Gabriel Ricard returns with the latest edition of his Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo film review column!
All in Film
Gabriel Ricard returns with the latest edition of his Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo film review column!
Appropriately for an action flick about a cyborg, Alita feels cobbled together from spare parts of blockbusters past, but what the film lacks in originality it makes up for in heart - like, seriously, this girl’s heart is a fairly major plot point. Alita’s facial effects may reside in the uncanny valley, but the action is fast and elegantly choreographed (if choreographed is the right word for something this CGI-heavy). Director Robert Rodriguez may or may not get the franchise he’s pushing, but he has at least delivered what might be the most purely entertaining film of his career.
Sam Elliott gives his all as aging WWII veteran Calvin Barr. Barr’s secret assassinations of Hitler and Bigfoot serve as mere bookends to this quiet and moving character study about how his duty to country resulted in loss and regret. While the film has less in common with its Nazi- and Sasquatch-ploitation roots than its title makes out, there is plenty of action. The film boasts luscious cinematography and a stellar supporting cast to dress up writer-director Robert D. Krzykowski’s pulpy script. Leave your expectations at the door and have fun. It’s the most outrageously entertaining genre offering since Mandy.
Sean Woodard analyzes the Argento horror flick The Church
Draped in gorgeous cinematography and masterful mise-en-scène, Cold War marches through the long, frigid years of post-war Europe, following the intertwined lives of two Polish musicians who fall in love and struggle to keep a hold of one another in the face of Eastern Bloc politics, jealousy, ennui, and insatiable desire. Galvanized by a stunning soundtrack, Cold Wars ends with a hammer blow sacrifice, proving love is a prison we make for ourselves, and though we may fight to break out, in the end we are our own wardens. What’s more, some sentences are for life, and beyond.
Gabriel Ricard talks travel, Shyamalan, and more in his latest Captain Canada column.
Unbreakable was phenomenal; Split was clever (and that "twist"!), and now we have Glass, the third installment of a trilogy spanning 20 years. Yes, Sarah Paulson is tiresome, and yes, there seems to be a few things that don't quite stick, but forget what you've read: Glass is a worthwhile use of two of your precious hours. I was delighted to see Spencer Treat Clark reprise his role as Dunn's faithful and proud son, and Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlayne Woodard are always amazing. Don't wait for that Shyamalan twist: just enjoy the conclusion of a story of three people who are extraordinary.
“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.” Sean Woodard breaks down the themes and songs of the Coen Brother’s masterful Inside Llewyn Davis.
Gabriel Ricard returns for a new year of old classics and new favorites in his Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo column.
The unseen villain in Bumblebee (which for the sake of our collective sanity we can call the only installment in the Transformers franchise) is Michael Bay who, in 1987, when the film takes place, was working his way up the Hollywood ladder. With Bay still fetching coffee for Spielberg, director Travis Knight and star Hailee Steinfeld are free to have as much fun as possible with this admittedly silly concept, a concept that works considerably better when you can tell what's happening on screen. After all, a little fun was all 80’s kids ever wanted out of these movies.
Aquaman drowns a bit under the weight of its own spectacle, and there were moments when I found myself needing sonar to find one character amidst a screen of CGI fish. But if you’ve always wanted to see Patrick Wilson riding a battle shark, hop in – the water’s fine. The Atlantis mythology is dense, and partly magical, partly silly. But it’s an agreeable silliness, to which Jason Momoa and Amber Heard bring a boatload of earnestness and charm, especially in their lower key scenes together. Plus there’s Nicole Kidman eating a pet goldfish right out of its tank.
Our picks for the best movies of 2018!
Our picks for Best in TV this year!
The Best of the Rest of 2018
Buried beneath one of the most shockingly bad Hollywood movies in years is one of Steve Carell’s best performances. Welcome to Marwen has a lot of good people behind it. Co-screenwriter Caroline Thompson has a track record which includes The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and the 1993 version of Secret Garden. Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote and directed the movie, is justifiably considered a legend. Yet somehow, despite the odds, Welcome to Marwen is one of the most depressingly bad movies in recent memory. It’s ineptitude on virtually every level is almost surreal. This thought is made all the worse by the realization that it’s one of the dullest movies in recent memory, as well.
Sean Woodard takes a look at the religious structure of one of the most popular horror films of all time.
Gabriel Ricard celebrates his love of Christmas flicks in the latest edition of Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo.
Sean Woodard analyzes the religious horror elements of the theme for The Omen.
Gabriel Ricard on some of the most infamous cult horror classics of all time in his latest Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo column.
If The Revenant qualifies for “nature porn,” then First Man is the logical extension of Blade Runner 2049: “Ryan Gosling Porn—in Space!” When the camera isn’t focused on Gosling’s helmeted face, it’s on CGI constructions that suck the life out of this zero-gravity biopic. This occasionally engaging special effects extravaganza is pretty to look at, but mostly absent of the soul-stirring emotion that fueled Apollo 13 and Hidden Figures. Whereas director Damien Chazelle showed promise with his debut Whiplash, his latest feature fits into a pattern of dressed up homages to Hollywood’s past and doesn’t even qualify as revisionist history.