Month: July 2021

The case of Julia Law, the young para-legal who was found dead in her boss’s bathrub, rocked Philadelphia. He was a powerful defense attorney and she was a smart young woman who was trying to sort her life out when her life suddenly ended. A video she had posted to her social media before her death went viral following the discovery of her body. This video fueled the interest in her case.

The Girl in the Bathtub is a made for TV movie that tells the story of Julia’s life leading up to her death. It is told from her point of view with interjections from the people who knew her best and saw her in the final hours of her life. This is a dramatized retelling of Julia’s story, starring Caitlin Stasey and Jason Patric as defense attorney, Chuck Peruto.

Suspicion swirled around Peruto following the discovery of Julia’s body. Although, her blood alcohol level was five times the legal limit, and she had a history of struggling with alcoholism, many people believed that Peruto had a hand in Law’s death. The case was well documented in the media and while the police reached a conclusion, the public is far from satisfied.

The police conducted an investigation. The coroner made their report. A grand jury was convened. In the end, Charles Peruto was not charged with the death of Julia Law. The official cause of death was drowning due to a seizure but many people speculated about Peruto’s role in Law’s drunken state that night and if he knowingly left her in distress in his apartment.

In the end, though he appeared grief-stricken in public, some questioned how authentic Peruto’s tears really were. They also questioned the timeline he gave to the police about his whereabouts, and his emotional state the night of Julia’s death – especially when the public learned of Julia’s multiple relationships.

It is all speculation but what is known, is that Julia Law sent dozens of text messages and left a handful of voicemails to her friends on the night she died. She joined a chat on an alcoholics anonymous page and posted a few videos to social media. She was hallucinating and in distress. She was alone and unwell. She was isolated and desperate. And then she died.

The Girl in the Bathtub, spends very little time on the investigation or the aftermath of Julia Law’s death. It doesn’t sensationalize the investigation. Instead, in an interpretation of Julia’s own words, a story of addiction is laid out. A story of a young woman, with a magnetic personality but demons too big to outrun, unfolds in heart-breaking clarity.

Based on a true story, The Girl in the Bathtub, is a heart-breaking tale of the death and life of a young woman. Now streaming on Netflix.

Dark and quirky and disturbing but also tragically beautiful, Flowers is the binge watch you didn’t know you were waiting for.

The dark comedy follows a typical sitcom format with 30-minute episodes that feature unique situations and follows the theme of one particular family but that is where the similarity between Flowers and your garden variety sitcoms end. This show features a deeply chaotic and dysfunctional family of four that lives with depression, anxiety, denial and too many secrets and suppositions.

The Flowers family features dad, Maurice (Julian Barret), a formerly-successful children’s author deep in a depressive state and mom, Deb (Olivia Colman) a terminally upbeat but exhausted wife and mother. Their 25 year old twins, Donald (Daniel Rigby), the failed inventor and Amy (Sophia Di Martino) a goth musician, are locked in an endless battle of sibling rivalry. If this isn’t enough bizarre chaos, throw in the live in illustrator, Shun (Will Sharpe), who is so stereo-typically Japanese that it is painful to watch at times.

Created, written and directed by Will Sharpe, it is clear that the stereotype is there is call us out rather than to concede to type. Undoubtedly informed by Sharpe’s own experience with mental illness, Flowers, does not shy away from any facet of life with mental illness. Each episode, through the story and the unique cinematography, tells a disjointed yet beautiful truth about life in this context. There is heartache and beauty and humor and sadness and each emotion has earned its place authentically.

Not one piece of this story feels contrived or forced, not because it isn’t a bit over the top and ridiculous at times, but because the actors, especially Colman, Barret and Sharpe, bring an unbelievable depth of realism to their characters. There are moments of breathtaking honesty and genuine acceptance of the reality of mental illness that are deeply touching to watch.

Both seasons aired to high praise from viewers and critics alike. The series can be difficult to watch at times. It is a sensory overload into madness but I think it is meant to be that way. There are flashes of the nonsensical and the disturbing but those only add to the broken beauty of this work as a whole.

Flowers is more than a sitcom or a television show. It is a series of 30-minute experimental art pieces set to the lives of deeply flawed yet devastatingly loving people, trapped together through biology and shared madness. And somehow, they, and the show, weave together a pure truth we rarely see on screen.

Warning scenes of self-harm and suicide are depicted.

Funnier than the usual Charlize Theron movie and more serious than we’d expect from Seth Rogen, Long Shot is truly hilarious, thoughtful and entertaining all the way through.

One part buddy comedy, one part social justice awareness and one part pure chemistry, Long Shot, is surprisingly smart and deeply funny. It features Charlize Theron as Charlotte Field, the U.S. Secretary of State as she is lining herself up for a run for the presidency. She’s smart, driven and gorgeous but in the misogynistic world of Washington politics it’s still an uphill battle for her to be taken seriously.

Seth Rogen is Fred Flarsky, a recently unemployed journalist trying to shake off the worst day ever with his best friend. That’s when he spots his former babysitter – now Secretary of State – at a party, which sparks a brief conversation between the two that ends in a spectacularly humiliating exit for poor Fred. He assumes that’s the end of it but Charlotte realizes that a little bit of Fred in her life might just be the thing she needs to give her a lead in the polls.

Charlotte hires Fred as a speech writer but what she gets in return is a buddy, a therapist and her own personal Jiminy Cricket. As their relationship grows, Charlotte struggles to balance doing the right thing with doing the thing that will get her elected. This creates tension between her and Fred and causes both Fred and Charlotte to reconsider what they are doing in this partnership in the first place.

There are delightful moments of genuine heartfelt acting from Rogen as he makes the most of the natural chemistry between himself and Theron. But there’s no need for fans to worry that he’s forgotten himself as there is more than enough of his off-colour humor to make this recognizable as a Rogen film

Theron, for her part, is funny and brilliant – as always. She hams it up just enough to keep pace with Rogen without making it look like she’s trying too hard. Her laughs are a genuine get and she brings a goofy sweetness to her role that makes it all so endearing.

This is a buddy flick like no other and totally worth the watch. Settle in with your favourite buddy for an utterly delightful and hilarious movie night in. You won’t regret it, not by a Long Shot.

In 1984, 17 year old Lisa McVey was abducted on her way home from work. Unlike nine girls before her, Lisa survives her kidnapping and, thanks to her ingenuity and quick thinking, is able to lead the police to her kidnapper’s doorstep. Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey is her story of survival and justice.

Young Lisa came from an abusive home. At the age of 14 she was forced, by her drug-addicted mother, to move in with and care for her grandmother. Not only was her grandmother neglectful but her grandmother’s boyfriend was abusive and spent years molesting Lisa. When Lisa reported the abuse to her grandmother she was not believed.

After years of being in and out of foster care and suffering from neglect and abuse, Lisa felt there was no way her life could get worse. And then she was abducted.

On her way home from work one night, a man lures her into his vehicle, rapes her immediately, then takes her to his home where he binds and blindfolds her. Over the next 26 hours, Lisa suffers multiple rapes. In between the assaults, her captor, serial rapist and murderer, Bobby Joe Long, rants about the abuses he has suffered in the past at the hands of heartless women. Lisa, listens and feigns compassion to attempt to gain his trust.

When Bobby passes out, Lisa manages to remove her blindfold for a few minutes. She commits as much detail about Bobby and his apartment to memory as she can. She also leaves strands of her hair under his bed and her fingerprints all over his bathroom, in hopes that police will eventually be able to find and arrest Long.

After some time, Long decides he is finished with Lisa and takes her out to a secluded wooded area. His plan is to murder her and hide her body, as he had done many times before, but Lisa is able to convince him to let her live. As he drives away, leaving her in the middle of nowhere, Lisa finally exhales. She removes her blindfold and memorizes her surroundings before making her way home.

When she finally arrives home, and reports the details of her kidnapping, her grandmother doesn’t believe her. Her grandmother accuses her of being a runaway and calls the police. When the police arrive, Lisa again reports her story and again is not believed. The police eventually taker her in for questioning and there, she is finally able to tell her story to someone who believes her, Sergeant Larry Pinkerton.

Not only does Sergeant Pinkerton believe Lisa’s story about the kidnapping, her gets her to confide in him about the abuses she has suffered at her grandmother’s house. Lisa is removed from her abusive home and the search for Lisa’s abductor and rapist is kicked into high gear.

Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey tells Lisa’s full story from beginning to end. It was written by Christina Walsh for the American channel Lifetime and Canadian channel Showcase in 2018. Starring Katie Douglas, Rossif Sutherland and David James Elliot, this docudrama received critical praise and was nominated for several awards, including best picture at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2020.

While not currently available on Netflix Canada, the movie can been seen by unlocking the promo below.

In 1982, Alex Lewis, then 18 years-old, suffered a traumatic brain injury following a motorcycle accident. While he recovered physically, his entire memory was erased – except for one thing, one person. Alex, though he remembered nothing about himself, he recognized his twin brother, Marcus. Tell Me Who I Am is the story of the brothers remembering and coming to terms with the truth of their whole story.

Based on a book that the two wrote a few years back, this documentary unfolds in three parts. The first part is the story of Alex post-accident and how Marcus helped him to rebuild a sense of identity by ‘filling in the blanks’ for hm. The pair tell of how Alex had to be taught everything from how to dress himself to who his mother was to how to ride a bike, which, ironically he caught on to quite well.

The second part of the documentary reveals how the story Marcus reconstructed for Alex was not their full story. The truth of the full story is discovered in startling revelations that unleash a torrent of questions from Alex that Marcus cannot answer. Marcus has the answers but the truth, speaking it out loud, is more than he can bear. So silence stretches over the pain and the years.

Part three is a difficult conversation between the brothers where the truth is finally laid out. Piece by traumatic piece. Despite years of living and working side by side, the two never spoke of Alex’s questions, of his pain, of his sense of betrayal, by the one person, the only person, he knew from the start. They never spoke because of Marcus’ pain in remembering. But, in the end, they sat, face to face, to each other and with the truth.

It is impossible to give more information without giving up the tension that makes this documentary, in each measures, intriguing and disturbing. One should be warned that the twists are heavy and will stick with you long after the credits roll.

Tell Me Who I Am is a beautiful and brutal story full of raw honesty. It’s a story that has played out a million times in a variety of ways in fiction but rarely do we hear a true life telling like this. It is the reality of the story that makes it memorable and compelling. And hard to watch, at times. It is the true story, the real humans behind the story, that makes this an important story to hear.

The start of each month is a bit like Christmas on Netflix. Each new month brings a bounty of new movies and shows to binge and savor. Whether its a rainy summer day or a hot July night, Netflix has the perfect watch for you on this July!

Here’s a list of some of the ones we are most looking forward to.

July 1 offers a ridiculous number of excellent films. The Impossible, Five Feet Apart, Outbreak, Larry Crowne, Moneyball and Up in the Air are all great picks for a movie night. There’s also a slew of family viewing options as well, but the one that blows them all away is John Wick 3. This 2019 release features Keanu Reeves reprising his role as ex-hitman, John Wick, who is now the hunted after a 14 million dollar contract is taken out on him. It is full of all the action, dark humor and big explosions fans have come to expect from this popular franchise.

July 7 brings us all the Fockers you can handle with the release of all three ‘Meet the Parents‘ films. Inspired by an independent film by writing duo Greg Gilenna and Mary Ruth Clarke, the first in the series, starring Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro, tells the painfully awkward story of a boyfriend meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Every terrible, embarrassing misstep you can image occurs. The next film, Meet the Fockers, introduces in-laws, an engagement and a pregnancy with the same hilarious, cringe-worthy tension as the first film. The third installment, Little Fockers, adds toddlers, work pressures and an ever-evolving relationship with the extended family. Each film is funnier than the next and but don’t look from more from this franchise because Stiller says three is enough.

July 17 sees the release of a new action flick starring Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo. Cosmic Sin is a sci-fi thriller, set in 2524, that tells the story humanity’s struggle for survival after 400 years of colonizing the outer reaches of space. A group of elite soldiers, led by retired General James Ford, are called upon to go to the extreme to prevent an interstellar war with a newly discovered alien civilization.

July 26 is your day, fans of The Walking Dead. Season 10 comes to Netflix in late July so there’s time to binge a few season to catch up with the trials, struggles and politics of our favorite post-apocalyptical survivors. Rick is dead. Is Negan tamed or plotting his next move? Will Carol be able to lead the remaining group to safety and survival? No spoilers here but after Season 9’s clashes with The Whisperers, we are anxious to see how the balance of power shifts between the settlements and survivors alike.

Just for the Kids – Throughout the month there are a number of genuinely entertaining and fun release for kids and families. Here’s a quick rundown of the what to watch for.

Lego City Adventures (Season One) brings all the fun and creativity of the LEGO movies to the small screen in twenty engaging episodes. Max & Ruby features the ongoing tale of two very independent juvenile bunnies, mischievous Max and his responsible older sister, Ruby. Four seasons of bunny antics are available on Netflix.

For older kiddos, the second season of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn is available now. It is a hilarious sitcom about quadruplets that are always up to something and are never at it alone. You can also find the whole Spy Kids franchise for family binging while road-tripping or passing the time on a rainy summer day.

Check all these out and more on Netflix this month.