Stream Guide: Kevin Smith: Silent But Deadly & Ondine (May 18th, 2018)

May 18, 2018 / Leave a Comment

KEVIN SMITH: SILENT BUT DEADLY on SHOWTIME

Earlier this year, Kevin Smith had a major heart attack. But before that happened, he was actually filming a stand-up special in Glendale, CA. He was scheduled to record a second show, but not feeling well, someone close to him called an ambulance and it was revealed that he was having a heart attack. Now, Showtime has picked up his comedy special, focusing it around the fact that just after taping the special he indeed faced a life changing feat. Having followed Smith most recently through most of his podcasts like “Hollywood Babble-On” with Ralph Garman and “Fatman On Batman” with Mark Bernardin, Smith is a very funny and enjoyable personality who never has a bad thing to say about anyone and is so ingrained in who he is, that I can imagine that only more so gets reflected in his stand up.

Two Academy Award nominated films land in the list this week. “Joy” was nominated at the 88th Academy Awards, with Jennifer Lawrence getting her third Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination. The film was directed by David O. Russell and stars Robert De Niro, Édgar Ramírez, Virginia Madsen, and Bradley Cooper, and was based on the life of self-made millionaire Joy Mangano. The other Oscar movie on the list is “Dunkirk,” directed by Christopher Nolan. The film garnered eight nominations and ended up winning three for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. This was Nolan’s first directorial Oscars nomination and the film was also nominated in the Best Picture category.

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has two films on the list this week. The first stars Tom Hardy as the renamed Charles Bronson who become one of the United Kingdom’s most dangerous criminals. The second stars Ryan Gosling in the follow-up to “Drive,” titled “Only God Forgives,” which sees Gosling seeking revenge after his oldest brother is murdered, sent on this revenge mission by his mother, played by Kristin Scott Thomas.

Before he directed films like “Godzilla” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” director Gareth Edwards made a smaller budget monster movie aptly titled “Monsters,” which saw Scoot McNairy guiding his employer’s daughter through the monster-infected zone of Mexico, on their way to America. The film would eventually spawn a sequel, but the original was so eloquently done that, personally, it remains a recent classic.

2017 was filled with plenty of flops and misguided theatrical releases. One of those, which eventually received several Razzie nominations, was “Baywatch” starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron, along with a whole roster of female actresses including the lovely Alexandra Daddario and model Kelly Rohrbach. The film tried to bring the old television series to a new generation, but falling somewhere between comedy and action, the film fell a bit flat and did not connect with anyone. Another misguided attempt at a remake was “Ghost In The Shell,” which whitewashed its leading lady by casting Scarlett Johansson in a role that clearly should have been an Asian actress. Although both of these films were lacking, I feel like they most have enough going for them that they at least deserve to be seen in their own rights.

Endorsed by director Guillermo del Toro, the Spanish director Eugenio Mira teamed with actors Elijah Wood and John Cusack back in 2013 to produce a thriller about a piano player being threatened by a sniper in real-time. The film follows Wood, a pianist savant, who, if he plays one wrong note, will be executed by Cusack, who has a voice in Wood’s ear for most of the movie. Also interesting is the fact that the film is written by Academy Award nominated director Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash” and “La La Land”).

Lastly, you know him best for his directorial work on “Interview With A Vampire” and “The Crying Game,” but some of Neil Jordan’s best work has come out of the past decade, with one of his best films being “Ondine.” Starring Colin Farrell in a very subtle and underrated role along with Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curuś as they ride the line between real and fantasy. The film follows Farrell as he deals with being a single father to an ailing child. The child talks of mermaids and fantasy and when Farrell, a fisherman, pulls up Aiicja from the water, he begins to buy in to the fact that she might in fact be a mermaid. The blend of fantasy and thriller is absolutely astonishing in the film. And the cold cinematography is unforgettable.