I appear on “CTV News at 11:30” with anchor Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend, including the Netflix cartel drama “Griselda,” the Paramount+ movie “Self Reliance” with Jake Johnson and the teen traumedy “Fitting In.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 19:40)
I sit in with NewsTalk 1010 host Jim Richards on the coast-to-coast-to-coast late night “NewsTalk Tonight” to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the spy spoof “Argylle,” the music doc “The Greatest Night in Pop” and the teen “traumedy” “Fitting In.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I join CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to have a look at the spy spoof “Argylle,” the music doc “The Greatest Night in Pop” and the teen “traumedy” “Fitting In.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres and streaming including the spy spoof “Argylle,” the music doc “The Greatest Night in Pop” and the teen “traumedy” “Fitting In.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a push-up! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the spy spoof “Argylle,” the music doc “The Greatest Night in Pop” and the teen “traumedy” “Fitting In.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
A quote from French existentialist philosopher Simon de Beauvoir sets up the tone of writer/director Molly McGlynn’s semi-autobiographical sex comedy “Fitting In.” “The body is not a thing,” reads the title card, “but a situation.” It’s the perfect sentiment to set the stage for this raunchy, reproductive health coming-of-age film.
16-year-old Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) lives with her therapist mom Rita (Emily Hampshire) in Sudbury, Ontario. Abandoned by her father years ago, she and Rita has survived and thrived, and now Lindy finds herself in a new high school with supportive BFF Vivian (Djouliet Amara) and new boyfriend Adam (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai).
In anticipation of being intimate with Adam, she makes an appointment with a gynecologist to get a prescription for birth control pills. She’s never had a period, so the doctor refers her to a male specialist who, after a routine examination, matter-of-factly drops a bomb. She has Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, which means she was born without a uterus, and will never be able to give birth or “have sex without manual or surgical assistance.”
The news devastates her, leaving her shamed and anxious, unwilling to accept help from Rita or her friends. Overwhelmed by doctors who prescribe dilatators—”It’s like vagina bootcamp!”— her carefully crafted life begins to fall apart. There is tension at home, she quits the track team and, when she recoils from physical contact, her relationship with Adam becomes frayed.
“Pretty much my worst nightmare is people finding out,” she says.
The only person she feels comfortable confiding in is Jax (Ki Griffin), a nonbinary and intersex schoolmate whose relationship with their body goes a long way to ease Lindy along on her journey to defining her sexual identity. “I don’t feel like an object of medicine anymore,” Jax says. “I feel like being intersex gives me a superpower. To own who you are, however you define yourself, is up to you. No one should ever make you feel ashamed of that.”
Frank and funny, “Fitting In” is being described as a “traumedy,” a portmanteau of trauma and comedy. Director McGlynn certainly captures the struggle of Lindy’s situation but does so with relatable humour. Much of that comes courtesy of Ziegler, whose on-screen naturalness makes her an audience surrogate, guiding us through the ups-and-downs of Lindy’s life. From vulnerable and edgy to self-possessed and impulsive, Ziegler captures the chaotic inner workings of a teen coping with a life changing situation.
Much of “Fitting In” works well. McGlynn shows a deft hand with the scenes involving gynecological health care visits and details the alienating manner in which the male doctors advise their female patients. The teen scenes feel realistic, and the “big teen movie speech,” where Lindy finally finds a way to express herself, has a nice vindicating feel, but at 106 minutes the material overall feels stretched a bit too thin.
Richard and CP24 anchor Jamie Gutfreund have a look at the weekend’s new movies, “Logan,” the latest (and greatest) Wolverine flick, the time travel teen angst movie “Before I Fall,” the animated “Ballerina,” the quirky “Table 19” with Anna Kendrick and the controversial Christian movie “The Shack.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
Paris’s 19th-century cityscape has ignited filmmaker’s imaginations for decades. Everything from “Charade” to “Rush Hour 3” have used the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame cathedral to add glamour to their stories. A new film, “Ballerina” does as well, but with a twist. Instead of real locations the story showcases the City of Lights with state-of-the-art animation.
Set in the 1880’s, Elle Fanning voices Félicie Milliner, an 11-year-old orphaned girl from rural Brittany with dreams of becoming a ballerina dancing in her head. She has no training but her will is string and soon she and her inventor friend Victor (Dane DeHaan) make their way to la Ville des Lumières. Using a bit of trickery—she assumes the identity of the snobby Camille Le Haut (Maddie Ziegler)—Félicie gets the chance to audition for the Paris Opera Ballet. Tough times follow as her lack of experience slows her progress. “You have the energy of bullet,” says the dance master, “but the lightness of a depressed elephant.” It’s only with the help of Victor and mentor Odette (Carly Rae Jepsen), a former prima ballerina turned cleaning lady, that Félicie gets the gumption to follow her dream and win the role of dancing the role of Clara in The Nutcracker.
Part “Cinderella” and part “The Karate Kid,” “Ballerina” feels like less than the sum of its parts. Like it’s “never give up” message the movie feels generic. The animation is fine, occasionally beautiful, but the character work and storytelling is strictly by the book. Standard-issue pop songs litter the soundtrack, providing Félicie with a chance to indulge her passion, although much of the ballet dancing is fetishized to such an extent it often looks more like martial arts than ballet.
“Ballerina” feels second tier. From the predictable story to that most 90s of showdowns—the dance off—it feels lazy, as though it is content to not only borrow from, but also sit in the shadow of Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney.
