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Joel Fry

Silent Night: Escaping the Ghosts of the Past

June 25, 2021 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

Starting over is never easy. But it’s even tougher when no one believes you can.

Silent Night follows Mark (Bradley Taylor), an ex-con recently released from prison who desperately wants to change his life for the sake of his daughter. While working away at his fresh start, Mark runs into his former cellmate Alan (Cary Crankson) who begs Mark to pull off one final job. Though he fights to start over, Mark is gradually drawn back into a world he hates with the hope that he can finally move on when the assignment is over.

Written and directed by Will Thorne, Silent Night is a bit of a mixed bag. While the film has some enjoyable characters and an ambitious twist, the film doesn’t always work. As a first-time filmmaker, Thorne has created a truly interesting world though that does manage to entertain. What’s more, the film benefits from some good work from its cast, especially Taylor. As Mark, Taylor is solid and imbues his character with an emotional complexity as he attempts to navigate the British underworld. As a result, he becomes the emotional core of the film by walking the tightrope between loving his family and succumbing to violence. (Also, Night also proves that, regardless of the size of his role, Joel Fry continues to take over the world.)

Unfortunately, while Night is willing to go dark, it doesn’t always make a lot of sense. While the film does a relatively good job holding its surprise twist together, it also has to work hard to explain it near the end. In this way, the film struggles to wrap up its loose ends and feels like it misses with its pay-off as a result. What’s more, the film’s editing also slows the pace down significantly. (At least, that’s the case until the finale where things particularly move quickly.) While the film need not try to mimic the frenetic speed of Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Silent Night would benefit from a little more energy and life.

At its heart, Night is really about what it means to know who you are. As he gets drawn back into his old life, people speak about Mark as though his journey into the underworld is an inevitability. Whether it’s his wife or his former associates, everyone assumes that Mark will eventually succumb to the sort of behaviour that ruined his life. 

Mark, however, disagrees.

As he battles his former associates so too is Mark battling his own inner demons. To Mark, his old life is behind him and he wants nothing less to be the sort of father that his daughter deserves. However, at the same time, there is also a shadowy darkness that follows him wherever he goes. Though he’s doing his best to break free, Mark feels the inner tension within him as well. No matter how hard he tries to escape it, there seems to be something that calls him back to the way he used to be. All of this forces Mark to examine the depth of his heart and decide who he really is, regardless of others expectations of him. (In fact, it’s only as Mark realizes the truth about himself that he also can finally find peace.)

While there are enough interesting pieces here to be entertaining, Silent Night never fully comes together. While Thorne invests time into his characters (especially Mark), the pacing and finale unfortunately break down in the end, leaving this Night to suffer in the light of day.

Silent Night is available on VOD on Friday, June 25th, 2021.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews, VOD Tagged With: Bradley Taylor, Cary Crankson, Guy Ritchie, Joel Fry, Sarah Leigh, Silent Night, Will Thorne

7.20 Sympathy for CRUELLA De Vil

June 6, 2021 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

In Cruella, Emma Stone brings the backstory of one of Disney’s most famous villains to life. Well before there were 101 Dalmatians, Cruella De Vil was an aspiring fashion designer. However, when she matches wits against the (even more) evil designer, The Baronness (Emma Thompson), Cruella and her friends Jasper and Horace must scheme to bring down London’s queen bee. This week, Allen Chabot, Mira Ibrahim and TeenFish’ Daniel Collins return to talk about having sympathy for our villains and walking the line between redemption and revenge.

You can stream the episode on podomatic, Alexa (via Stitcher), Spotify or Amazon Podcasts! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

7.20 CruellaDownload

Filed Under: Disney+, Featured, Film, Podcast, VOD Tagged With: 101 Dalmatians, Cruella, Disney, Disney+, Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser

Cruella: When Black and White Turns Grey

May 28, 2021 by Heather Johnson Leave a Comment

Bold. Complex. Mesmerizing.

And, by far, the best Disney live action yet.

Yes, I am talking about Cruella with Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. Not one who typically flocks to live action Disney features (call me too sentimental for my 90’s animated favorites), this movie blew every expectation out of the water. The tapestry of this story weaves together color, creativity, and character development in such a way that every moment kept me engaged. I’m still sitting here with my mouth agape as I play it all back in my head.

Set against the backdrop of 60’s and 70’s London, young Estella works to be the good girl that her mother encourages her to be. With her uncanny style, unfiltered opinions, and explosive personality, playing nice isn’t exactly second nature to her. But for the sake of the mother she loves, Estella (Emma Stone) navigates both trauma and genius to stay as she is, until Cruella fully emerges from the depths in retaliation of a painful truth. Consumed with taking out her former mentor and now-enemy the Baroness (Emma Thompson – absolutely perfect), Cruella subverts the Baroness’s grip on the London fashion scene with a rock star edge and in-your-face theatrics. With the help of long-time partners in crime, Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and a team of nonconforming designers including Artie (John MCrea), Cruella is on the precipice of being unstoppable. But will she survive her own ambition and vengeance?

As an origin story, the set up for the characters and storyline of 101 Dalmatians is well-placed and subtle. Anita and Roger fade in and out just enough to play key roles without overshadowing the heart of this story. We get to the root of Cruella’s obsession with dalmatians, and Jasper and Horace are elevated to relatable characters as opposed to bumbling second-rate thieves.

But this movie has its own heartbeat – one that loves and bleeds – and Stone’s performance is the soul of the film. Her transformation from Estella into Cruella kept me in a state of “is she or isn’t she” the unfeeling villain we’ve seen before now. Against the backdrop of the statement black and white color scheme, there was a grey in-between for me. Behind every villain there is a beginning, and that beginning isn’t always evil. And the other side of that coin is that behind every hero, that beginning isn’t always benign. Morality can get murky depending on a variety of factors and influences, and Cruella really hit that point home.

It’s an exceptional film with layers of development, visualization, ambition, and even heartbreak. And it’s a testament to both the writers and the cast that with every turn I was invested in characters that I’m supposed to define as “bad guys.” Did I close my laptop ready to absolve them of them crimes? No. But did it remind me that our stories are rarely as black and white as we think? Definitely.

Cruella opens in theaters and is available with Disney+ Premier Access on Friday May 28th, 2021.

Filed Under: Disney+, Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Cruella, Disney, Disney+, Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, John McRae, Paul Walter Hauser

In The Earth: Getting Too Close to Mother Nature

May 14, 2021 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

Directed by Ben Wheatley, In the Earth is set during a time when the Earth has been devastated by a horrifying virus. (Sounds familiar?) As they search for a cure, scientist Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) and his park scout, Alma (Ellora Torchia) set out on a trek to deliver equipment. However, as they venture out into the forest, their journey takes a dark turn. Hunted by the damned who roam the night, Martin and Alma must do everything they can to complete their mission and, more importantly, survive their mysterious attackers.

While In The Earth isn’t Ben Wheatley’s best film, it’s certainly an entertaining ride that successfully dives into the psychological and supernatural horror genre with enthusiasm. The director of such wild rides as High-Rise and Free Fire, Wheatley has always had a penchant for leaning into the chaotic. With In the Earth, he mostly contains his impulses in the film’s first half, choosing to build intensity through the team’s isolation with a silent forest. However, as the film goes on, he unleashes the mystical (and violent) elements of his world with increasing madness. (This becomes especially true in the film’s final act when he gives himself freedom to blast the screen with bright, primary colours and over-exposed visuals in ways that feel almost like experimental European cinema.)

Intense and effective, Earth provides little in the way of ‘jump scares’ but does an excellent job of unraveling the psychology of its characters. Without a large cast (the IMDb page only lists six actors and even that feels like a stretch), the film creates a feeling of claustrophobic dread amidst the confines of the trees. In a testament to Wheatley’s ability as a storyteller, Martin and Alma constantly seem like the walls are closing in, despite the fact that they’re moving (relatively) free in the wide wilderness. What’s more, strong performances by Fry and Torchia help make the character’s reactions believable in the midst of unbelievable circumstances.

Though the world may have been ravaged by a disastrous virus, it’s interesting that Wheatley does not allow the pandemic to drive the narrative. Instead, he allows this global crisis to simply operate as a backdrop to the film’s story. (Could it be that this is one of the first examples of a film that has accepted the next phase of our COVID world?) 

For Wheatley, the most important message of In The Earth lies in the relationship between humanity and nature. Although they live in a world of scientific inquiry, Martin and Alma become faced with unraveling the spiritual elements that connect man to the natural world. As they begin to go mad from their exposure to the rock, so too does the experience begin to give them greater clarity about their place in the universe. 

In this way, Earth exposes a deeper spiritual longing at a time of isolation and fear. At a time when mankind finds themselves separated by their own carelessness, this is an opportunity for them to seek out a connection to something greater that they’ve lost. As a result, Wheatley’s inquest points to the fact that there are consequences for man’s recklessness and suggests that the answers lie outside of ourselves. Since mankind has ruined creation, is it possible that they have done greater damage to Mother Nature than they’d realized? (As Jeff Goldblum might say, ‘Mommy’s very angry…’)

Featuring an intensity that continues to build to its grand crescendo, In the Earth is a wild venture into the mind of Ben Wheatley who asks new questions about a pandemic-infected world. Rather than finding ways to defeat the virus, Wheatley’s film seems more interested in how we cope with the new realities that it has created. Nevertheless, at the same time, he also points to questions that extend beyond visible reality and into the unknown spiritual realms.

In The Earth is available on VOD on May 14th, 2021

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Ben Wheatley, Ellora Torchia, In The Earth, Joel Fry

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