Two quirky gumshoes, a pair of wild young Royals and the superhero battle of the century — all this and more in our latest monthly roundup of the finest offerings from the world of film.
In Theatres
The summer movie season officially kicks off with the biggest comic book blockbuster yet. The third entry in Marvel’s most consistently thrilling, thought-provoking franchise finds the star-spangled Avenger completing the transformation from American icon to American dissident. When the world begins to balk at the trail of carnage and civilian casualties that Earth's mightiest defenders have left in their wake, the government demands that all caped crusaders submit to U.N. oversight; Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), still reeling from the guilt of unleashing Ultron on the world in the last Avengers flick, is eager to go along with this plan. Captain America, however, having grown increasingly skeptical of authority, pushes for he and his cohorts to remain independent.
This divide in their core leadership splits the Avengers in two, forcing the likes of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and newcomer Spider-Man (Tom Holland) to choose sides for an epic melee between Team Cap and Team Iron Man.
Photo Credit: Warner Brothers
As the creative force behind the Lethal Weapon franchise and, more recently, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, writer-director Shane Black is second to none when it comes to crafting subversive odd-couple detective stories packed with crackling repartee and off-the-wall action. His latest is this quirky 1970s-set yarn about a hapless P.I. (Ryan Gosling) and a thug-for-hire (Russell Crowe) who reluctantly team up to rescue a missing girl (The Leftovers’ Margaret Qualley) who’s on the run from drug dealers. Sounds straightforward enough, but along the way, a series of colourful detours, involving a murdered porn star, a gigantic (possibly hallucinated) insect and a badly botched corpse disposal, take the case in unexpected, uproarious directions.
High-Rise (May 20, Soda Pictures, Limited)
British horror auteur Ben Wheatley (Kill List) came to TIFF 2015 with this deeply challenging, pitch-black satire, based on J.G. Ballard’s mind-bogglingly prescient 1975 novel. It centres on a well-mannered, recently divorced doctor (Tom Hiddleston) who moves into a new high-rise complex on the outskirts of London, looking to retreat from the world in a state-of-the-art building that offers its residents everything from swimming pools to shopping malls to schools. With cutting-edge technology catering to their every need, the occupants gradually lose all motivation to leave the building at all; freed from the bonds of society, their repressed urges and obsessions are gradually unleashed. Petty feuds about broken elevators and restricted pool access devolve into all-out war between neighbours — with battle lines drawn between the building’s upper floors (the wealthy) and the lower ones (the poor) — until a once-shining beacon of modern civilization turns into a 40-storey post-apocalyptic wasteland.
On DVD
After years of hopping between box-office bombs and highly praised but little-seen indies, Canadian hunk Ryan Reynolds finally found the sweet spot between creative and financial success with this delightfully raunchy R-rated comic book romp, which racked up over $760 million worldwide on a scant $50 million budget. Thumbing its nose at its increasingly bland and/or overly dark fellow superhero flicks, the ultra-violent, tongue-in-cheek saga centres on Wade Wilson, a fast-talking mercenary who signs up for an experimental, off-the-books program to try and beat his incurable cancer and get back to his beloved fiancée (Homeland’s Morena Baccarin). The brutal treatments not only cure his disease but make him unkillable; unfortunately, he’s betrayed by the vicious head scientist and left hideously disfigured, compelling him to find a mask, strap on his duel pistols and katanas, and slice, shoot and quip his way to revenge.
Triple 9 (May 31, Universal)
Aussie helmer John Hillcoat (The Road) returns with this gritty, impeccably cast crime drama about a crew of crooked cops/stick-up artists (including 12 Years a Slave’s Chiwetel Ejiofor, Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus) who are blackmailed by a Russian mob queen (Kate Winslet) into pulling off a seemingly impossible heist. Backs against the wall, they decide the only way to get the job done is to create a big distraction on the other side of town to draw their brothers in blue away — specifically, by killing a fellow cop (Casey Affleck). Woody Harrelson and Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, also star.
Main Image Photo Credit: Marvel/marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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