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.
Trailer:
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.
Trailer:
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.
Trailer:
