Posts Tagged ‘Adeel Akhtar’

CTV NEWS AT 11:30: MORE MOVIES AND TV SHOWS TO STREAM THIS WEEKEND!

Richard speaks to “CTV News at 11:30” anchor Andria case about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. This week we have a look at the kid friend “DC League of Super Pets,” the B.J. Novak mystery “Vengeance” and the family drama “Ali & Ava.”

Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:04)

CFRA IN OTTAWA: THE BILL CARROLL MORNING SHOW MOVIE REVIEWS!

I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Matt Harris to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the animated superhero flick “DC League of Super-Pets,” the social media thriller “Vengeance ” and the British drama “Ali & Ava.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

THE SHOWGRAM WITH DAVID COOPER: DOES RICHARD CROUSE LIKE THESE MOVIES?

I join NewsTalk 1010 host David Cooper on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “Showgram” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about animated superhero flick “DC League of Super-Pets,” the social media thriller “Vengeance ” and the British drama “Ali & Ava.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

YOU TUBE: THREE MOVIES/THIRTY SECONDS! FAST REVIEWS FOR BUSY PEOPLE!

Watch Richard Crouse review three movies in less time than it takes to do a jumping jack! Have a look as he races against the clock to tell you about the animated superhero flick “DC League of Super-Pets,” the social media thriller “Vengeance ” and the British drama “Ali & Ava.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

ALI & AVA: 3 ½ STARS. “a lovely, joyful and warm character piece.”

“Ali & Ava,” a lovely and warm character piece starring Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook and now playing in theatres, is a study of opposites, of happiness and struggle, of love and loneliness.

Living in the West Yorkshire, England city of Bradford, Ali (Akhtar) is a music-obsessed Pakistani-British man, with a taste for punk rock and hip hop who manages several properties. He lives with his wife Runa (Ellora Torchia), but it is a marriage in name only. They’re separated but are staying “together” to appease their traditional families.

Ava (Rushbrook) is a recently widowed teacher’s assistant, mother to four kids, including the hot-headed Callum (Shaun Thomas), and grandmother to five. Her taste in music runs to country music and folk.

The thing that brings them together is Sofia (Ariana Bodorova), a young girl who lives in one of Ali’s apartments and goes to Ava’s school. She is new to the country and is having trouble fitting in. One day, after school, during a rainstorm, the kindly Ali offers Sofia a lift home. Ava comes along for the ride and sparks fly as he joshes her about her taste in music.

Over time their natural rapport gives way to romance, despite the disapproval of Callum, who still reveres his late, abusive father. Ali and Ava’s differences melt away as their romance blooms. Ali even admits respect for Bob Dylan’s folk song “Mama, You Been on My Mind.”

British writer-director Clio Barnard brings an almost documentary style intimacy to “Ali & Ava.”

This isn’t a rom com with finely appointed homes, exotic locations and snappily tailored clothes. It’s a social realist look at two people and their opposites-attract love story. Barnard’s camera is a fly on the wall, observing the highs and lows of Ali and Ava’s courtship without judgment. It’s an emotionally raw treatment, that allows the story’s empathy and warmth to shine. Never saccharine, it’s a British kitchen sink drama, without the disillusionment.

“Ali & Ava” is a slow burn romance. There are no huge moments or grand gestures, just a series of personal obstacles to be overcome in service of their relationship. The authentic chemistry shared by Akhtar and Rushbrook illuminates their character’s vulnerabilities and strengths, but, most importantly, their joy.

RICHARD’S CTV NEWSCHANNEL WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER 18!

Richard sits in on the CTV NewsChannel with host Marcia MacMillan to have a look at the new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres including “The Nest,” Jude Law’s story of avarice and privilege, the mind-bending Janelle Monáe drama “Antebellum,” Susan Sarandon’s end of life story “Blackbird” and the documentary “The Way I See It.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

CFRA IN OTTAWA: THE BILL CARROLL MORNING SHOW MOVIE REVIEWS!

Richard sits in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres, VOD and streaming services including the twisty-turny Janelle Monáe drama “Antebellum,” “The Nest,” Jude Law’s story of greed, the documentary “The Way I See It” and Susan Sarandon’s end of life story “Blackbird.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

THE NEST: 3 ½ STARS. “slow burn family drama that dances to its own beat.”

A twisty-turny story of greed and family set in 1986, “The Nest,” now playing in theatres, sees stars Jude Law and Carrie Coon as a happy, well off couple who define the old saying that looks can be deceiving.

Law is Rory, a charming commodities broker whose ambition often outstrips his ability. When we first meet Rory, his wife Allison and two kids, Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell) and Samantha (Oona Roche), they’re living the high life in New York, but running short on cash. When Rory is offered his old job in his native London, England, he sees it as the chance to make some big bank. He uproots the family, moves then to a huge manor house outside of London and turns on the money taps. He spends lavishly, against the promise of a big windfall, buying fur coats, building a horse stable for Allison and enrolling his kids in tony, private schools. Trouble is, the promised windfall never arrives and as Rory bleeds money, cracks form in his carefully curated life.

“The Nest” is a slow burn of a movie that dances to its own beat. The small details that chip away at Rory and Allison’s relationship are revealed slowly as the rot sets in. It’s a study of greed and privilege as a cancer that clouds Rory’s ability to truly define what is important in his life.

Law is perfectly cast. His natural movie star charisma and charm shines through until the symbols of the wealth he craves become a weight around his neck, removing whatever goodwill we may have had for the character. Equally as strong is Coon, whose breakdown is played out in more measured tones until she loses it in a crescendo of bitterness and anger. The story allows them to the room to fully investigate why and how Rory and Allison behave as they do but director Sean Durkin, whose “Martha Marcy May Marlene” was an arthouse hit in 2011, never completely gives away the game.

“The Nest” features textured storytelling and an open-ended finale that will likely inspire heated post viewing conversation.

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2017.

Richard and CP24 anchor Jamie Gutfreund have a look at the weekend’s new movies including the drug addled biopic “American Made,” the real-life-royal dramedy “Victoria & Abdul” and Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in the late-in-life love story “Our Souls at Night.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!