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Our City Tonight

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 11:53 PDT, Fri September 13, 2024

Spotlight on what’s good to view in September

VIEW #1 – The Critic

The Critic—which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023—is a dark tale set in 1934 London, and it is there, we meet the powerful theatre critic, Jimmy Erskine (Sir Ian McKellen), and insecure actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton). The story centres around Erskine and how he lures Nina into a blackmail scheme involving his paper’s editor, David Brooke (Mark Strong). This suspenseful, period-piece drama will keep you entertained and it too certainly benefits from a stellar cast—it’s worth the price of admission just to watch 84 year old McKellen sink his teeth into this juicy role, and Arterton and Strong as well as Lesley Manville, continue to be favourites of ours. Written by Patrick Marber, who gave us 2006’s Notes on a Scandal, another film we loved. The Critic is in theatres Sept 13.

VIEW #2 – You Gotta Believe

We’ve all see these inspirational stories before, and they continue to be adapted into film and TV projects because, quite simply, people love these uplifting stories. You Gotta Believe is the latest entry into this genre. The film is based on the true story of a group of young boys who make up a last place team in a youth baseball league in Fort Worth, Texas. But when one of the dads (who is also one of the coaches) is diagnosed with cancer, his fight to survive becomes the inspiration for the boys and their “Cinderella” run all the way to the 2002 Little League World Series (and we’re not giving anything away by mentioning this, but their showdown game in the series became an ESPN classic). This better-than-expected film benefits from a great cast, including Luke Wilson and Greg Kinnear (both perfect in their roles), as well as Canadians Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker. There are plenty of laughs and tears in You Gotta Believe, and it’s a film the whole family will appreciate and enjoy. It’s in theatres now.

VIEW #3 – Amber Alert

The term Amber Alert, which stands for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response, has been around since 1996, and is a valued rapid alert system to get word to the public about a child abduction. We all know and appreciate this valued service, and when we receive the text notices it instantly brings concern. Often, the alert will contain information on the vehicle that abducted the child or children, which leads us to the new film, Amber Alert. Jaq (Hayden Panettiere, who gained international fame in two TV series, Heroes and Nashville) receives an Amber Alert during her Uber ride and she and her driver, Shane (Tyler James Williams), discover they are right behind, what they believe, is the kidnapper’s car. For the viewer, the reaction is instant: you instantly call the police, but how far would you go in pursuit when the authorities are not close by? A cat-and-mouse game follows. Another of our favourites, character actor, Kevin Dunn, rounds out the cast. Amber Alert is in theatres and available for home viewing Sept 27.