Archive for April, 2016

Toronto Screenwriting Conference: Charles Randolph in Conversation

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 9.31.11 AMRichard will be at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference hosting an extensive session with screenwriter Charles Randolph (The Big Short), to explore his writing process – including his current Academy Award winning adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book. The interview happens Saturday, April 30 (from 5:30 – 7:00pm), at the John Bassett Theatre (Metro Toronto Convention Centre). More information HERE!

Charles Randolph is an American screenwriter and producer for film and television. Randolph has written screenplays for several films and TV movies including THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (2003), THE INTERPRETER (2005), and LOVE & OTHER DRUGS (2010). Randolph received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing THE BIG SHORT in 2015.

Randolph is married to Israeli actress Mili Avital, with whom he has two children.

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY APRIL 22, 2016.

Screen Shot 2016-04-23 at 7.35.37 AMRichard and CP24 anchor Nneka Elliot talk about the weekend’s big releases, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt in “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” the Tom Hanks dramedy “A Hologram for The King” and Sally Field in “Hello, My Name is Doris.”

Watch the whole ting HERE!

Metro Canada: The Devil’s Horn and the trebled history of the saxophone

Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 12.44.55 PMBy Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

The sexy and seductive sound of the saxophone is as close to the cooing voice of a loved one is any instrument can be. Yet, for that very reason the instrument has had a long and storied past ripe with more intrigue than any James Patterson thriller. In the new documentary The Devil’s Horn director Larry Weinstein walks us through the sax’s wild, woolly and supposedly cursed history.

“It is one of these things where truth is stranger than fiction,” he says. “Certainly the life of [inventor] Adolphe Sax is terribly bizarre. From the near deaths he had as a child to the jealousy of instrument makers who actually tried to kill him, twice, and burn down his factory, it looks entirely fictionalized but everything we say about him is true. Then he got this cancerous growth that was so large he couldn’t eat or drink or breathe. By the time he was ready to come back to work his patents had run out. He died in total poverty.”

The idea of the cursed instrument seems to have originated with its inventor. “Adolphe Sax himself had this dream that devils with saxophones were pulling people to hell.”

The movie describes how sax icons Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker, John Coltrane and many other players of the “devil’s instrument” battled heroin addiction, creating sounds so carnal and voluptuous they were outlawed by everyone from the Nazis (who banned the sax from the Earth) to the Vatican. Movie studios barred it from soundtracks and it put the sex in sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.

“I always thought when they talked about it sounding like a human voice they meant the timbre of the saxophone. Like the human voice the sax has alto, tenor, soprano and bass, but I think it also has to do with the fact that it can bend and growl, that it can moan and weave around seductively. Also, you can play with so little air it can whisper but it can also scream and be much louder than most of the other brass instruments.”

Of course the horn and its players aren’t truly cursed but Weinstein says, “other instrumentalists have those problems and they exist in classical music too, but for some reason not to the extent that saxophonists have suffered.”

Using a mix of archival footage and new interviews with musicians like Colin Stetson and Giuseppi Logan, Weinstein gets past that catchy concept to make a compelling case for the sax as more than a symbol of depravity and immorality and Mr. Sax as “one of the greatest geniuses in the history of music.”

“The problem with the saxophone is you pick it up, blow into it and there is a beautiful rich sound right away. Adolphe Sax made it so people who can’t play well, sound good. That’s the genius of the guy. All other instruments evolved out of other instruments. This guy, in about 1840 said, ‘I want to make an instrument with this sound and I’m going to have to make it brass and give it the mouthpiece of a clarinet and the fingerboard of a flute.’ And he invented it. Most people if they looked at an 1846 saxophone they would think it looked like a modern saxophone and the sound is almost the same.”

Metro: Sing Street hits right note with actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo

Screen Shot 2016-04-14 at 12.54.53 PMBy Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

Pete Townshend, guitar god of The Who, says he learned to play guitar and started a band for two reasons:

A: His nose. B. To meet girls.

About his nose he said, “It was huge. It was the reason I played guitar.” He also noted that bands (even band-members with large noses) “always got the best girls.”

“It is definitely one of the things that inspires lads to play music,” agrees Sing Street star Ferdia Walsh-Peelo.

Ask most male musicians why they joined a band and 99 out of 100 will tell you it was for one very simple reason, to meet women. Art, money and fame are often far distant second place to the lure of the opposite sex. Such is the case with Conor (Walsh-Peelo) a fifteen-year-old school by with a crush on Raphina (Lucy Boynton) in Sing Street, the new musical romance from Once director John Carney that plays like a spiritual cousin to The Commitments.

“I think that is the thing that gets Conor started and gets people started pop music,” he says. “Then you form the band and you find refuge in the music. It becomes more than just getting the girl. It’s actually a way of coping when things are crap.

“I didn’t have a great time in school and I went through all these similar kind of phases [as Conor]. I remember seeing [the John Lennon biopic] Nowhere Boy and me and this other guy at school bought leather jackets, gelled our hair back and went into school. Bringing combs with us and doing our hair like in Grease. Looking like complete twats running around town just doing mad stuff. It’s all part of the process. Finding yourself and finding your voice.”

Born and reared just thirty minutes outside Dublin in in County Wicklow, in the film the young actor is the perfect picture of an 80s rock star, despite knowing next to nothing about the decade or the music when he signed on to play Conor.

“It was a huge learning curve,” he says. “I hadn’t reached that point where I was diving into 80s music. I suppose I was up to the late Sixties. When I went into Sing Street I was playing bands and we were still in that place. I was listening to loads of country, music from Tennessee, skiffle music, bluegrass. I had been experimenting with loads of different kinds of music and I got into the 80s stuff when we shot the movie.

“It took me a while but then I got into it after watching a million ridiculous 80s videos. I just got it,” he says. “They just weren’t taking themselves seriously at all. It was just that kind of era. It was all just mad, wasn’t it? There was loads of horrendous stuff around at that time but there were a few gems. Hall and Oates are absolute gems of the pop stuff.”

The musician-turned-actor also singles out The Cure and The Talking Heads as great stuff,” but says his heart lies in folk music.

“Folk music is always where it’s been at for me. I played skiffle music with bands for the craic (fun) of it but when I came back, in my room I’d be listening to Joni Mitchell.”

RICHARD’S “CANADA AM” REVIEWS FOR APRIL 22 WITH MARCI IEN.

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 10.22.06 AMRichard and “Canada AM” host Marci Ien talk about the weekend’s big releases, the pomp and circumstance of “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” the Tom Hanks dramedy “A Hologram for The King,” Sally Field in “Hello, My Name is Doris” and the sexy sax sounds of “The Devil’s Horn.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

Metro In Focus: In defence of Charlize Theron: GQ gaffe out of character

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.11.17 PMBy Richard Crouse – Metro In Focus

In polite society no one would dare ask a stranger about his or her father’s violent death, but celebrity culture is not polite society.

Over the years I’ve heard interviewers ask questions ranging from the innocuous — “What are you wearing?” — to the silly — “How do you keep your bum in such great shape?” — but rarely have I heard anything as unnecessarily meddling as the query aimed at Charlize Theron during a press conference I hosted several years ago.

A reporter asked the actress about seeing her mother shoot her abusive, alcoholic father dead when she was a teenager. But instead of breaking down Theron said, “I’m not talking about that,” with an icy finality that made everyone freeze.

I admired her for not over sharing, not spilling the intimate details of her life à la the Kardashian Klan. She’s careful what she says to the press, avoids scandal and damage controls the ones that inevitably pop up in every celeb’s life. For instance, recently she said, short and sweetly, “We both decided to separate,” when accused of “ghosting” on her romance with Sean Penn.

She understands some things should only be spoken about when and where she chooses and not at the behest of an aggressive reporter looking to dredge up painful memories for the sake of “good television.” Theron is media savvy so I was surprised a few weeks ago when she caused a media hurly burly with comments about the burden of being beautiful.

Chatting up her new film The Huntsman: Winter’s War with British GQ she said, “How many roles are out there for the gorgeous, BLEEPINGing, gown-wearing eight-foot model? When meaty roles come through, I’ve been in the room and pretty people get turned away first.”

She is a beautiful woman, that is as clear as the perfectly positioned nose on her face, but is she intimating that being beautiful has harmed her career?

Turns out she wasn’t, or so she claims. Alleging a misquote, she later apologized, saying that playing “deconstructed characters” appeals because, “how many characters really are there out there for a woman wearing a gown? You have to play real people.

The mea culpa was unnecessary. She works in a business where beauty is a commodity.

The problem with her earlier statement is that publicly acknowledging one’s own looks carries with it a hint of arrogance, a suggestion that winning the genetic lottery somehow makes you superior, but she simply said something others already have.

Keira Knightley claims she almost lost the role in Pride and Prejudice because the director thought she was too pretty and Jessica Biel says being Esquire’s 2005 Sexiest Woman cost her work.

Theron may have missed out on a job or two because of her looks, but it’s also an element of what made her a star.

That and talent, and just as you wouldn’t apologize for skin colour or having red hair or being tall or short, she doesn’t need to say sorry for being beautiful.

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR: 1 STAR. “let’s call this movie a ‘sprequel.’”

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.06.04 PMOnce upon a time there was a movie called “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Starring Hollywood princesses Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, it was a dark reimagining of the classic story that played like the love child of the Brothers Grimm and “The Hobbit” with two compelling characters, warrior Snow White and the villainous Ravenna.

Another film was inevitable, but how do you make a sequel when KStew busy making art films and Ravenna didn’t make it to the end credits? Easy, you rehire Theron, play mix and match “Frozen” and “Game of Thrones” and hope for the best.

“The Huntsman: Winter’s War“ begins its confusing journey as a prequel. Ravenna (Theron) is alive and well, a Grand Guiginol vision of a fairy tale Queen. Despite her best efforts sister Freya (Emily Blunt) refuses to embrace their evil birthright, choosing instead to start a family. When tragedy strikes the formerly good-natured princess finds her wicked power, morphing into the Winter Queen, whose icy glare can freeze kingdoms. The only things missing are Olaf and a show tune or two.

In her frigid northern empire she raises a child army of orphans called the Huntsmen (even though they’re not all boys or men). Elsa’s… er… Freya’s warriors are forbidden to love. They must let it go. “In my kingdom there is one rule do not love,” she says. “It is in a sin I will not forgive.” When Eric (Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) fall hard for one another and plan to elope, Freya goes to extraordinary and cruel lengths to ensure they live happily never after.

Cut to seven years later. The movie is now into sequel territory. Snow White (who is glimpsed only briefly) has defeated Ravenna and now needs Eric to locate the Magic Mirror and ensure it is never used for evil. Cue the goblins, a few hi ho hi ho’s provided by Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith and Alexandra Roach and more CGI than you can throw an enchanted mirror at.

I’m not sure what to call “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.“ It’s not a sequel or a prequel and yet it is both. Officially I suppose we’re supposed to call it a “sprequel”; I call it bloated, confusing and worst of all, dull. You would think that any movie featuring Emily Blunt riding a polar bear would be great fun but you’d be wrong. From the half hour of narration that opens the story to the cavalcade of CGI and bad accents—Hemsworth and Chastain easily beat Kevin Costner for worst-ever cinematic British Isles burrs—to sloppy storytelling, this is a grim, not Brothers Grimm tale.

Bad accent aside Hemsworth brings some swagger to the role of Eric, Chastain tries to keep a straight face and sidekicks Frost, Brydon, Smith and Roach create a badly needed sense of fun to the proceedings. Blunt isn’t given much to do, aside from her rather stunning entrance in the polar bear but Theron actually disappoints. In the first film she’s a hoot, a bundle of bad intentions gathered up in one pretty package. Here she’s not the same figure of malicious amusement but oddly disconnected and not nearly as much fun.

Over long “The Huntsman: Winter’s War“ drones on for almost two hours until the narrator (Liam Neeson) reappears. As his dulcet tones close the movie with something to the effect of the story may be over “but fairy talks never end,” it doesn’t seem so much like an ending as it does a threat that they might make a sequel to this mess.

A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING: 2 STARS. “like two movies spliced to form one.”

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.04.04 PM“A Hologram for the King” is a crappy title. Doesn’t mean much. Sounds like it could be a sci-fi film or a high-tech Elvis Presley tribute. To really sum up the feel of the new Tom Hanks film I’d suggest calling it “How Tommy Got his Groove Back.”

Hanks plays Alan Clay, a put-up middle manager with a testy ex-wife and unhappy boss. He’s a boy wonder whose later years have not been so wonderful, an older man who finds himself beaten down by the corporate system he helped create. The opportunity to pitch an IT system for a new Saudi Arabian city offers up a way out of his financial, personal and career woes, but when he arrives in the Arab state he discovers there are no easy answers to his problems. He clashes with Saudi culture but ultimately find connections with people, including his reckless driver (Alexander Black) and compassionate doctor (Sarita Choudhury).

“A Hologram for the King” is an aimless, meandering movie that isn’t so much about being a fish out of water is as it is about one man getting his mojo back. When we first meet Alan he has lost direction. His ability to make complicated situations go smoothly has evaporated and he has a weird lump on his back that may or may not be cancer. He’s a sad sack with a permanent grin plastered on his face, the kind of loveable loser Hanks can play in his sleep. The actor has entered the Spencer Tracy phase of his career; he’s effortlessly likeable and doesn’t bump into the furniture.

Too bad he’s wasted in a tragicomic movie that can’t decide if it wants to make a statement about how American greed drove industry offshore or about Arab culture or about an aging yuppie facing emasculation and mortality. It’s all over the place and Hanks does his best to ground it but ultimately “A Hologram for the King” feels like two or more movies spliced together to form one whole.

HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS: 3 STARS. “’I like you Doris,’ and you will too.”

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.04.52 PMThe title character of “Hello, My Name is Doris” is an unmarried woman of a certain age left alone when her elderly mother dies. It sounds depressing but a wonderful performance from Sally Field brings both comedy and heartache to the film.

Doris lives in Staten Island in the home she grew up in and shared with her mother until she passed away. A job as an accountant in “the city” keeps her busy, but she is lonely, surrounded by mounds of stuff she and her mother hoarded over the years, loved only by her pet cat and best friend Roz (Tyne Daly).

When Doris meets John Fremont (Max Greenfield), a new hire at her company, she is immediately smitten despite the several decades difference in their ages. She moons over him, awkward and afraid, but with the words of a self help guru echoing in her ears—“Don’t ask Why me, ask Why not me?”—she courts him, i.e. stalks him on the internet. When she goes to a concert by one of his favourite artists they hit it off… but only as friends. The quirky Doris is a hit with John’s hipster pals but it turns out John has a girlfriend (Beth Behrs), dive bombing Doris’s hope of getting closer to her work crush.

“Hello, My Name is Doris” is a slight movie, but much funnier than you might imagine given the subject matter. It’s a showcase for Sally Field’s loosest performance in years. Whether she is frozen, lost in the reverie, or dancing to electropop for the first time, she delivers a fine comedic performance. Simmering under the comedy, however, is subtly rendered heartbreak. She’s a woman who feels life passed her by while taking care of her mother and a cloud of sadness and disappointment hangs over her.

Will Doris’s life plan set her on a path to disappointment and rejection or will this be an update of “Harold and Maude”? No spoilers here but suffice to say what “Hello, My Name is Doris” lacks in twists and turns it makes up for with inventive, likeable performances, particularly from Field and co-star Daly.

Early on in the film John says, “I like you Doris.” I predict by the end of the film you will too.