Archive for September, 2014

METRO CANADA: HOW TO FIND THE HAPPY BITS IN LIFE w SIMON PEGG & ROSAMUND PIKE

hector-and-the-search-for-happiness-movie-still-6By Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

In the new film Hector and the Search for Happiness, Simon Pegg plays the title character, a psychologist with a tidy, uneventful existence. He shares his predictable and safe life with Clara (Rosamund Pike), an ad agency writer who creates names for pharmaceuticals. They chug along happily until one day Hector snaps and sets out on an archeological dig of sorts, to discover what happiness means to people.

“With this film,” says Pegg, “people will often flippantly say, ‘He lives with Rosamund Pike, he’s got a nice house…’ which so misses the point. You can have all that stuff. The point is we take the least sympathetic demographic on the face of this earth, the white upper middle class male and say, ‘He has a problem.’ It just goes to show that if he can be there and be unhappy then anybody can be unhappy.”

When asked if show biz success is a recipe for happiness both Pegg and Pike chime in.

“It’s a question I have been asked,” says Pike. “Fame and money, surely they are the ingredients to a happy life? The point is we keep sadly seeing that unless you are happy before you get those things it’s not a recipe for happiness.”

“Not to bring it up in a facile way,” says Pegg, “but Robin Williams’ death is an indication of that. I find for me I have to be happy in my real life, in the real world, and if I’m happy there I can be happy elsewhere and can enjoy this job.

“I’ve been desperately unhappy while working. I remember when I went to LA to do Mission Impossible III I wasn’t in a great place and I got there and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m in a film with Tom Cruise and yet I’m unhappy.’ It was an epiphany for me.“

“Obviously the idea of a successful career is that you look like a swan gliding and nobody sees the paddling duck feet,” says Pike, “but they’re definitely there. I think the message of the film is ‘You can’t really know happiness unless you are prepared to embrace life with everything it throws at you.’ The unhappiness too. When you go through something horrific in your life, loss or death or illness or whatever, people say this will make you stronger and you think, ‘Oh sod off,’ but of course it does. It makes you appreciate things in the future more and you do feel happier for having been through the bad times.”

From Training Day to The Equalizer: Denzel Washington’s bad guy roles

Denzel WashingtonBy Richard Crouse – Metro – In Focus

In 2001 Denzel Washington won his first Best Actor Academy Award. The movie was Training Day and Washington’s performance as the corrupt Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer Alonzo Harris established the actor’s propensity for playing ambiguous antiheroes.

Is there another A-list leading man who explores the dark side of his characters as often as Washington? Will Smith and Tom Cruise occasionally let the heroic side of their on-screen personas take a back seat, but Washington revels in mucking around in the mud. From Training Day to American Gangster, Safe House to Flight, he has crafted complex characters you wouldn’t want to sit next to on the bus.

This weekend he’s back as Robert McCall, home improvement store manager by day, equalizer of odds by night. Based on the cult 1980s television show The Equalizer starring Edward Woodward, the film begins with the former black ops commando trying to leave his violent ways in the past. He meets his greatest adversary just when he thought that part of his life was over. Namely, the Russian mob leans on him after he tries to protect a young woman (Chloë Grace Moretz) from her pimp.

No other superstar seems as comfortable with moral haziness as Washington. In American Gangster, for instance, he was Frank Lucas, the one-time driver for a Harlem mob boss who rose to the top of the drug world by flooding the streets of Manhattan with cheap, high-grade heroin smuggled into the United States in the coffins of dead soldiers returning from Vietnam. He’s a dichotomy — bloodthirsty and ruthless, but he also attends church every Sunday with his mother.

In Flight, he played troubled pilot Whip Whitaker, an anti-hero who is functional in day-to-day life despite his predilection for wine, women and cocaine. He’s charming one minute, enraged the next and passed out on the floor the minute after that. Washington manages to subtly capture the ego and hubris that allows Whitaker to present a sober face to the public while bringing us into the messy world of addiction.

The actor has played his share of assorted good guys over the years — Ricochet’s cop-turned-attorney and Don Pedro of Aragon in Much Ado About Nothing — but it is his willingness to mine the heroism of the nasty men he plays that makes him one of the most interesting A-listers.

METRO CANADA: S.H.I.E.L.D. ACTOR RELISHES GRANT SCHEME OF THINGS

agents-of-shieldBy Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

Brett Dalton knows he’s the gent Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans love to hate. “I get boos,” he says.

As Agent Grant Ward he spent most of the show’s first season as a gruff, but good guy. Then in a late season development, it was revealed that he was actually a spy working for HYDRA, a criminal organization dedicated to global domination.

“I get some, ‘I trusted you! I feel betrayed. My mother still believes in you!’ I get the whole gamut. It’s kind of all over the place for me. For the other actors it’s more like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love you on the show.’ For me it’s more like, ‘I love-hate you.’ I get a little of both.

“I think Ward is a character they love to hate. It’s not boo against Brett Dalton, it’s boo against the character.”

The actor, who holds a masters degree from the Yale School of Drama, had no idea there were big changes in store for Agent Ward.

“I’m glad they didn’t tell me,” he says, “because I really would have tipped my hand. They told me the episode before and there were a couple of shoot days left and even in those shoot days it kind of did me in mentally because I was thinking, ‘Am I listening like a spy? Am I giving too much away?’ All I was doing was listening in the scene. Standing and listening. But the way in which I was listening, I wasn’t so sure about.”

The fan reaction to his character’s double cross was swift.

“In the beginning some of the tweets were like, ‘I want to punch @iambrettdalton in the face.’ They didn’t say Grant Ward, they tagged me and said they wanted to punch me in the face. I thought they could have just typed in Grant Ward.”

As the show goes into its second season Dalton tips his hat to the fans. Without them the show wouldn’t exist, literally.

When Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, was killed by Loki in The Avengers movie it triggered a worldwide ‘Coulson Lives’ crusade that inspired Marvel to create the show.

“The whole ‘Coulson Lives’ campaign was started by the fans,” he says, “and became this really fun, underground stencil that was seen around the world. Then Marvel got wind of it and decided to make a whole TV show around Colson putting together a ragtag group of people trying to save the world each week. The show exists because of the fans. And that’s the reason we have season two as well, because we have such amazing fans who tune in each week and follow everything and are so eager about the whole thing, They’re why we do what we do.”

RICHARD’S REVIEWS FOR SEPT 19, 2014 W “CANADA AM” HOST BEVERLY THOMSON.

Screen Shot 2014-09-19 at 10.27.56 AM“Canada AM” film critic Richard Crouse reviews the weekend’s big releases, “The Maze Runner,” “This Is Where I Leave You” and “A Walk Among the Tombstones.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

THE MAZE RUNNER: 3 ½ STARS. “look forward to The Maze Runner 2: Electric Boogaloo”

the-maze-runner01The story in “The Maze Runner” is based on a dare. When Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) is dropped into a mysterious walled world where a society of boys have grown up in the shadow of a giant labyrinth, he is told, “Don’t go in the maze.” Of course he does, because that’s like telling a teen, “Don’t go through that door,” in a horror flick.

The setting is bucolic. A large open green space, dotted by trees, huts built of logs and gardens. The only thing out of place is a large metal elevator that once a month belches to life, bringing supplies and a “greenie” to the surface. These young men arrive with their memories wiped clean, unaware of where they are or why they were brought there. The latest newbie is Thomas (“Teen Wolf’s” Dylan O’Brien), a rebellious young man who doesn’t quite fit into the well ordered life the other boys have created in their walled-in world.

He wants to escape; to become a Maze Runner and see if there is a way to navigate through the ever-changing labyrinth—and its evil guardians the Grievers—that stands between them and whatever is happening on the outside world. When the elevator deposits a girl (Kaya Scodelario) with a note clutched in her hand, “She is the last one,” in the midst, it seems like the time has come to take on the maze.

“The Maze Runner” is based on a series of wildly popular young adult books—so yes, you can look forward to “The Maze Runner 2: Electric Boogaloo” coming soon to a theatre near you—and takes a backwards approach to the storytelling. Here the characters are cyphers with no knowledge of their pasts, so they create personas based on their abilities in the camp. Very “Lord of the Flies.” It’s interesting though, in that unlike most original stores we don’t have to spend much time getting to know the characters, where they came from or what their inner torment is. They don’t know and neither do we. Instead they concentrate on the present—their present—and survival. Imagine if the reality show “Survivor” was set in a world surrounded by an impenetrable maze and the only way to get voted off the island was to be eaten by a giant, mechanical Griever beast.

The immediacy of the story serves it well to a point. Eventually the whole crew, or most of them anyway, attempt the maze at which point the film becomes a standard 3D sci fi chase flick—Watch out for that Griever!—but there are twists and turns to keep things moving along and perfectly set the story up for a sequel.

The movie is buoyed by strong performances from Will Poulter as a young guy content to stay within the walls of his mysterious prison and Dylan O’Brien, who gives the movie its prerequisite heartthrob appeal.

“The Maze Runner” makes comments about the dangers of conformity and the virtues of bravery and loyalty and does appear to be headed into some twisty-turny territory should the next part of the story get made.

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU: 4 STARS. “actors bind the family and movie together.”

lead_largeIn the novel “This is Where I Leave You” by Jonathan Tropper the family’s last name was Foxman. For some reason it was changed to Altman for the film, which, perhaps, was done to subtly infer what kind of film it wants to be. It’s a multi-character comedy with shades of drama and pathos, which, by definition makes it, in film critic shorthand, Altmanesque.

The film may try and speak Altmanese but something gets lost in translation. Instead it does something much more basic but equally satisfying. Once it gets past trying to emulate Robert Altman, it presents a funny and sad glimpse at the inner works of a very dysfunctional but loving family.

Jason Bateman leads the large ensemble cast as Judd Altman, a successful radio producer who comes home one afternoon to find his wife (Abigail Spencer) in bed with his boss. His perfectly constructed world falls a part, sending him onto a tailspin that is only compounded by the death of his father.

Returning to upstate New York for the funeral he is forced to sit Shiva with his family, his over-sharing mom, a bestselling psychologist with fake breasts and a loose tongue (Jane Fonda) and three siblings, married mom Wendy (Tina Fey), practical Paul (Corey Stoll) and Phillip (Adam Driver), a free spirit who brings his much older girlfriend (Connie Britton).

All under one roof for the first time in many years they must confront the ghosts of their pasts—including Wendy’s ex-boyfriend Horry (Timothy Olyphant) and Judd’s high school sweetheart Penny (Rose Byrne)—and deal with some very real truths in the present.

A mix of sentiment and wisecracks, “This Is Where I Leave You” is an all-star feast of dysfunction. The brothers don’t get along, mom dresses inappropriately and everyone seems to have slept with everyone else. No one is particularly happy but where would the drama be if they were?

The themes—it’s a study of love, marriage, divorce—and setup feel like movies we’ve seen before—family gathers for holiday, funeral, birthday—and the situations—family grudges, old girlfriends show up, delinquent sibling throws a wrench into everybody’s plans—are familiar. The thing that sets “This is Where I Leave You” apart is the casting.

Bateman is front and center and brings a nice balance of comedy and pathos to the role of Judd. He has a way with a line, but here reveals a deft hand with dramatic material, often in the same scene. It’s a lovely, quiet performance.

Fey, as the tipsy, protective older sister, also reveals a deeper well than we’ve seen before. Less versatile are Stoll and Driver who hand in enjoyable but familiar feeling work. Other supporting cast click. Like Bateman, Byrne gear shifts between sweet and funny and sweet and serious with ease while Fonda is hilarious as the widow who wonders whether she should tip the coroner.

The point is, it all gels. The cast comes together as a unit and even though the movie veers toward easy sentimentality when an edgier approach might have been more realistic, the players are the ties that bind the family and this movie together.

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES: 2 STARS. “Neeson’s usual action-man gravitas.”

web_1850x1040_headerLiam Neeson does have a “special set of skills” in “A Walk Among the Tombstones” but they’re not really on display in the movie. This isn’t “Taken 4: Armed and Fabulous,” it’s a character study with sadistic serial killers, a precocious kid and plot holes you could drive a truck through. Luckily it also has the jaded but still momentous presence of its star Neeson.

Neeson is Matthew Scudder, a recovering alcoholic who gave up his New York City detective’s badge and the bottle when he was involved in a wild street shoot out left two dead and one wounded. Eight years later he’s working as an unlicensed private investigator—“Sometimes I do favors for people,” he says, “and sometimes they give me gifts.”—when he takes a job to investigate the kidnapping and dismemberment of a drug dealer’s wife. As he gets closer to discovering the people behind the grisly crimes—with the help of T.J. (Brian “Astro” Bradley), a teenage street kid—the case gets gruesome as body parts and clues pile up.

Set against the backdrop of Y2K, “A Walk Among the Tombstones” does little to take advantage of anxious spirit of the times. Instead of playing up on that sense of unease, it is dismissed with the line, “People are afraid of the wrong things.” What’s left is an average police procedural about a world-weary ex-cop chasing down serial killers who do unspeakable things but little more.

The addition of a young character is more of a mystery than the kidnapping story. The grim tone of the rest of the film is lightened somewhat by former “X Factor” contestant Bradley’s performance, but why include him at all? To soften Neeson’s character? To make it family friendly? It accomplishes neither and in fact adds a dreaded “teen sidekick” flavor to a story that takes away from the grit of the serial killer storyline.

Neeson brings his usual action-man gravitas, but tempers it with a little humour and more old school police work than he does in the “Taken” movies. “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is the anti-“Taken.” It pulls its punches and would be better served by showing a little less restraint.

ALTMAN: 4 STARS. “captures the spirit of a man who built sandcastles over and over.”

altmanThe image of a sandcastle kicks off “Altman,” director Ron Mann’s look at the life and work of Robert Altman. The filmmaker behind movies like “M*A*S*H,” “Nashville” and “The Long Goodbye” once compared making movies to building sand castles, a metaphor he found so powerful he even named his production company Sandcastle 5.

Then later, just before the end credits, the sandcastle disappears. It’s a simple but effective visual summation of Altman’s ethos, build it, watch it go and start all over again.

Mann worked with Altman’s family and colleagues to piece together the personal and professional life of one of the mavericks of American film. The result is a comprehensive documentary that traces Altman’s work back to his roots in industrial filmmaking in Kansas City, to becoming one of television’s most in-demand directors to his iconoclastic work for the big screen. Woven into that narrative is the personal story of the director’s relationship with his wife and business partner of four decades Kathryn and their children.

The story is told in their words—Altman’s reminiscences are culled from 400 hours of footage from his public talks and interviews—accompanied by film clips and unseen until now home movies and stills.

Additional colour comes from the famous faces of Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, the late Robin Williams and Elliott Gould, who each answer one question, “What does the word Altman-esque mean to you?” The wide range of answers, which often are pared down to one word or a short phrase, provide a curt but effective glimpse at the unique multiverse Altman created in his life and work.

The result of all these elements is “Altman,” a beautiful and naturalistic portrait of a man, not just his work. It would have been impossible to go in-depth on each of Altman’s 39 films in just ninety minutes, so Mann concentrates on capturing the spirit of a man who built sandcastles over and over again.