Posts Tagged ‘Shea Whigham’

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

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 Julia Roberts thriller “Leave the World Behind,” the psychological drama “Eileen:” with Anne Hathaway and the Paramount+ series “Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?”

Watch the whole thing HERE! (Start at 37:31)

CTV News Toronto at Five with Zuraidah Alman: Richard on What to Watch!

I join “CTV News Toronto at Five with Zuraidah Alman” to talk about the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the pretty cluckin’ good “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Watch the whole thing by downloading the CTV News app.

CTV NEWS ATLANTIC AT SIX: RICHARD ON WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND!

I join “CTV News Atlantic at Six” anchor Todd Battis to talk about the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the stop-motion animated “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the psychological thriller “Eileen” and Barbenheimer on streaming!

Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 27:30)

 

NEWSTALK TONIGHT WITH JIM RICHARDS: DOES RICHARD CROUSE LIKE THESE MOVIES?

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 end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the Japanese animated fantasy film “The Boy and the Heron” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

RICHARD’S WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEWS FROM CP24! FRIDAY DECEMBER 08, 2023.

I joined CP24 to have a look at new movies coming to VOD, streaming services and theatres.  Today we talk about the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the pretty cluckin’ good “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the Japanese animated fantasy film “The Boy and the Heron” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

 

RICHARD’S CTV NEWSCHANNEL WEEKEND REVIEWS FOR FRIDAY DECEMBER 8, 2023!

I  join CTV NewsChannel anchor Roger Peterson to talk about the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the pretty cluckin’ good “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the Japanese animated fantasy film “The Boy and the Heron” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

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

Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to tip your hat! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the Japanese animated fantasy film “The Boy and the Heron” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Watch the whole thing HERE!

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

I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with Bill Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the end-of-the-worlder “Leave the World Behind,” the pretty cluckin’ good “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the Japanese animated fantasy film “The Boy and the Heron” and the psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Listen to the whole thing HERE!

EILEEN: 3 STARS. “more about what’s left unsaid, than the obvious story points.”

In “Eileen,” a 1960s-set, Hitchcockian psychological thriller starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway, a lonely woman’s life takes a sinister turn when she meets a glamorous new co-worker.

Mckenzie is the title character, a lonely and unhappy twenty-something secretary at a small-town Massachusetts juvenile detention centre. She lives with her ex-cop father (Shea Whigham), a widower with a nasty drinking problem and a personality to match. “Get a life, Eileen,” he says to her. “Get a clue.”

To pass the days she daydreams of having relations with her co-workers and, at night, is a voyeur, spying on couples making out in their cars at Look Out Point.

She is invisible at home and at work; a blank slate. “Some people, they’re the real people,” Eileen’s dad says. “Like in a movie. They’re the ones you watch, they’re the ones making moves. And other people, they’re just there, filling the space. That’s you, Eileen. You’re one of them.”

A ray of light in the form of Dr. Rebecca St. John (Anne Hathaway) illuminates the dark corners of Eileen life. Stylish and vivacious, the detention centre’s new counsellor is everything Eileen isn’t. A glamorous vision, squeezed into a red dress, topped with a burst of blonde hair, Rebecca drinks and smokes— “It’s a nasty habit,” she says, sparking up a fresh Pall Mall, “that’s why I like it.”—and her arrival inspires Eileen to examine her own wants and desires.

As Rebecca takes an interest in Sam Polk (Lee Nivola), a young inmate convicted of a gruesome crime, revealing a dark secret, Eileen shows there is more to her than meets the eye.

Based on the 2015 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, “Eileen” begins as a character study, a slice-of-life look at a floundering woman, becomes a multi-pronged psychological thriller in its final third. The film takes an audacious turn, one that changes the film’s power dynamic, and closes things off with a bang (and a tremendous performance from Marin Ireland as Rita Polk, but no spoilers here).

Until then, it is a slow burn, a film that luxuriates in its characters. Mckenzie balances the character’s bored exterior with her bombastic inner life, creating Eileen, a ticking time bomb of emotion, careening toward a life defining moment (no spoilers here). It’s finely tuned work that cuts through the film’s dark ennui.

Hathaway has the showier role as Hitchcockian icy blonde Rebecca. Intelligent, enticing and ultimately empathic, she stands in stark contrast to the movie’s deliberately dull backdrop. Rebecca is a polar opposite to Eileen, the catalyst that gives the movie its spark.

“Eileen” is more about what’s left unsaid, than it is about the obvious story points (keeping it vague and spoiler free here). The suggestion of a budding relationship as a hand brushes against a knee, a shared slow dance in a bar and stolen looks, is ultimately more suspenseful than the pulpy twist at the film’s end. The end, while impactful, is more conventional than we might have expected from this moody period piece.