Category Archives: Jay

The Kissing Booth 3

The last installment in the popular Kissing Booth trilogy catches up with our young protagonists just after high school graduation.

The Premise: In the first two films, we established that Elle (Joey King) and Lee (Joel Courtney) were a couple of besties who had a list of very strict rules, including the most important of the bunch: do not date my older brother. So of course Elle falls for Lee’s older brother, Noah (Jacob Elordi). Now that they’ve been together a while and Elle has managed to juggle both a relationship with her bestie Lee and a romance with his brother Noah, she’s got this summer to make a really big decision: go to college in Boston with Noah, or in California with Lee. The stress of choosing disrupts her ‘perfect last summer,’ leaving both brothers ultimately disappointed. What to do?

The Verdict: We’ve all grown up a little since the first Kissing Booth (which actually had a Kissing Booth in it) debuted way back in 2018. It was a simpler time. We were innocent then. Kissing booths didn’t automatically trigger virus phobias. This, however, marks the end of an era. Elle’s not just faced with a tough decision but a harsh reality: up until this point in the trio of films, her life has been guided by the whims and inclinations of two dashing, dueling brothers. It’s time for her to assert herself and figure out her own path – whether or not it includes the Flynn boys – or another boy from her past who is mad handsome as well. These movies are flighty pieces of improbable teenage romance. How can they afford a summer so jam-packed with epic activities, especially after it began with a road trip and will end, potentially, with a bill from Harvard? Who would trust a bunch of teenagers with a beach house for the summer? Who’s insuring their vintage muscle cars and motor bikes? Yes, I have questions and concerns, but if these movies are to be enjoyed, you simply take them as they are, not even blinking when someone pulls up in a goddamned yacht but simply appreciating the easy grace with which literally everything falls into their laps. Farewell, kissing booth, possibly COVID’s ground zero, and a career launcher for Ms. Joey King.

All The Moons

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Drama, fantasy, horror: All The Moons, an official Fantasia Film Fest selection, may look bleak, but its story may surprise you.

The Premise: During Spain’s war in 1876, an orphanage is bombed, killing all nuns and girls inside save one. The girl (Haizea Carneros) is badly injured but saved by a woman (Itziar Ituño) whom she mistakes for an angel, but who actually grants her eternal life. Now this little girl has infinite life stretching out before her, but must learn to survive it on her own, while avoiding those who might mistake her as a demon.

The Verdict: All The Moons is a vampire movie without ever using the word, but there’s nothing like a long life for contemplating loneliness and mortality. Director Igor Legarreta seeks to redefine the vampire trope, making an intimate meditation on love and loss that includes some familiar facets but ultimately transcends the genre. Fans of bloodsucker flicks won’t want to miss it.

Fantasia will screen this film virtually on Saturday August 21st beginning at 9am EST.

When I Consume You

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Combining horror with family drama, writer-director Perry Blackshear returns to the Fantasia Film Festival with When I Consume You.

The Premise: Given her history and recent disappointment, Daphne’s death seems open and shut: overdose. But Daphne’s brother Wilson doesn’t buy it. He begins to investigate her murder, and to consider that the perpetrator may be the same supernatural source that’s been behind his family’s struggles for years.

The Verdict: Like Wilson, you’ll have to be open-minded to enjoy this movie. Are you comfortable lurking about in the shadows? Do you believe in paranormal criminals? Bad luck incarnate? Wilson (Evan Dumouchel) has a lot to contend with, and he’ll have to virtually become a whole different person in order to pursue her mysterious stalker. Don’t worry though, he does have someone in his camp: his dead sister Daphne (Libby Ewing). That’s right: it’s just like the movie Creed, if Rocky was a ghost, and Creed didn’t so much want to win boxing matches as avenge his sister’s death. So not really like Creed at all, except for the ‘learning to fight’ montage, and if you think boxing trainers are tough, you haven’t been schooled by a ghost and her various powers of motivation. When I Consume You deals with grief and trauma, but with supernatural forces dotting the edges. The film is disquieting, throwing you off-kilter even once you believe you’ve got the hang of things. Unexpected in intriguing ways, When I Consume You isn’t my favourite film at the festival, but I’ll definitely be thinking of it for a long while after, still muttering to myself that the title says when, not if.

How to watch:

Online screenings on Wednesday, August 18th at 9:30pm EST, and Friday August 20that 9am.

Join us after the screening on August 18 at 11:05pm EDT for a live Q&A with director Perry Blackshear as well as actors Evan Dumouchel, Libby Ewing and MacLeod Andrews. Tickets are $8.

Indemnity

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You know what must suck? Running for your life and not knowing why. Indemnity, a South African action-thriller, is a fine example, and part of this year’s Fantasia Film Festival line-up.

The Premise: Theo is crippled by PTSD, having narrowly survived a fire that killed all of his colleagues. Plagued by guilt and debilitating flashbacks, he is unable to work, and volatile at home. Then he wakes up beside his wife’s dead body and things go from bad to worse. He’s the prime suspect of course, and his broken memory isn’t coming to his rescue any time soon. On the run, he’s pursued not just by the cops, but by an unknown third party, forcing Theo to connect the dots or die, or worse – because someone’s got his son.

The Verdict: While the premise is promising, the execution is a little lackluster, but Indemnity still managed to catch my attention and get me invested in finding out the truth, the ugliness of which is somewhat rooted in its alarming plausibility. Writer-director Travis Taute keeps us hanging on until the very end, and a frantic performance by Jarrid Geduld makes sure we’re glued to our seats.

Beckett

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John David Washington’s in the wrong place at the wrong time in this Netflix thriller.

The Premise: Beckett (Washington) is on vacation in Greece when he suffers a tragic car accident, which is only the start of all his problems. Turns out, the abandoned building he crashed into was hiding a kidnapped child, and now Beckett’s in all kinds of trouble, injured and on the run in a foreign country, chased by corrupt cops and determined criminals.

The Verdict: I feared at first that this was simply going to be one of those photo-finish races to the American Embassy: been there, done that. It wasn’t, quite, but nor did it amount to much more. Washington tries his best, and Alicia Vikander oozes enough chemistry to account for his motivation, but the film remains frustratingly underwritten, never giving us enough to fully invest in the thrill, let alone buy into just how quickly Beckett turns from simple tourist to just shy of super hero. His maneuvers are increasingly ludicrous, his luck notoriously bad, and the logic behind this whole farce is something best left unexamined. If you’re in it solely for the chase, you won’t be disappointed, but if you’ve come to expect character and story, maybe give it a pass.

Here Today

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The Premise: Charlie is a comedy writer of some renown, having started out on the Carol Burnett show, now serving out the remainder of his career writing for his protégé’s sketch show. Street singer Emma comes into his life at a strange life – dementia is slowly destroying not only his memory, but his sense of self. With his wife long dead, and his children somewhat estranged every since, Emma is a unique bridge between their generations, forming a cherished friendship just when he needs one most.

The Verdict: I liked this film, though I do have some reservations. Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish are both quite good – he solid as ever, she toned down just enough to exist on his wave length, yet still maintaining her own brand and style of comedy. Though this film brought them close in real life, their chemistry doesn’t always work on screen. Worse still, the dialogue is sometimes unforgivably clunky and trite. Yet there’s just something magnet about Crystal here. He is staring down a fate many of us would consider worse than death. The title itself reminds us of the stakes: Here Today (gone tomorrow) – and yet both the film and Charlie face this inevitability with light-heartedness and warmth. The important part, the part that helped me overcome the film’s flaws, is that though he may be gone tomorrow – in fact, we all may – he is still here today, and today is to be enjoyed.

Baby Don’t Cry

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An official selection of the Fantasia Film Festival

The Premise: A withdrawn and curious 17-year-old Chinese immigrant apparently named Baby falls for a delinquent tough named Fox who stole from her. Together they push the bounds of their dismal lives and try to imagine some sort of escape from what seems like hopelessness.

The Verdict: One hundred percent a strange film, neither Baby nor Fox are eloquent or approachable. Neither strikes us as particularly likable, but that’s sort of the point. Though their backgrounds are different, they recognize in each other the same lack of belonging, their otherness in the world, but this doesn’t make them soulmates. Their relationship is intense, steamy, and stormy. I didn’t exactly like this, but I did admire its spare honesty and its willingness to annihilate our concept of teen comedy.

Director: Jesse Dvorak

Starring: Zita Bai, Helen Sun, Vas Provatakis, Boni Mata, Troy Musil

Plays virtually at the Fantasia Film Festival August 11-13

Agnes

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Direct from Montreal’s premiere genre film festival, Fantasia, may I present: Agnes.

Sphenisciphobia is the fear of nuns. That’s going to be relevant very shortly. Are you afraid of nuns? I don’t find them particularly scary myself, but there is something creepy about them, stripped of identity and personality, existing outside of society, of culture, of us.

The Premise: A disgraced priest and his priest-intern (priest-in-training, future priest) present themselves to an extremely cloistered convent where a young nun named Agnes is said to be possessed. What follows is a crisis of faith in more ways than one.

The Verdict: Demonic possession is a favoured horror trope. So are spooky nuns. Here director Mickey Reece combines them in his unique way, offering all the genre’s hallmarks, but poking fun of them at the same time with trademark dark humour. Agnes’ young friend and fellow nun, Sister Mary, is witness to the paranormal terrors, and finds that she cannot abide her life in faith. But leaving the convent halfway through the movie causes not just a tonal shift but a new way for Mary to grapple with her grief. The outside world isn’t easy, and whatever’s haunting Mary is sure to follow. Interesting, Reece doesn’t play up the horror. He’s more interested in the character drama that follows as she takes on the inner demons that aren’t as easy to exorcise.

Starring: Molly C. Quinn, Hayley McFarland, Sean Gunn, Chris Sullivan, Ben Hall, Jake Horowitz

The Last Letter From Your Lover

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The Premise: Journalist Ellie (Felicity Jones) stumbles upon a stack of vintage love letters and is inspired by their contents to unravel the mystery of their forbidden romance.

The Verdict: The film covers two distinct stories: that of Ellie in present day, whose passion for the archives may have as much to do with the sensitive and hunky administrator as the love letters, and of Jennifer (Shailene Woodley) in the past, falling in love with a man who is not her husband before an accident derails the relationship. The film is pretty, often sumptuous actually, particularly the period pieces (people haven’t truly dressed well since the 60s), but the story isn’t exactly original. Jones is sweet as ever, but her character’s flat; Woodley is respectable but not quite believable as a glamorous adulterer. The highly contrived events are predictable of course, as all romances tend to be. But if they’re your jam, The Last Letter From Your Letter offers two for the price of one.

Check out this semi-steamy period romance on Netflix.

Director: Augustine Frizzell

Starring: Felicity Jones, Shailene Woodley, Joe Alwyn, Callum Turner,
Nabhaan Rizwan

Based on the book by Jojo Moyes

Vivo

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Huzzah! Netflix has a new animated film out this weekend, and it’s perfect for a family movie night.

The Premise: An old man named Andrés gets a second chance at love when his old flame reaches out to him in Cuba, inviting him to her final show in Miami for a lovers’ reunion. Andrés is touched, and has just the thing: a love song he wrote for her when they parted ways years ago. Unable to deliver it to her himself, his new partner (in life and in business, but not in love), a singing monkey named Vivo (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda), takes it upon himself, with a the help of a little girl named Gabi (Ynairaly Simo), to make Andrés’ last wish come true.

The Verdict: I don’t expect much from Netflix animation, but clearly I need to revise my bias as the last few examples have proven me wrong. I hoped Vivo might be good, but I was delighted to find myself loving it. The animation was quite pleasant, and the songs were nearly first-rate – some of them may even live lives outside of streaming. I even learned a little something: the monkey Vivo isn’t a monkey at all. He’s actually a kinkajou, also known as a rainforest honey bear, a nocturnal, fruit-eating tree-dweller more related to raccoons than to monkeys. They’re also surprisingly good singers and look quite dashing in small hats and foulards. Enjoy.