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Toronto Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
REVIEW: Foster mom fosters nightmares in ‘Bring Her Back'
Published May 29, 2025 • 3 minute read Jonah Wren Phillips in "Bring Her Back." Photo by Ingvar Kenne / A24 Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. What's the opposite of a Venn diagram overlap? Whatever it is, 'Bring Her Back' is the film equivalent, with two potential audiences that might cancel each other out. Fans of horror movies that work your every last nerve may not appreciate the casting of the great British actress Sally Hawkins as a foster parent with a devilish agenda. By contrast, fans of Hawkins's work in art-house crowd-pleasers like 'Maudie' and 'Happy-Go-Lucky' – or even mainstream fare like 'The Shape of Water' and the first two 'Paddington' movies – may run screaming from the theatre. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account All well and good, and forewarned is forearmed. 'Bring Her Back' is the second feature from the Philippou twins, Danny and Michael, who rose from making shock-comedy YouTube videos in their home country of Australia to becoming the next big horror auteurs before they turned 30 by writing and directing the 2022 surprise hit 'Talk to Me.' Like that film, 'Bring Her Back' is close to, but not quite, a triumph of style over substance – foreboding, unnerving and ultimately very gooey in ways that linger like the aftermath of a bad dream yet lack the nightmare cogency of truly great horror. Unease and inexplicability both turn up early, with stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) traumatized by the sudden death of their father (Stephen Phillips) while taking a shower. What killed him? Don't ask. Where's their mother? Doesn't matter. Threatened with separation by social services, the two make their case to remain together and are assigned Laura (Hawkins) as a foster mom. In Hawkins's performance, Laura is chirpy and chatty, the kind of sunny sort who gives positivity a bad name. (If you've seen 'Happy-Go-Lucky,' Mike Leigh's wonderful 2008 movie in which the actress plays a born optimist, 'Bring Her Back' is like the other shoe dropping; the two films would make one hell of a double bill.) Piper is almost completely blind – the filmmakers play the actress's unfocused eyes for additional creepy vibes – and by coincidence (or is it?), Laura had a blind daughter who recently drowned in the swimming pool out back. Glimpses of a VHS tape detailing some kind of horrifying Slavonic ritual keep the tension tight. Is Laura in some kind of cult? If so, what does it, and she, want? Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Like much of the 'elevated horror' in which cutting-edge distributor A24 specializes, 'Bring Her Back' doesn't bother to answer all your questions, even when that might result in a stronger movie. In a sense, it doesn't have to when it can trot out reliable new tropes of the genre: basso profundo rumbles and whispers on the soundtrack, visual games with focal planes to keep the audience off balance, and supporting actors cast for maximum unsettling presence (Milly Shapiro as the little sister in Ari Aster's 'Hereditary' being the textbook example). The Philippous have a lulu of the latter in young Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver, another of Laura's foster children and a figure of pure visual dread. Wide-eyed and seemingly possessed by a demonic wraith, Oliver is a silent, staring somnambulist, and all he has to do is appear in a corner of the frame to give an audience the willies. And that's before he starts going at himself with a kitchen knife. 'Bring Her Back' is not the kind of horror movie that promises grue and doesn't deliver, and when the carnage comes, it is fulsome, fleshy and wet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As the endangered siblings, Wong is artlessly sympathetic and Barratt pulls you to his side as a protective older brother no one believes is up to any good. 'Bring Her Back' keeps piling the traumas onto poor Andy past the point where they make much sense, though, and the Philippous are clearly still young enough to think modulation and moderation are for weenies. Given the likely success of this movie, there's no reason the directors need to think otherwise, and, anyway, they've got Hawkins having a happy horror holiday and little Jonah Phillips burning a hole in the screen. That's enough for now, but God help us when they grow up a bit. – – – Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr's Watch List at – – – Three stars. Rated R. At theatres. Contains strong, disturbing, bloody violent content; some grisly images; graphic nudity; underage drinking; and language. 104 minutes. Rating guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time. Ontario Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA Canada Sunshine Girls
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Foster mom fosters nightmares in ‘Bring Her Back'
What's the opposite of a Venn diagram overlap? Whatever it is, 'Bring Her Back' is the film equivalent, with two potential audiences that might cancel each other out. Fans of horror movies that work your every last nerve may not appreciate the casting of the great British actress Sally Hawkins as a foster parent with a devilish agenda. By contrast, fans of Hawkins's work in art-house crowd-pleasers like 'Maudie' and 'Happy-Go-Lucky' — or even mainstream fare like 'The Shape of Water' and the first two 'Paddington' movies — may run screaming from the theater.
CBC
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Known for forging wife Maud's artwork, Everett Lewis's originals up for auction
An Ontario auction house expects some original art made by Everett Lewis, the husband of famed Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis, could sell in an auction ending Sunday for as much as $5,000 a painting. It's a figure that, depending on who you ask, can be attributed to Maud's fame or the quality of Everett's work. When Maud was alive, her paintings sold for a few dollars. Now, they routinely sell for tens of thousands of dollars, with one even selling for $350,000 at a 2022 auction. Interest in her work remained steady, even after her 1970 death, so much so that Everett Lewis sometimes forged her work. "He was trying to essentially fill the void in the market," said Ethan Miller, the CEO of Miller & Miller, the New Hamburg, Ont., auction house selling some of Everett's work as part of a Canadian folk art auction. "I mean, people were still knocking on Everett's door long after Maud died. And let's face it, he had to survive as well. They never had running water. They never had heat." Everett also made original paintings, which look a lot like his wife's work. Ian Muncaster, the owner of Zwicker's Gallery in Halifax, said Everett was warned that forging his wife's work was illegal, which prompted him to start making originals. Muncaster said he's sold some of Everett's work, with the most expensive going for $2,000. He's not surprised by the expectation that some of Everett's art could sell at the current auction for more than twice that. Asked why he thinks there's such interest in Everett's work, Muncaster has a simple answer. "Well, because of his association with Maud," he said. Muncaster said he met Everett. "He was not the most likable of people, really," said Muncaster. "He was pretty hard on Maud. The movie didn't dwell on that." Muncaster is referring to Maudie, the 2016 film starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, which helped reignite interest in Maud's work. Everett's work that's up for auction is part of a postwar Canadian folk art exhibit, and also includes work by Maud and other Nova Scotian artists such as Fred Trask and Collins Eisenhauer. Ethan Miller believes Everett's work belongs there. "I think Everett's work certainly has a place in the narrative for special Nova Scotia folk art," he said. The auction is selling four Everett originals, as well as one of his Maud fakes. Edward Ross, an Ontarian originally from Nova Scotia, thought for decades that he owned two Maud Lewis paintings. In August 1969, he and his first wife were on a vacation in Nova Scotia to visit his family. His mother said there was a painter in Marshalltown, N.S., who was attracting a lot of publicity and her work could become valuable down the road. Ross's mom had warned him that they should get signed paintings, and not to accept any art that was unsigned. Ross, his wife and his sister drove to the tiny home just outside of Digby. Ross said that while Everett originally tried to sell him an unsigned painting, he agreed to sell some works by Maud, but had to leave the house to get it from a storage shed. Maud wasn't there as she was in the hospital, Everett told Ross. After agreeing to pay $40 for the two paintings, Ross took a photo of Everett with his wife and sister. It's only looking back at that moment today that Ross has an appreciation for how the encounter unfolded. "I said, 'Holy geez, I got a deal here. My mother's going to be really proud of her boy going back home with two of Maud Lewis's paintings,'" said Ross, 82. "So we jumped in the car and I pulled out onto the highway and as I looked at the rear mirror, I could see Everett standing there near the road waving to us. And it just gave me the impression that he was saying, 'So long, sucker.'" Ross only learned in recent years the two paintings that hang on his living room wall were not done by Maud. His second wife raised suspicions, remarking that the paintings were signed on the left-hand side, not the right. Expert analysis revealed they were fakes. "I have this really strong feeling that they're Mauds, but everybody else tells me no, even Mr. Miller has said the same thing to me, so I have to go with the experts," said Ross. He said there was nothing suspicious about his encounter with Everett, noting he invited them into his home, he smiled and was happy to have his photo taken. "It must have been interesting because I've remembered it all these years," said Ross. Everett Lewis died in 1979.
