In this week’s Criticize This! we take a look at a docuseries that left us in tears, a new body horror film, and a directorial debut by an actor that’s actually good!

THE BIG ONE

We don’t normally write about shows that are on streaming or TV, but since we saw The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal at this year’s Toronto Film Festival (where it also won the People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary), we thought it was justified to include it this week.

Whether you enjoy the band’s music or not, there is no denying that The Tragically Hip have a unique sound that has been the soundtrack for an entire generation of Canadians. Would road trips, camping or visiting a cottage feel the same without their music in the background? This Canadian connection is all put into perspective in the four-part docuseries.

Directed by Gord Downie’s brother Mike, the series starts at the very beginning and shows how the band formed in Kingston, Ontario back in 1984, touching on their high school years as well as other bands they were in. It’s an interesting origin story that many people probably don’t fully know.

While Gord Downie’s death is a central topic throughout the series, the interviews with remaining members Gord Sinclair, Rob Baker, Paul Langlois, and Johnny Fay keep the story interesting and moving forward. These guys had a career where they were constantly recording and touring, and it all came tumbling down on them when Downie passed. You really feel their loss of not only their friend and bandmate, but also their entire reason for being over the last 30 odd years.

The interviews with other famous Canadians, including Dan Aykroyd, Will Arnett, Jay Baruchel, and Geddy Lee, show the impact the band had from a fan perspective (you’ll also learn that it was Aykroyd who got them booked on SNL in 1995). The series also explains how the band were quite popular outside of Canada, even in the U.S., contrary to popular belief.

We were never the biggest fans of the band, but we always enjoyed them in the right setting (camping, road trips, Canada Day at the cottage, etc.). By the end of the series, we had tears rolling down our face over the death of Downie and what his loss meant to music in Canada.

In his review for Exclaim!, Alex Hudson wrote that “[Mike Downie] has created the perfect monument to the Hip’s inspiring career, breaking down the myth while highlighting the legacy,” adding that he “had the Hip blasting” on his headphones after the screening, “a clear sign of a music doc well done.” We couldn’t agree more!

The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is now streaming on Prime Video.

IN THEATRES

The Substance

The Substance played the Toronto Film Festival in the Midnight Madness programme this year, and while people are loving Demi Moore’s return to the big screen (and praising Margaret Qualley’s performance), many say the movie is overly gross and “nauseating”.

“A body horror satire with terrific performances, it’s as out there as it gets. No matter what you’ve heard, you’re not [ready] for this flick, and I mean that as a major compliment, too,” Joey Madison wrote in his review on Awards Radar.

The movie, about a black-market drug (the “Substance”) that creates a younger version of yourself temporarily, currently has an 87% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with a strong 8 out of 10 on the IMDb.

“Feminist scholarship this ain’t; think Showgirls if it were directed by David Cronenberg,” Laura Venning wrote in her review of the film on Empire.

WATCH: Trailer for The Substance

In one of the few negative reviews of The Substance, Zach Lewis wrote that “it’s as frustrating as it is interesting, as fun as it is trite, and it’s ultimately not that gross.”

The Substance will eventually be available on the streaming service MUBI, but this sounds like a fun one to catch with an audience if you can stomach it.

Also in theatres this week: The animated Transformers One, featuring the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, and Brian Tyree Henry, and Alexandre Aja’s thriller Never Let Go, starring Halle Berry.

TOP BOX OFFICE

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
2. Speak No Evil
3. Am I Racist?

STREAMING

Blink Twice (VOD)

Unlike many other actors-turned-directors (like Chris Pine and his awful movie Poolman, which we reviewed last week), Zoë Kravitz has proven she’s great behind the camera with her debut feature Blink Twice.

Starring Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Kyle MacLachlan, the movie has a 74% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with a much lower 69% audience rating. The difference in ratings could be due to the shocking content in the second and third acts, which is why the film has a trigger warning at the beginning.

WATCH: Trailer for Blink Twice

The movie starts with a fun party vibe to it, and it is quite jarring when the tone shifts and becomes brutally cold and a bit nasty. With such a great cast giving it their all, we thoroughly enjoyed the ride and can easily say it’s one of our favourite films of the year.

As long as you go into it knowing it’s a much darker movie than it seems, you might also enjoy it as well.

Cuckoo (VOD)

Cuckoo is another movie that critics (and us) enjoyed way more than the general public (it’s got a 78% critics score with a measly 62% audience rating).

WATCH: Trailer for Cuckoo

We praised it in our theatrical review, and upon a second viewing at home, we were still into the vibe of it and still amazed by the performances of Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.

With Halloween around the corner, Cuckoo is a good one to add to your watchlist.

Also streaming this week: His Three Daughters is on Netflix, Civil War is on Prime Video, and 1992, AfrAId, and You Gotta Believe are on VOD.

COMING SOON

Kyle Mooney’s Y2K looks like a silly horror-comedy that could either be a lot of fun or extremely dumb. It’s being released by A24, so we’re cautiously curious to see how it plays out when it hits theatres on December 6.

Check out the trailer for Y2K on our YouTube channel and let us know what you think?

ON DISC

We wanted to write about the amazing Friday the 13th Collection [Deluxe Edition] box set last week to coincide with it being on Friday the 13th. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time, so we decided to write about this week as our official kick-off to scary movie season.

Needless to say, if you are a hardcore fan of the Jason movies, this is a must-have for your collection! Along with the eight original movies in the series, this 16-disc (!!) set also includes Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason X, Freddy vs. Jason, and the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot.

While this is just a regular Blu-ray set, some of the films have new transfers from 4K scans and include both the theatrical and uncut versions. Friday the 13th: Part 3 also has a new 3D transfer that looks great.

Each movie comes with its own special features, but there is also a standalone disc jam-packed with bonus material, including 2003s Return to Crystal Lake: Making ‘Friday the 13th’, and the full-length documentaries Slice and Dice: The Slasher Film Forever and Scream Queens: Horror Heroines Exposed. There’s also a 60-page booklet with photos and an essay.

As we noted, this is probably for hardcore F13 fans only. But if you are a horror movie buff, there is still a lot to enjoy and get out of this set.

You can get the Friday the 13th Collection [Deluxe Edition] box set on Amazon.ca for the hefty price of $189.99.

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