLITZ, a 2024 historical war drama film written, produced and directed by Steve McQueen, covered identical material, though fiction of a boy who jumped the train to go back in search of his parents in London.  Another memorable film, told from the point of view of the RAF, called THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN directed by Guy Hamilton is set in 1940, a film that follows the British Royal Air Force in its fight of a desperate battle to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over the English Channel as a prelude to a possible Axis invasion of the U.K.

What makes this doc is the British insights. The children were to be looked after by the Welsh, but when the children came, they were London kids and fought with the local kids. It was another war.  Also, the Welsh were not welcoming to the Londoners when the coal miners were on strike at the time.

BRITAIN AND THE BLITZ opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (China 2024) ***½

Directed by Jia Zhangke

CAUGHT BY THE TIDES, directed by Jia Zhangke, and written by Wan Jianhuan and Zhangke, is an ambitious and stunning-looking film based on footage across 22 years, some from director Jia's previous films, in an impressionistic non-linear blend of fiction and non-fiction.

In 2001, in the northern Chinese city of Datong, a working-class woman named Qiao Qiao has a romantic relationship with her manager Guao Bin as she hustles to make a living as a singer, model, and club girl.  Guao Bin leaves Datong to try earning his living in another province, sending Qiao Qiao a text message that says he will bring her when he has money.  After a stretch, Qiao Qiao decides to go looking for him,  passing through communities which are being displaced by the Three Gorges Dam, as well as Guangdong Province.   Meanwhile, Bin tries his hand at a number of businesses, including entering a shady business deal with a corrupt politician. W h shady business is typical of what goes on behind the government’s back and authorities in China.   There is also a gay segment.  When Qiao Qiao finally finds Bin, she breaks up with him. They eventually re-unite in COVID-era China, after both have notably aged.

The film that stretches through decades depicts the different eras of time in detail and with insight.  The audience gets to look at the timeless Three Gorges Dam at the time when the water are rising and the inhabitants of the affected cities had to evacuate.  The segment is personalized with Qiao Qiao travelling by boat on he water searching for Bin.  The audience also sees her close up and personal doing dances of different sorts - dancing playfully and set in a night club or performing in public, as when China won the bid for the Olympics hen the country was celebrating its victory in winning the bid.

The blending of the past of Jia’s previous films and current footage results in a non-linear blend of fiction and non-fiction genres, giving the film an epic feel of a difficult romance, one that takes its participants on a long journey of learning and experience.

Jia’s film provides lots of insight regarding the Chinese general population.  It shows what the Chinese and China are like - the patriotism and the hardships they face.  This should be a lesson tomTrump and his idiotic cronies to look who they’d taking on when they decide to taken China,   The Chinese know suffering and survival and one should think twice before fucking with China.

The film is quite a serious affair, especially with the doomed romance at stake.  Director Jia lifts the film’s spirits at points with a few catchy songs.

What is so amazing is that CAUGHT BY THE TIDES is assembled from 22 years of footage, including many of Jia's previous characters and locations.  As a result, the actors naturally age, including the lead character, Qiao Qiao, who is played by Jia's real-life wife, actress Zhao Tao

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 18 May 2024.  CAUGHT BY THE TIDES, which was also screened at TIFF last year, finally opens in theatres in Canada on May 9th.\

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Eli Craig

Horror films have featured scary clowns (CLOWN, CLOWNS 2) and cornfields (CHILDREN OF THE CORN) and this new horror slasher comedy combines clowns (there are more than one) in a cornfield, though the reason the clowns are so dressed is not convincing.

The film is based on Clown in a Cornfield, is a 2020 horror novel by American author Adam Cesare and marks his first novel in the young adult genre.  The film centres upon Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas), a teenage girl who is a senior in high school and who has recently moved to the small factory town of Kettle Springs, Missouri, from Philadelphia after the tragic death of her mother, Samantha. Her father, Glenn (Aaron Abrams), has been hired as the new town physician in the hopes that this will allow the two of them to heal. But Quinn is not looking forward to moving.  Kettle Springs has suffered financially since the closing of the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory and its subsequent burning due to arson by a local boy named Cole Hill (Carson MacCormac). As a result, the town is at odds with itself and strict lines are drawn between the largely conservative adults and the teens, who are more interested in having fun and getting views on their YouTube channel.   The clown?  The clown is Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown who goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now."   “Never fuck with Frendo!” this is th advice given to the kids when they are put in a holding cell in one scene with a crazy.

The film is shot largely in Manitoba, though the setting is American.  The main actors, Douglas and Abrams, are also Canadian, as is the more well-known Kevin Durand, once again playing a crazy the craziest way crazy can be.

The small-town atmosphere is well created.  The local folk are apprehensive of the new residents.  The townsfolk celebrate Founder’s Day, in which a marching band plays American favourite band anthems like The Washington Post.

Director Eli Craig is also Canadian and hails from the province of Alberta.  Craig is not a stranger to comedy horror with his film, the 2010 horror comedy TUCER AND DALE VS EVIL, winning the Best Feature Film Prize at the Alberta Film and Television Awards.  Craid also proves his mettle at comedy.  There are quite a few laugh-out-loud laughs amid the horror.  The film also contains jump scares, a tactic this critic largely dislikes, but the ones done here are well thought off, with a series of jump scares, one after the other, all false alarms in one horror set-up sequence, but he last one ending up for real.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD opens in theatres on May 9th.  A low-budget well made comedy horror that will leave audiences both laughing and scared with a few gory, violent scenes at the same time - a scary mix as well as the SCREAM franchise.

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A DEADLY AMERICAN MARRIAGE (UK 2025) ***½
Directed by Jenny Popplewell and Jessica Burgess

The true crime drama is the story of Jason Corbett.  Jason Corbett was an Irish man who was killed at his home in North Carolina in 2015. Investigations later revealed that his death was the result of a physical assault by his wife and his father-in-law. The circumstances of Corbett's death were the subject of widespread media coverage in Ireland. His wife and father-in-law were found guilty of second-degree murder in 2017, however, their convictions were later reversed and after accepting a plea bargain to reduced charges, they were both released from prison in 2024.

The film begins in 2023, when the audience sees Jack and Sarah in separate cars.  Flashback to 8 years earlier in 2015, when the two were children after their father, Jason, was killed.  The audience hears the 911 call that Jason had been killed.

The doc plays like a solid whodunit with lots of twists and turns.  Though the title, A DEADLY AMERICAN MARRIAGE, implies that the husband/father could have been murdered, directors Jenny Popplewell and Jessica Burgess always keep ahead of their audience and keep them guessing as to what is going to happen next. This makes A DEADLY AMERICAN MARRIAGE one of the better true crime series that Netflix regularly puts out.

There is also a lot at stake, like Jason’s will, the custody of the two children and the fact that Jason is originally from Limerick, Ireland and has family there, family that are concerned for the kids Jack and Sarah.   The question any bay is heather jason was killed, an abusive person put of self defence or was it ordered?  The investigating detective is one smart cookie and the cops are smart enough to tell if something is amiss.  All this makes a good true crime drama.

A DEADLY AMERICAN MARRIAGE opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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JIMMY IN SAIGON (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Peter McDowell

JIMMY IN SAIGON  is a documentary about Jimmy in Saigon.  The doc is directed by Jimmy’s youngest brother Peter.

Jimmy in Saigon begins as a personal exploration into the mysterious death and radical life of Jimmy McDowell, a 24-year-old American Vietnam veteran who died as a civilian in Saigon in the 1970s. Director Peter McDowell was only five when his brother died, and in his quest to get to know him, he uncovers a hidden romance, new family ties and secrets surrounding Jimmy’s drug use and sexuality - a story that takes viewers to Vietnam, France and across the United States.

Jimmy dies in the doc and in the story at the one-third or 30-minute mark in the film.  Jimmy had returned to Vietnam as a civilian and died in the Vietnamese hospital, with news reaching Jimmy’s family, father and brother by telegram.  Vietnam is 13 hours ahead of the United States at the time of the news.

The documentary introduces the audience to Jimmy’s family. The film begins with his mother at Jimmy’s grave and speaks of how difficult it is to lose one’s son, particularly one’s firstborn, as in Jimmy's case. Jimmy’s two sisters and two brothers, including his youngest, Peter, the director of this documentary, are all included in the documentary.

The film takes what seems to be a detour with a gay slant, beginning with the information on voiceover that Jimmy had a girlfriend.  Then director Peter goes on about being gay and being awkward at a time when being gay was not accepted.   Peter came out to his mother, whose immediate response was that it was a phase and he should go for therapy.  Peter’s reply was for her to go instead.  Which, humorously enough, she did,  His father was more accepting of having gay people at his workplace.  Though this has little to do with Jimmy in Saigon, the distraction is, for all it is worth, an interesting distraction.  But as the doc progresses, there are strong hints that Jimmy could very well be gay, which is intriguing to Peter.

The rationale for making the doc and digging up Jimmy’s life is debated between Peter and their mother. It is known that Jimmy did a lot of drugs, especially in his stint as a soldier in Vietnam and his mother thinks best not to know, as opposed to Peter.

The search for information about Jimmy takes Peter on several international trips to Paris, France, to meet a journalist who is Jimmy’s acquaintance in Vietnam and then to Saigon itself.

The search for the truth in the doc and the inclusion of Jimmy’s family make the doc more interesting than many biopics of the life of any person, or even a celebrity.  The truth is revealed at the end of the doc.

JIMMY IN SAIGON opens in theatres in NY on April 25th at Cinema Village and in LA on May 8th at Laemmle NoHo followed by a premier VOD release on May 13th.

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SHADOW FORCE (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Joe Carnahan

Action flicks have flooded the movie theatres and streaming services lately.  Opening recently are films like THE ACCOUNTANT 2, A WORKING MAN, HAVOC and variations like BANGER, DROP and SINNERS.  And opening a week before SHADOW FORCE is THUNDERBOLTS.,  Most of them are not bad, so the competition is as fierce as the action in these films, each one aiming at being different from the other.   SHADOW FORCE is an action flick that stresses the importance of family and has the young son of the operative parents tagging along most of the way.  The point is stressed in a voice-over heard at the start of the film, which states that more important than survival is family.  The family in this case is the husband and wife, and son.

Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Isaac (Omar Sy) were once the leaders of a multinational special forces group called Shadow Force, but broke the rules by falling in love, and they go underground to protect their son, Ky (Jahleel Kamara) with the rest of the Shadow Force hot on their trail.

The film boasts a heavy lineup.  Kerry Washington is an Emmy winner, recently seen in the lead dramatic role in Tyler Perry’s THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT.  Omar Sy is the French version of Idris Elba.  Sy won the Cesar (the French equivalent of the Oscar) for INTOUCHABLES.  Sy’s character speaks French quite so often in the film.  Mark Strong does an excellent villain, Jack Cinder, one who has had a personal previous affair with Kyrah and who now makes his mission personal.  The last heavyweight is Best Supporting Actress Academy Award Winner for THE HOLDOVERS, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, playing Auntie.

Never mind the outrageous plot.  The audience is supposed to believe the G20 guys have assembled a clandestine action force that will kill and destroy obstacles in their way.  The most important things in action flicks are the action set pieces and often tongue-in-cheek humour, both of which the film exceeds successfully.

SHADOW FORCE opens in theatres May 9th, one week after THUNDEBOLTS to avoid too much competition.

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SHARP CORNER (Canada/Ireland 2024) ***

Directed by Jason Buxton

A dedicated family man, Josh McCall (Ben Foster) becomes obsessed with saving the lives of the car accident victims on the sharp corner in front of his house - an obsession that could cost him everything.  The question is whether there is any redemption.

American Ben Foster inhabits the title role of the father, Josh, slowly sinking into a psychological madness in which his family and personally both fall apart.   Foster, who has shown his acting chops in hits like HELL OR HIGH WATER, BIRDS OF AMERICA and 3:10 TO YUMA, carries the film well on his shoulders.  Without resorting to cheap theatrics and overacting,  his sullen and controlled performance makes the movie.

Josh is in total misery with the obsession of the sharp corner at his new house, causing the car accidents, the last of which was a fiery explosion resulting in the driver being burned to death as Josh is driving his son home.  Josh takes CPR course, bringing the dummies home to practice, for no reason, exhibiting some form of insanity, and then loses focus at work, leading eventually to the termination of his job.  The way director Buxton creates the atmosphere is one of distance.  The audience does not feel sorry for Josh in his demise, but somehow feels that he deserves it.  It is likely from his matter-of-fact behaviour of not listening to others, whether it be Rachel or his boss, or his psychiatrist.  The character of Josh appears to be a sort of loser who cannot make up his mind, and when he does, he ends up not doing the right thing.  More sympathy is felt for his wife, Rachel.

The film is basically a neat examination of psychology.  Josh’s wife, Rachel (Cobie Smulders) also has a new job counselling couples, a job that she describes as challenging.  She says that it is a way in which barriers are sometimes broken down.   Her observation is reflected by the fact that in the film, her relationship with her husband is slowly escalating to confrontation for a number of reasons, moving into the new house notwithstanding.  They start to argue about almost everything, from the possibility of getting a new car to home improvement.

The setting of the film, near a town or city, is not made clear in the film.  The setting could also be American or Canadian.  But at one point in the film, Josh sees a psychiatrist who says that’s daughter, who is now 20, has moved to study in Montreal, indicating a possible Canadian setting.  The film is actually an Irish and Canadian co-production made with both countries’ funds.

SHARP CORNER, a Canadian film from Nova Scotia, has won a few prizes, including Best Picture at the Atlantic Film Festival and has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, visual effects, and Editing for the Canadian Screen Awards.  A solid family, well-made Canadian psychological drama that is definitely worth a look.  SHARP CORNER opens in theatres Friday, May 9th.

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 25 April 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Paul Feig

At the end of the Paul Feig 1981 film A SIMPLE FAVOUR, it is revealed that Emily has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the double murder of her father and sister.  Husband Sean has become a successful professor at Berkeley, where he currently lives with his son. Stephanie's vlog has garnered one million followers; her knack for solving crimes has made her a part-time private detective who has successfully solved thirty cold cases.

The sequel, ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR is directed by Paul Feig, who rose to fame with his most successful 2011 comedy BRIDESMAIDS.  And there is a big wedding in this film as well, as a widow marries into the mob.  The weird thing is that the neighbour who slept with her ex-husband is invited to her wedding, for some reason not made known to the audience.

ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR follows protagonists Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) years after the action of the first book. She is touring on her book, but sales are sagging, and she could use a sequel.  Clearly, the events of this movie will serve as material for her second book.  That door opens when Emily (Blake Lively) drops back into Stephanie’s life. Her fiancé’s high-priced attorneys found a way to get her out of prison on appeal (never credibly explained how this is achieved), and Emily insists that Stephanie stand as her Maid of Honour. Destination wedding!  The pair jet off to Capri, in a private jet, though not given good seats, where they’re joined by Sean (Henry Golding), who has been forced by the courts to bring Nicky (Ian Ho) to the ceremony.  Golding gets some of the best lines in the first act as Sean hurls half-drunk insults at his ex-lovers.  The groom is Dante (Michele Morrone), who happens to be the heir to a mafia empire run by his mother, Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci), who is reluctantly navigating a conflict between the Versano family and a competing one at the ceremony. And so the plot thickens.   The story moves along at a leisurely pace, a good thing as the film, though running over 2 hours, makes for a leisurely watch.

There are a few notable, clever set pieces like Sean’s murder in the shower, a hilarious variation of Hitchcock’s PSYCHO.  Golding, who was so cardboard in his acting in CRAZY RICH ASIANS, does major over-acting in this film, which is also plain hilarious.

A few flaws involve the script.  The film could be shortened easily to under two hours.  There is also a weak motive for the whodunit, as well as no clear desperation in discovering the killer.   Otherwise, the use of social media in the story brings the whodunit into the present day, and the use of the exotic location of Capri helps the story as well.  The use of the feuding mafioso in the story seems largely wasted and leads nowhere.

Everyone loves a good mystery or whodunit set in a beautiful location. The location is stunning, Capri.  Capri is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. The largest settlement on the island is the town of Capri. The island has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic.  Salto di Tiberio, also known as Tiberius’ Leap, is a historic spot for the Emperor. It was said that during the Emperor’s particularly cruel years, he threw his enemies and those who displeased him off the cliff, for them to perish from the fall.  The film’s climax takes place at what could be that cliff, where an enemy is tossed to their death.

ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOUR opens for streaming on Prime Video May 2.   Good harmless entertainment, murders considered.

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THE BIGGEST FAN (LA MAS FAN)(Mexico/France 2025) **
Directed by Maria Torres

THE BIGGEST FAN follows disgraced actress Lana Cruz (Kate del Castillo), who has been cancelled by Hollywood. Hence, she heads back to Mexico to work in a film and prove that she's still a star. Still, she is not prepared for Polly (Diana Bovio), her biggest fan and worst nightmare. 

Maria Torres’ THE BIGGEST FAN, which she has co-written with Enrique Vazquez, tells the story of TV star Lana Cruz, whose show, a seven-season Special Crimes, has been running successfully.  But, after a particularly difficult day of shooting, when she goes out amongst her fans, Lana ends up hitting one of them.  The incident goes viral and Lana Cruz becomes as unpopular as fast as she became liked.  And so goes social media.  Poor Cruz is out of work until a year later, she is offered an art spy period piece by an artsy director to be shot in Mexico.  This is also when and where she meets Polly, her biggest fan.

Films have been made time and again about stars and their big fans.  And fans who have gone too far.   Notable is Ed Bianchi’s 1981 horror slasher THE FAN, in which Lauren Bacall plays a stalked movie star.   The film was a flop, though it also featured Maureen Stapleton and James Garner.  This Netflix original comedy, THE BIGGEST FAN, takes a lighter side while attempting to cover a few dramatic issues as well.  Lana Cruz’s biggest fan only appears 20 minutes after the film starts.   Polly is totally obsessed with Lana but is a hell of an annoying and ends up being her sort of personal assistant to the Cruz’s breakout movie in Mexico.

How is Polly irritating?  She screams at any time to let it out, startling Cruz and annoying her as well.  Polly’s cell goes on during a shoot.   Polly also turns up at any inappropriate time, sometimes bringing stew as well.   Unfortunately, all the antics are only mildly funny.  The relationship finally turns sour when Polly causes Lana to miss the final day of the shoot.

The film could have worked if it had been funnier.  A lot of missed opportunities, though the actors playing Polly and Lana try their best.

A few dramatic subplots include Lana trying to make up with her estranged daughter, whose graduation she is forced to attend because of the Mexican movie shoot.  Director Torres ups the melodrama, which brings the film down, considering that it should be funnier.   Another subplot includes Lana’s late and over-obsessive mother, whose advice “smile’ is taken too seriously by Lana.

THE BIGGEST FAN is a female film with largely female characters, with the males mostly treated as idiotic (like the director) or given secondary roles.

THE BIGGEST FAN is a Netflix original film, a co-production between Mexico and France that is ultimately quite a bore to watch,  demonstrating nothing new in terms of ideas or entertainment. THE BIGGEST FAN is open for streaming this week on Netflix.

EGGHEAD & TWINKIE (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Sarah Kambe Holland

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE, written and directed by Sarah Kambe Holland

plays as a road trip teenage movie about two teens who don’t know much about themselves, life, what they want, or anything else.  The film is a mix of live-action and animation and is breezy and light.  It looks and feels like a film with a limited target audience of LGBTQ+ or teens, but despite the fact, EGGHAD AND TWINKIE has its charm and has moved the hearts of many a moviegoer, earning a solid 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing this review.

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE begins with voiceover claiming that these two have been friends for life and have never had an argument.  Of course, they do as depicted at the start when the two meet at a restaurant to sort out their differences.  Twinkie has left Egghead stranded during a road trip.  I would never forgive any person who would do that to me, but apparently Egghead does, as he is in love with her.  And then she comes out to him that she is gay.

The simple premise of the film involves an Asian American teenage girl, Twinkie (Sabrina Jieafa) who after coming out to her adoptive parents, takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush, BD (Ayden Lee) with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead (Louis Tomeo).

The two leads, Jieafa and Tomeo, deliver charming, goofy and innocent enough performances for the audience to identify with.  The raid trip encounters are eventful enough, leading them to try to ditch paying a restaurant bill.  But they pay after finding the money showing them to be liable characters with no bad stuff in their hearts.

Besides the funny stuff. The film hits some high emotional notes with its coming-of-age dramatic moments.  This is a film that would be difficult to dislike

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE  is available on demand April the 29th in Canada and the US.

Trailer: 

THUNDERBOLTS (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Jake Schreier

Disney has milked their STAR WARS franchise to death,   It looks like their Marvel Cinematic Universe is heading for the same demise.  It is not easy to come out with something different and distinct.   As for THUNDERBOLTS, it is a case of the Avengers becoming the new Avengers.  Not that anyone cares.  But maybe Comic-Con fans do.  And unless one is perhaps a Marvel comic book fan.   I myself dread going to any Marvel superhero screening, despite the high budgets, but at least it brings audiences back to the theatres.  In that respect, the Disney people have tried really hard with THUNDERBOLTS and it succeeds within reason, all things considered.  Form a non-Marvel comic fan, THUNDERBOLTS is still an ok watch, though the film has garnered rave reviews so far on social media.

As CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) faces impeachment for illegal activities, she sends Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell),  Ava Starr, (Hannah John-Kamen) and Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) to a secret compound to battle each other.  After Starr kills Dreykov, a man named Bob (Lewis Pullman) suddenly appears. Upon learning that they were sent by de Fontaine to be incinerated along with evidence of her activities, they manage to escape from the trap. Belova, Walker, and Starr flee from the scene after Bob distracts de Fontaine's forces, who open fire at him. Bob gets up from the gunfire and flies upward before crashing back to the compound.  The story gets bot of variation from here, but basically it is a case of anti-super heroes having to put their differences aside and cooperate to take Valentina down.

As far as plots go, adversaries arguing with each other forced to join forces to combat a common enemy is not fresh fodder.   So, this premise is taken into the MCU.  The premise does get overworked and shows its tedium in the middle,

Louis-Dreyfus and Pugh are both great, Pugh doing a Russian accent with David Harbour who plays her characters father, and with Sebastian Stan and they lift the film out of the doldrums.

Special effects and action set pieces-wise, Marvel fans should be satisfied.   There is an impressive disaster movie-type set pieces reminiscent of films like EARTHQUAKE and TOWERING INFERNO.   Buildings collapse amid a busy city street.     But the superheroes trying to save innocent bystanders is a bit too hokey. Not everyone can be saved, though the film attempts to convince the audience to believe so.

On May 2nd in Toronto, fans attending a screening of “Thunderbolts*” at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto were in for an unexpected treat when Julia Louis-Dreyfus made a surprise appearance to personally thank the audience for their support. Julia’s appearance was met with thunderous applause as she shared a few words about the making of the film and what it felt like to have her character, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, return to the big screen. 

THUNDERBOLTS opens in theatres this week, May 2nd.   It should make it number one at the box office.

Trailer: 

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 18 April 2025

BULLET TRAIN EXPLOSION (Japan 2025) ***
Directed by Shinji Higuchi[

BULLET TRAIN EXPLOSION (Japanese: Shinkansen Daibakuha, lit. 'The Shinkansen's Big Explosion') is a Japanese action thriller film directed by Shinji Higuchi and starring Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kanata Hosoda, Non, Takumi Saitoh, Machiko Ono, Jun Kaname and Hana Toyoshima.   The film is a remake of the 1975 film The Bullet Train, the film premieres on Netflix on 23 April 2025

THE BULLET TRAIN is famous for inspiring the disaster movie SPEED, with Keanu Reeves driving a bus.   When the Hayabusa 60 Shinkansen bound for Tokyo is threatened with a bomb that will instantly detonate if it slows below 100 km/h and the bomber demands a ransom of ¥100 billion for the lives of everyone aboard, the train's crew, as well as government authorities, must race against time to find the bomber and defuse the bomb while keeping the train and its passengers safe.

Director Shinji Higuchi[ shoots his film as efficiently as the bullet speed train operates, all of what may be described as formulaic and directing by numbers - all of which is not that bad a thing that time has proven - the formula works.   The pacing is well laid out as expected.  It begins with a description of the efficient bullet train and how it transports passengers for various reasons across the country.   It is only after 10 minutes that news of a bomb is planted on the train and only after an hour that the bomber is identified.  The climax involves saving the passengers.   The film lacks an evil villain, and the bomber’s cause is compromised by her reason for doing the deed.

A big plus in this new disaster movie is the integration of high tech with the story.  Aboard the train, an influencer is asking followers to donate money to pay the ransom in order to save lives on the train.  No other disaster films have integrated social media with disaster movies.

The film, being Japanese also displays Japanese traits.  When the bomber’s identity is made known to the passengers,  the staff apologize to the passengers, as is customary in  Japanese tradition - to be always polite and apologize. But there is always someone on the train who will blame the railway staff for anything.  An argument then arises in one of the film’s key scenes when one irate idiot passenger rudely accuses the staff of not doing their work, only to be rebuked by another passenger.   These little incidents add to the amusement of the disaster movie.

The addition of modern transit technology is also on full display in the film.   Even if one may not be interested in the disaster scenario, there is plenty of tech stuff to gawk at.  The Japanese rail control centre shows how efficient everything is, from the display of train times and possible delays right down to the exact times the trains arrive or reach each station.  The staff is shown to be sufficiently trained and effective at their jobs, not to mention as dedicated as their North American counterparts.

The film also focuses on a select few characters. These include, among others, a veteran rail employee and a rookie, a well-known, familiar female politician, a young daughter and father, among others, all adding a little personal touch to the story.

The expected climax is a bit of a let-down, partly owing to the excellent build-up.

Trailer: 

EGGHEAD & TWINKIE (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Sarah Kambe Holland

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE, written and directed by Sarah Kambe Holland

plays as a road trip teenage movie about two teens who don’t know much about themselves, life, what they want, or anything else.  The film is a mix of live-action and animation and is breezy and light.  It looks and feels like a film with a limited target audience of LGBTQ+ or teens, but despite the fact, EGGHAD AND TWINKIE has its charm and has moved the hearts of many a moviegoer, earning a solid 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing this review.

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE begins with voiceover claiming that these two have been friends for life and have never had an argument.  Of course, they do as depicted at the start when the two meet at a restaurant to sort out their differences.  Twinkie has left Egghead stranded during a road trip.  I would never forgive any person who would do that to me, but apparently Egghead does, as he is in love with her.  And then she comes out to him that she is gay.

The simple premise of the film involves an Asian American teenage girl, Twinkie (Sabrina Jieafa) who after coming out to her adoptive parents, takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush, BD (Ayden Lee) with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead (Louis Tomeo).

The two leads, Jieafa and Tomeo deliver charming, goofy and innocent enough performances for the audience to identify with.  The raid trip encounters are eventful enough leading them to try to ditch paying a restaurant bill.  But they pay after finding the money showing them to be liable chacrerts with no bad stuff in their hearts.

Besides the funny stuff. The film hits some high emotional notes with its coming-of-age dramatic moments.  This is a film that would be difficult to dislike

EGGHEAD AND TWINKIE  is available on demand April the 29th in Canada and the US.

Trailer: 

FREWAKA (Ireland 2024) ***½

Directed by Aislinn Clarke

The Irish folk horror film, FREWAKA from Aislinn Clarke (The Devil’s Doorway) follows home care worker Shoo, who is sent to a remote village to care for an agoraphobic woman who fears the neighbours as much as she fears the Na Sídhe — sinister entities who she believes abducted her decades before.  As the two develop a strangely deep connection, Shoo is consumed by the old woman’s paranoia, rituals, and superstitions, eventually confronting the horrors from her past.

FREWAKA is an Irish folk horror movie in the best sense of the word. It is set in a quaint Irish village full of typical Irish folk, inquisitive and unwelcoming to strangers. The story is set in an old house filled with Irish charms like a horseshoe and other paraphernalia. The film is also shot in Irish Gaelic with some English, proving the point that the language, though not dead, often deals with the dead.

FREWAKA, the film title (Irish-language, like much of the dialogue) is shortened from the original “Fréamhacha,” and translates as “roots” — a concept that hard-headed protagonist Siobhan (Clare Monnelly), who prefers to be called Shoo, doesn’t much care for.   Roots could refer to the past of either of the two protagonists.  One is Shoo who is reeling from the death of her mother, who is did not get along with and the other, Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain), the elderly lady Shoo looks after as a caregiver, her roots for isolation that lay in a disastrous rural wedding, that is shown as the introduction of the film.  Peig believes she was abducted decades ago, a fact that is backed up by newspaper cuttings that the bride had gone missing after the wedding.  The poster of the film has roots emanating from the eyes of a human.

Director Clarke’s film flows smoothly and coherently.  It begins with a wedding.  The action then moves to the present day, where, to the tune of an old Irish ballad, a woman takes her own life.  Her daughter Shoo (Clare Monnelly), is a care worker whose reasons for estrangement from her mother will have an increasing impact on her mental state.  Engaged to her pregnant Ukrainian fiancé Mila (Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya), Shoo is grateful to cut short clearing her mother’s house to start a live-in job looking after an elderly agoraphobic, Peig, in the remote Irish countryside, leaving Mila to continue the pregnancy alone.

The set decor is admirable, with lots of details involving Irish folk stuff.  The wardrobe like the yobs wearing medieval straw masks are also scary as well as impressive, not to mention the wedding ware.  Director Clarke is also adept at creating a scary atmosphere and period that is present throughout the film.

The two characters are each interesting enough, both having problems of their own,  each searching for isolation but eventually finding a bond owing to their somewhat similar uncomfortable past.  An addition to the story involves the estranged relationship between Shoo and her girlfriend, who has to put up with her anger at her deceased mother.  She cannot undreamt Shoo’s behaviour.

FREWAKA  opens for streaming on Shudder on April 25 in Canada, the U.S. and other countries.  Thesis is one of the better horror flicks on Shudder. It's well worth a watch.

Trailer: 

HAVOC (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Gareth Evans

Tom Hardy (MAD MAX, THE BIKERIDERS), arguably the only action hero actor who can act, is the best thing about the new (actually the film has been set on the shelf in limbo since almost the Pandemic) action film HAVOC.  Director Evans (THE RAID, THE RAID 2) knows the fact and gets serious drama, as can be observed in the film’s initial elaborate voiceover.  The message is on the choices one makes, initially good until …….  Apparently, the film’s protagonist, played by Tom Hardy, a homicide detective, made the wrong choice of being a dirty cop.  He has turned good but stands to lose his family, his friends, and then according to the voiceover, himself.

After a drug deal goes awry, a bruised detective must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician's estranged son while untangling his city's dark web of conspiracy and corruption.

Director Evans attempts neo-noir, but the mix does not really work that well.  The film is no half-hand but it faces stiff competition to action and action thrillers out there like THE ACCOUNTANT2, DROP and SINNERS. At least this one can be watched at home on Netflix.  HAVOC opens for streaming on Netflix this week on Friday, April 25th.Trailer: 

ON SWIFT HORSES (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Daniel Minahan

ON SWIFT HORSES is a slow-burn noir, characterized by the fact that there is a lot of smoking done here by the characters, about a newlywed whose life is upended by the arrival of her wayward brother-in-law.  The noir drama is set in the 1950s when a man and a woman are expected to marry and settle down, and homosexuality is not only frowned upon but treated with hate, anger and violence.   The film is meticulously adapted from Shannon Pufahl’s novel of the same name

The title ON SWIFT HORSES comes from the Bible — specifically, Isaiah 30:16.  The verse says:

“You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore, you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore, your pursuers will be swift!”

This quote is essentially about people trying to escape something, relying on speed and distance rather than confronting what’s happening. In the context of Shannon Pufahl’s novel, which the film is based on, and the film adaptation, the title reflects the emotional and psychological state of the characters. They are all, in different ways, running from their pasts, from expectations, from the limitations placed on them by society in the 1950s.

The "swift horses" evoke both literal escape (like driving through the desert, gambling, or just disappearing) and emotional escape (into secrecy, desire, or fantasy). So the title has this poetic resonance about longing, risk, and flight.

 Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are the new married couple planning to move from Kansas to start married life in California.  Then Muriel meets Lee’s brother Julius (Jacob Elordi), a charismatic gambler with a secret past.  Their connection is instant, like kindred souls.  Nevertheless, Muriel and Lee follow the American Dream in San Diego while Julius heads out to Las Vegas.  Their paths meet, but the result is far from desirable,

  The film might be hard to take in (though not implying that it is a bad film) for a couple of reasons, the slow burn being one of them.  The characters are not that likable either, as they do not seem to know what they want, and they hurt each other in the process of trying to escape to a better life.  Most of their teams are unattainable, mostly by both fate and their doing, which means that the audiences should be prepared for an unhappy ending.

Performances are top notch all around, especially Elordi, touted to have turned down the role of the new James Bond for the purpose of getting into more diverse roles like this one.  Poulter is outstanding too, playing the role of a ‘good man’ as his wife describes his character in one key scene.  Also added to the film’s please is the noir period atmosphere taken into the story’s setting.   The film was shot by Canada’s Luc Montpellier (Women Talking), whose stunning cinematography captures not only the look of the Eisenhower era (the cookie-cutter houses, the pristine landscapes) but also the fringes of Americana (casinos, race tracks, cruising parks, and gay bars).

ON SWIFT HORSES opens in theatres across Canada, including Toronto April 25th.

Trailer: 

PANGOLIN: KULU’S JOURNEY (UK 2025) ***½

Directed by Pippa Ehrlich

What is more adorable than a pangolin?  The answer is a baby pangolin, a harmless, so vulnerable and helpless creature, that one part just goes out to preserve this wonderful mammal

A pangolin will roll up a ball of its scales when threatened.  These solitary, primarily nocturnal animals are easily recognized by their full armour of scales. A startled pangolin will cover its head with its front legs, exposing its scales to any potential predator. If touched or grabbed, it will roll up completely into a ball, while the sharp scales on the tail can be used to lash out.  Also called scaly anteaters because of their preferred diet, pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world, with demand primarily in Asia and in growing amounts in Africa, for their meat and scales. There is also demand in the United States for pangolin products, particularly for their leather to be used in boots, bags, and belts.

Eight species of pangolins are found on two continents. They range from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered.

This wonderful educational Netflix documentary, directed by Pippa Ehrlich, who directed the Academy Award-winning documentary THE OCTOPUS TEACHER, follows a baby pangolin, rescued from poachers as seen at the start of the film.  Apparently director Ehrlich was coerced into making the film after being sent footage of the pangolin.  The male baby pangolin Kulu is handled by Gareth, whose purpose is to guide the pangolin back to the wild and survival.  The story is quite basic.  Unlike most docs, this one does not follow the life of he subject from birth to adulthood.  Instead, it follows a pangolin’s rehabilitation to the point when he is able to survive on his own in the wild.  Kulu was almost sold and slaughtered by poachers when a sting operation rescued him. His handler looks after him till he reaches 6.5 kg, when it is a safe enough weight for him to survive on his own.  But an incident involving an electric fence that almost killed Kuu left him traumatized and mistrusting of Gareth.  It took a while before trust was once again attained.  What is marvellous is to observe the bond between a human and a wild animal, not to mention that this pangolin is 100% cute.  The best scene involves watching the pangolin feasting on termites.

The film’s setting is Joburg.  Joburg is short for Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest city and capital of Gauteng province, which began as a 19th-century gold-mining settlement. Its sprawling Soweto township was once home to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.  Mandela’s former residence is now the Mandela House museum. Other Soweto museums that recount the struggle to end segregation include the somber Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill, a former prison complex. 

The film’s best moments are its simplest, just watching the pangolin move on its hind legs and propelling itself with the aide of its two arms.  Watching it feed on ants and their eggs is also quiet the sight.  In defence, the ants bite the pangolin’s tongue, which must hurt it as well.

PANGOLIN: KULU’S JOURNEY is currently streaming on Netflix.

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THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA (UK 2023) ***
Directed by Matt Witt

Everyone loves a good London play at west end.   The new British film set in North London plays like a chamber piece except for one segment in which body is moved across North London in a car.  Though one might complain about the film being stagey, staginess can still be entertaining.  After all, people do go and see plays.

The film’s title is likely derived from the classic Alfred Hitchcock 1955 movie THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, also about having to dispose of a dead body - in that movie, the body is Harry, and this movie, THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA, is unveiled in chapters entitled:

The Trouble with Friends

The Trouble with Neighbours

The Trouble with the police

The Trouble with Friends

among others…….

Chamber pieces work best as whodunnits, bedroom farce, and comedy.   THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA can be described as a comedy of errors.

The actors playing the Londoners are English, Scots Welsh and American, no attempts made to hide their basic accents.  No complaints here, as the script can always offer an excuse for the different accents.

The premise is simple enough: Four friends, two married couples and Jessica are having a dinner party.   The host is making clafoutis, which is a running joke throughout the movie.  Jessica is clearly the shit disturber.  She excuses herself during the dinner and hangs herself.  The j=hostess denies to,ove the body as she is about to sell the house and a suicide world brings down the price of the listing.  So, the four have to decide what is the best thing to do, and finally decide to move Jessica’s body to her pace, noticed.  But neighbours, plociw and guilt come in the way,

The characters can hardly be described as likable.  The most dislikable is clearly Jessica, who shows up at dinner creating havoc and flirting with all the husbands.  Jessica has done what she has wanted all her life, which is having sex, getting drunk, and snorting coke, and has just written a best-seller of her life.  Then, she hangs herself at her friend’s dinner party. Her character is obviously written for audiences to hate, and when she is out of the picture after her suicide, the audience can only be too pleased.  The funny part is that Jessica is even more toxic dead than alive.  The actress playing Jessica is half Indian and Swiss, exhibiting the beauty of cross-race marriages.

The script carefully places personalities against each character, while making each one distinct and different.   The clearly most disliked one, actually, none of the characters are actually angels, is the self-proclaimed do-gooder played by Olivia Williams.   She is always morally correct and is never too shy to discuss it.   She is the first to oppose disposing of Jessica’s body.  Her husband cannot stand her because of the fact that he loves her.

THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA premiered at the ICFF (Italian International Film Festival) last year and opens in theatres  April 25th.   Undemanding and entertaining British fare that is a pleasure to watch!

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UNTIL DAWN (USA 2025) ***

Directed by David F. Sandberg

Horror time loop movies are themselves a genre of their own, films like HAPPY DEATH DAY, THE ENDLESS and TIME LAPSE being the most remembered ones.  The best of the lot happens to be from Sweden and Denmark, called KOKO-DI, KOKO-DA, which should definitely be checked out if this is your favourite horror genre.  A new one opens this week in theatres, entitled UNTIL DAWN, which is based on a video game.  The premise is that the characters must stay alive UNTIL DAWN or they will relive their deaths again and again and again.  How do they know this?  In one of the sessions, a witch (Mariann Hermányi) tells one of the characters the important message.  Yes, this all makes little sense, but what can one expect from a film based on a video game

UNTIL DAWN is not that scary a film, KOKO-DI, KOKO-DA, in contrast, is incredibly scary and also funny in that the campers who are repeatedly slaughtered violently do nothing to try to escape their repeated demise.   In UNTIL DAWN, they try to survive till dawn.  After all, what else can be expected of them to do?  The climax and a short clip of what happens next, maybe prompting a sequel, are nothing out of the expected and rather clichéd.

At the start of the film, the audience sees a group of friends travelling by car to find out the mystery of the disappearance of Clover’s (Ella Rubin) sister, Melanie (Maia Mitchell).  The group is comprised of Clover’s ex, Max (Michale Cimino), friends Nina (Odessa A’zion), Megan (Ji-Young Woo) and Abe (Belmont Call).   The script by Blair Butler and Gary Dauberman makes no great attempt at distinguishing each character, though one can tell the other apart for example, that Megan is Asian and can sense ‘spirits’ while Max and Abe look quite different.  But the cast of relative unknowns delivers solid performances.

The script also does not contain any remarkable twists in the plot nor does director Sandberg (also Swedish like the director of KOKO-DI, KOKO-DA), and director of scary films like ANNABELLE: CREATION and LIGHTS OUT create any originally fresh horror set pieces.  Director Sandberg relies on one too many jump scares, which make many of the audience around me at the promo screening jump out of their seats.  The horror special effects work well, especially the exploding bodies in one sequence of the film.  The horror story also lacks an evil villain, though Dr. Hill (Peter Stormare) manages a few scares.  The creation of the ‘waterwall’ is the film’s most impressive and eerie premise, as well as the characters trying to escape while driving in fog.  Driving in fog, and unable to see clearly through the windshield is one of the common nightmares people have.

UNTIL DAWN should satisfy horror fans with scares, violence and gory scenes, though it can be said that the film is not genuinely hauntingly frightening or eerie.  UNTIL DAWN will be up for stiff competition with the other blockbuster and well-reviewed SINNERS that opened last week.

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 March 2025

FILM REVIEWS:

CALL OF THE VOID (USA 2024) **
Directed by James B. Cox

CALL OF THE VOID is set in the Appalachian Mountain range in the United States.  The recent drama APPALACHIAN DOG, by coincidence, is another film set in the same area.   The Appalachian Mountain range is a bleak and deserted area.  The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are the mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range and its surrounding terrain.  CALL OF THE VOID features Appalachian folk songs, which are performed by the cast of the film.  It is doubtful if the film was actually shot there as the credits list the filming locations as Big Bear Lake, Big Bear Valley, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA.

CALL OF THE VOID stars Caitlin Carver (Chicago Fire, I Tonya, Netflix’s Dear White People), Mina Sundwall (Netflix’s Lost In Space, Jesus Revolution), Christian Antidormi (Starz’s Spartacus, Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer), and Ethan Herisse (Nickel Boys, When They See Us). It was written and directed by James B. Cox (Hacked, Grey Matter, based on a short story by Stephen King).

After the tragic death of her brother (not seen on screen), Moray (Caitlin Carver) retreats to a remote mountain cabin to try and escape her work, her family, and her old life.  However, her quiet retreat is quickly diverted by a college band of 4, comprising Lucy (Mina Sundial), Sterling (Richard Ellis). Cole (Christian Amtidormi) and Darryl (Ethan Herisse) move into the unit next door and a suspicious professor is studying a local phenomenon involving a mysterious hum.   She discovers that the Hum is a gateway to something otherworldly, unnameable, and once heard--there is no return. The Hum is a sonic experience that asks the question: How can you escape your own senses?  The hum feels like the ringing one often hears that comes and goes in one’s ears.

The film works best when Moray meets the band and interacts with them.  The members appear weird, and indeed they are.  There seems to be no main leader of the group, which the script should have identified.  The bully of the group is clearly Sterling, and the black member Darryl is the one who not only bullied but also seems out of place and not wanting to be there.  Things take a head when all decide to go hiking with each left on an isolated spot to meditate.

But as things develop, the story also becomes more difficult to follow and the lines between the good and bad members of the band begin to blur.  And the mystery of the old professor presumed dead, by the name of Professor Blackwood (Ted Barton) also comes across as strange, not to mention the monster from the void.

The blend of psychological horror and actual horror comes across as a weird mix in a film that ends up with a muddled ending.

Gravitas Ventures will release CALL OF THE VOID on digital platforms on April 15, 2025.

DEAD MAIL (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConagh

When an ominous cry for help on a blood-stained scrap of mail is clocked by the staff of a country post office in the American Midwest, it spurs an investigation that circuitously reveals the sordid story of a struggling synthesizer engineer (Sterling Macer Jr.) and his possessive benefactor (John Fleck). Shrewdly set at the precipice of the digital age — that nebulous twilight between the late 1970s and the early 1980s — this analog-textured thriller borders its central psychodrama within an idiosyncratic community of amateur gumshoes who all keenly contribute to cracking the case.  The most immediately prominent sleuth is Jasper (Tomas Boykin), a diligent mailroom clerk with a knack for rectifying “dead letters,” to use the parlance of the postal service. Aided by his two plucky colleagues (Micki Jackson and Susan Priver) and a Scandinavian hacker (Nick Heyman), this ensues a genre-bending caper.  The lack of blood, gore and violence is compensated by the weird way in which lost items and dead mail can be traced - all of which could be either true or made up.  The ambiguity of the situation is heightened at the end with notes of what has happened to each of the story’s characters - which are too odd to be believed.  The setting and cinematography on scratchy, deliberately scratched and blurred film mark this film above others in the genre.  No big-name stars in this low-budget horror, if one wants to call it that.

DEAD MAIL premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness Section and opens for streaming on Shudder on April the 18th, 2025

iHOSTAGE (Amsterdam 2025) ***
Directed by  Bobby Boermans

Full Review to be posted weekend)

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SECRET MALL APARTMENT (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jeremy Workman

 In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and kept it going for four years, filming everything along the way. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret mall apartment became an incredibly meaningful act for all the participants, at once an act of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, and a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man.

The film tells the true story (which documentary is not?) of eight Rhode Islanders who built and lived in a secret apartment inside a busy local mall from 2003 to 2007.  As implied by this premise, the target audience is limited and those outside the target audience might just watch the doc out of curiosity at best.  The doc is more than aptly made, with details and history, with sufficient research done for that matter.   The doc has garnered rave reviews, including that of critic Peter Keough called the film one of the best documentaries of the year, stating in The Arts Fuse that "the secret apartment also symbolized a Borgesian kind of subversiveness, a meta-mirror of the culture that the artists inhabited and subverted.”  Vogue also included the film as one of the best documentaries of 2024, stating that "the film is both an elaborate archaeological excavation and a creative re-enchantment of urban corporate space.

The doc’s main subject is Michael Townsend, who after the story broke in 2007, several Hollywood production companies approached him about making a film. For nearly 15 years, he and his fellow artists turned down "north of 30 directors" who wanted to make a documentary on the story.  It is therefore not surprising to see that more than half of the doc’s running time is devoted to Townsend and his artwork, which has little to do with the secret mall apartment.  There is a lot of praise for Townsend, who also teaches art and how he selflessly devotes his work and time to the hospital

SECRET MALL APARTMENT premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, the documentary later screened at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival,  Melbourne International Film Festival,  Vancouver International Film Festival,  Hamptons International Film Festival,  and the closing night film of the Newport Film Outdoor Festival.  The film opens in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on April 18th.

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THE WEDDING BANQUET (USA 2025) ***

Directed by Andrew Ahn

Written by director Andrew Ahn and James Schamus (a frequent collaborator with Taiwanese director Ange Lee), the new gay comedy THE WEDDING BANQUET, the title might sound familiar.  The reason is that THE WEDDING BANQUET is a remake of the 1993 gay iconic classic of the same name, which was one of the films that put director Ang Lee on the international map of filmmaking.  The new film has several variations, including a Korean setting.  The gay male couple is Korean and Asian American, while the original features a Taiwanese and an American caucasian. Though this version is not bad for the reason outlined below in the review, nothing beats the original.

The new version has a veteran cast of SNL regulars and favourite, Bowen Yang in the title role.  It also features two Asian heavyweight stars as the grandmother of one of the grooms and the mother of one lesbian.  Joan Chen plays May Chen, introduced at the start of the film wearing a flattering glittery cheongsam, while Academy Award Winner from MINARU Youn Yuh-jung plays one of the groom’s grandmother who stole the Oscar from Glenn Close, who should have won the Oscar after being nominated numerous times.   Youn plays the more subdued relative while Chen is the loud and more outlandish one, and one that supports gay rights and the gay movement.  Her character is not amused that the wedding banquet to be organized is to be for a straight and not a gay couple, one of the film’s best jokes.  Also in the cast is an Academy Award nominee for KILLERS OF A FLOWER MOON, Lily Gladstone, who is playing Lee.

The updated story is a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating cultural identity, queerness, and family expectations.  Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang) and running out of time, Min (Han Gi-chan) makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) in exchange for her partner Lee's (Gladstone) expensive IVF. Elopement plans are upended, however, when Min's grandmother (Youn) surprises them with an extravagant Korean wedding banquet.

` As expected and implied by the film title, much happens during the wedding banquet and in the ceremony itself.  The story is quite different from Lee’s original and with the fact that that film was released way back in 1993, many would not recall what had happened in the original story.  As such, the new version can be enjoyed as if it is fresh and new.

The film is pleasant and humorous and hits all the right notes being politically and racially correct without being offensive to any race, culture or orientation.  The film contains few laugh-out-loud humour though one cannot complain that it is not amusing enough.  Likeable characters and their likeable relatives who control them all add to the pleasantness. Likeable characters and their likeable relatives who control them all add to the pleasantness.  The film also celebrates the Korean culture, though the cast is varied and not largely Korean. As they say, Asians look mostly alike.

THE WEDDING BANQUET opens in theatres on April 18th.

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