Latest news with #BarryHertz
CBC
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The best films and biggest flops at Cannes 2025
Social Sharing Between the latest Mission: Impossible installment and the new red carpet dress rules, this year's Cannes Film Festival is filled with buzz and controversy. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud speaks with film critics on the ground at Cannes, Barry Hertz and Rad Simonpillai, about the hype around the biggest films of the festival, as well as the attendees' reaction to the festival's various new rules. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Rad, one of the big movies at Cannes this year is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The expectations for this movie, truly through the roof. It's supposed to be the last of the franchise. What's your take? Elamin: Oh no, oh no. Just giving it a preface means you're not that excited, man. Oh, no. Rad: Yes, because I love the Mission: Impossible franchise. I think the Mission: Impossible franchise is the best franchise. Like, I don't think there's such a thing as a bad Mission: Impossible movie. However, this one certainly tested that belief. It's not that I didn't love and appreciate what this movie was going for. It's just that it was going for a lot. Of course, it's going for the big, spectacular action set pieces, where Tom Cruise is risking life and limb. It also wants to speak to the current moment in terms of how the internet is turning young men into trolls, basically. There's a whole subplot in this movie where there are radicalized young men becoming terror cells because they're following the villainous AI. So the movie wants to speak to now, but also wants to speak to and celebrate the past by incorporating story elements from the past 30 years of movies. Like, there's a guy that shows up from the original Mission: Impossible movie — like that dude's here. It's all part of this movie's big victory lap. And the thing is: it's just too much movie. There's too much going on. It struggles to bring all that together. It's the most convoluted and the most exhausting Mission: Impossible. At the same time, when it kicks into gear and you can set aside those frustrating plot elements, it still gives you some of the most beautiful looking action that will run circles around any other blockbuster. Elamin: Barry, I'm so disappointed to hear this tepid response to this particular Mission: Impossible movie that I'm just going to move it right along and pretend I didn't hear any of that until I see it on Friday because I refuse to believe that there's any hesitation about a Mission: Impossible movie. And instead I'm going to ask you about another big movie at the festival this year, The Phoenician Scheme, that's Wes Anderson's new movie, starring Michael Cera. Walk me through it. What do you think? Barry: I mean, this, on paper, should be a delight. Elamin: Oh, come on, you guys. More prefaces! Come on! Barry: OK, we'll get the good out of the way here. Michael Cera is great in this. It's a shock that he has never worked with Wes Anderson before. He walks out of an Andersonian picture book, basically. And they have been friends, apparently, for decades, but this is the first time they're actually collaborating. And it works. He has a great role, and it's kind of a little bit of a twisty role too, requiring some turns there, which I appreciated. But the rest of the thing is just really emotionally empty. There's a black hole of empathy at the centre of this movie. It's very picturesque, it's extremely well art directed, it's everything you would expect visually of a Wes Anderson movie. But whereas something like Asteroid City or The French Dispatch actually had characters you cared about and were exploring metacontextual elements of what film and storytelling means to Anderson, there's really none of that here. This is a lark — and kind of a dead fish lark at that.
Globe and Mail
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
What is your favourite summer movie? Share your thoughts
We're officially in the summer movie season, where film-loving crowds begin to look for thrills and excitement at the theatre – or when scrolling through their streaming libraries. The Globe's film editor Barry Hertz put together a list of the 25 best summer films ever made, sure to get hearts pumping and bring a little bit of that movie magic back. But everyone has their own favourites. We want to know if we missed your top summer flick, or if you think your favourite movie should have been higher up on the list. Share your thoughts and cherished summer movie memories with us in the form below, or send us an e-mail at audience@
Globe and Mail
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Kernels of Hope
The mood inside the multiplex is grim. But at Cinemacon in las Vegas, movie going isn't dying — it just needs a reboot Barry Hertz The Globe and Mail Illustration by Drew Shannon/The Globe and Mail to view this content.
CBC
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
'This is a particularly bad time': How the U.S. tariffs could affect the Canadian film and television industry
Initially, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods were supposed to have taken effect by now — but that policy has been put on hold for 30 days. Still, the anxiety around the tariffs is lingering, and so many questions still remain about what it will mean for Canadians. While many have speculated about the price of groceries or the future of the auto industry, there's another sector left to consider: the screen industry. "This year, there seems to be so many different crises, one piled atop another, that it is just a bad time. It's never a good time, hasn't been a good time in a long time. But this is a particularly bad time," says The Globe and Mail's film and deputy arts editor Barry Hertz. Today on Commotion, Hertz checks in with host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to explain how the U.S. tariffs could impact the Canadian film and television industries.
