Agatha Christie with a plot twist: Ottawa's Little Theatre's latest production presents a classic mystery with two different endings
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Globe and Mail
7 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Splitsville will bust your guts, split your sides and make you fall in love with Adria Arjona
Splitsville Directed by Michael Angelo Covino Written by Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin Starring Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino, Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona Classification 14A; 100 minutes Opens in theatres Aug. 22 Critic's Pick As much as we (ie: critics) like to bemoan the current state of big-screen comedy, the past eight months have delivered a relative bounty of larger-than-life laughs. The multiplex might be far removed from the days when Judd Apatow and his acolytes ruled every other weekend – today, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel are too busy in the halls of Apple TV+ – but I've been finding seriously silly solace with the likes of Friendship, The Naked Gun and the forthcoming Canadian epic Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Now we can add Splitsville to the collection of contemporary cut-ups, with the new comedy so relentlessly funny that you'll swear we're back in 2007. The latest collaboration from Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin – whose 2018 buddy comedy The Climb was a sleeper on the festival circuit – Splitsville follows two deeply unhappy couples who find themselves with a new perspective on life and love after experimenting with, for lack of a better term, inadvertent polyamory. On one side is the meek grade-school teacher Carey (Marvin) and his more sexually adventurous wife Ashley (Adria Arjona), a couple who in the film's opening sequence – a genuinely outrageous set piece that culminates in one of the greatest visual gags in ages – are on the verge of divorce. The two break up just as they are on the way to visit real-estate developer Paul (Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), who are both far wealthier and seemingly far happier, having opened up their marriage some time ago. But as these things go, no one in the quartet is truly satisfied, and soon Carey is sleeping with Julie, and Paul is trying to convince Ashley to go to bed with him in an act of half-cocked revenge. But there is so much more complexity and elasticity to the characters and their up-and-down dynamics, including Ashley's revolving door of would-be lovers, each of whom Carey quickly befriends as soon as they fall out of his ex-wife's favour. Not content to simply let scenes live or die on the strength of dialogue, Covino (who directs) and Marvin (who writes) together ensure that every sequence has some kind of visual or narrative trick up its sleeve. At one point, the camera constantly swerves around Carey's small but jam-packed-with-people loft. At another, it ducks in and out of Paul's expansive beach house. There is a relentless energy to the pair's gags – including a riotous fight between Carey and Paul that rivals the stunt work of a John Wick movie – that anchors the film somewhere between relatable and absurd. Meanwhile, Johnson and Arjona – the actresses possessing more familiar faces than their on-screen husbands – are immensely captivating as women who might not know what they want in life, but definitely know more than their clueless partners. While Johnson goes far above her typically muted charm (this is The Materialists' star's more beguiling romcom of 2025), Arjona is even better as the frustrated Ashley. The actress not only leapfrogs over the third-degree-burn sex appeal of her femme fatale in last year's Hit Man but also adds layers of emotional vulnerability that make every one of her character's punchlines hit that much harder. By the time that the four performers are crammed together in a dizzying sequence involving impromptu sex, a children's birthday party and the antics of a professional mentalist (played by Succession's superbly stammering Nicholas Braun), Splitsville lives up to its title and then some. Guts will be busted, and sides will be split. Heck, moviegoers might even learn to kiss and make up with comedies for good.
CTV News
7 minutes ago
- CTV News
Police target Nickelback fans in B.C., nab 18 alleged drunk drivers
Chad Kroeger of Nickelback performs alongside Ryan Peake as the band performs during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston LAKE COWICHAN — Police on Vancouver Island say roadside checks set up for a Nickelback concert this month resulted in 142 breath demands and netted 18 alleged drunk drivers. The BC Highway Patrol says 54 other types of violation tickets were handed out after the checks were conducted in Lake Cowichan, B.C., for the concert by the rock band on Aug. 9. The alcohol screenings resulted in 13 drivers being issued immediate 90-day driving prohibitions, four receiving three-day prohibitions and one 24-hour ban. The Nickelback concert at the Laketown Amphitheatre was billed by ticket retailers as the band's first performance on Vancouver Island in 20 years. BC Highway Patrol says it also made 220 roadside breath demands during the previous weekend around Lake Cowichan for the four-day Sunfest concert festival. These resulted in 11 driving prohibitions and 172 other violation tickets. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2025.
CTV News
21 minutes ago
- CTV News
Flo Rida, Kardinal Offishall returning to Winnipeg
Flo Rida performs during the 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball at the Kia Forum, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Flo Rida is set to return to Winnipeg. The Grammy nominated rapper announced he will perform at Canada Life Centre on Oct. 1. The Miami-based artist burst onto the scene over a decade ago with platinum certified hit 'Low,' which spent 10-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Kardinal Offishall Kardinal Offishall speaks prior to presenting Maestro Fresh Wes with the trophy signifying his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno awards, in Halifax, Sunday, March 24, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese (Darren Calabrese/THE CANADIAN PRESS) There will also be some Canadian representation, with Toronto-born rapper Kardinal Offishall opening the show. Offishall is a groundbreaking artist in his own right, becoming the first Canadian rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 2008 with his smash hit 'Dangerous' featuring Akon. Tickets for the concert go on sale Friday through Ticketmaster.
