Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red wears it’s heart, and love for 2000s-era Toronto, on it’s sleeve. Academy award-winning writer and director Domee Shi digs deep for this story about a young girl, finding herself as a teenager, who also just happens to turn into a red panda every time her emotions take over.
Although cliched and derivative, the animated romp Over the Moon still has plenty going for it.
Canadian filmmaker Mina Shum’s low-key, slice-of-life dramedy Meditation Park would be better suited to a release date closer to Mother’s Day than late winter. It’s hardly a game changing look at one woman’s emotional middle aged awakening, but it’s a well intentioned film that I could see mothers and daughter enjoying together and talking about afterward.
Canadian writer and director Mina Shum is back doing what she does best, giving us movies that are uniquely personal and hit from the heart. Her latest film, Meditation Park, had Shum digging into her Chinese roots. It’s a bittersweet dramedy about 60-year-old Maria (played by legendary actress Cheng Pei Pei) who has devoted decades to her husband (Tzi Ma, whose performance in the film has garnered him a 2018 Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Actor in a Leading Role).
New releases on Blu-ray and DVD this week include: Tom Hooper’s Oscar winning historical drama, The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush; the modern comic remake of Gulliver’s Travels, with Jack Black; the drama Rabbit Hole with stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart; plus a look at Mortal Kombat on Blu-ray and Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure.
This week in theatres: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde star in Disney’s 3-D spectacle, Tron: Legacy; plus a look at Yogi Bear, Rabbit Hole, and How Do You Know.
Coming out this week on DVD and Blu-ray: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has Michael Cera fighting for the love of his life; David Duchovny stars in the third season of Californication; plus a look at Ramona And Beezus, Grown Ups, and Charlie St. Cloud.
Opening this week in theatres, Angelina Jolie stars in the spy-thriller, Salt, as a CIA agent trying to get to the bottom of a massive Russian plot to destroy America. Plus, a look at the family-friendly Ramona And Beezus, starring Joey King.
New arrivals on DVD and Blu-ray this week include the comic-book mashup, Defendor, starring Woody Harrelson; plus the 1960s rock comedy, Pirate Radio, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy.
