TV that waxes poetic, vacations hard, reminisces

The summer TV drawer is nearly empty, but here is a varied platter of viewing suggestions to amuse through to September, including: travelling with an epic poem, a group vacation, an anniversary reflection on the Tragically Hip (sob), a missing-child crime thriller and the return of a fictional talk-show host.

● Richard E. Grant’s Very Modern Odyssey

Documentary series streaming on CBC Gem

Sidestepping the argumentative hubbub about a new translation of Homer’s epic poem vs. old, and whose biceps Matt Damon wears in Christopher Nolan’s big-screen The Odyssey, consider this luscious travelogue, hosted by Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I). Beauty is beauty.

What’s canon in ‘Paw Patrol’? Canadian mega-franchise tackles creative questions as its world expands

TORONTO - Loyal "Paw Patrol" viewers learned years ago that dinosaurs didn't go extinct on whatever version of Earth is home to Adventure Bay.

A contingent of the reptiles survived for millions of years, unbeknownst to the general public, and are currently under the care of a wheelchair-using Bernese mountain pup named Rex and two scientists — at least in the universe of the TV series.

But the creative minds at Spin Master, the Toronto-based toy behemoth that's made a fortune on the backs of the search-and-rescue dogs, aren't afraid of tweaking an origin story as they adapt the franchise for the big screen.

Enter "Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie," the third Hollywood outing for the pups, in which they learn — once again — that a scientific miracle allowed a small subset of dinosaurs to survive an eons-ago asteroid impact.

The Wrong Girls is sweet and shaggy, but dazed and confused stoner comedy is hard to get right

Stoner comedy has always been kind of a dude thing. Think of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Cheech & Chong, Ice Cube’s Friday franchise, Harold & Kumar, basically any movie with the young Seth Rogen.

How Jay McCarrol helped Matt Johnson find the sound of Anthony Bourdain biopic ‘Tony’

TORONTO - Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s creative partnership began with a decidedly sombre project.

The Toronto duo met as teenagers after Johnson’s then-girlfriend introduced them. Johnson wanted to make films; McCarrol dreamed of scoring them. McCarrol soon scored one of Johnson’s student features.

“It was about the son of an actor, whose father is struck deaf by an on-set lighting mistake,” recalled Johnson at last year’s TIFF. “And to deal with it, he sublimates his father's deafness into his own inability to speak.”

“It was very dark. It was serious,” said McCarrol.

‘Heated Rivalry’ star Hudson Williams, comedian Chris Rock to speak at TIFF

TORONTO - Hudson Williams, Chris Rock and Andrew Scott are among the entertainers set to take the stage at TIFF to discuss their careers as part of the In Conversation With series.

Williams, the Kelowna, B.C.-born star of "Heated Rivalry," is at the festival to debut the new Crave series "Yaga."

TIFF says the event with the 25-year-old actor is part of the fest's Next Wave initiative, which spotlights young talent.

Rock, meanwhile, is set to speak on his latest film "Misty Green," which exposes the uglier side of show business as it follows a talented actress, played by Rosalind Eleazar, who is struggling in her career and personal life. The film also stars Daniel Kaluuya, Adam Driver and Anna Kendrick.

Strong film slate, FIFA screenings help boost Cineplex’s Q2 results

TORONTO - A strong film slate and theatre presentations of FIFA World Cup matches helped Cineplex Inc. swing to a profit in its most recent quarter. 

"This quarter's success was not dependent on a single blockbuster or a small number of tentpole releases. Instead, consumers embraced a broad range of compelling content across multiple genres and formats," Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob said on the company's earnings call.

He said family films were a significant driver, with the release of "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" and "Toy Story 5." Meanwhile, he said "Michael," which chronicles the life of pop superstar Michael Jackson, became the highest-grossing biopic ever. 

He said the quarter showcased one of the most diverse content slates it has seen in years. 

Blink-182’s Travis Barker almost died. A new documentary celebrates his life before and after

NEW YORK (AP) — The inferno rages onscreen three minutes into “ Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear.” Dashcam footage lifted from a police car shows the blaze: It's 2008, and Barker has survived a plane crash in South Carolina. Four others did not.

And then, a cut. The documentary, which follows the Blink-182 drummer from 2017 to 2026, is a celebration of Barker's life before and after the life-altering accident, a central event in a career full of them. The film began as a mirror of his memoir, 2015's “Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums,” but became something else entirely after a producer suggested it end with the image of Barker, then still unable to fly due to post-traumatic stress disorder, walking toward a plane.

Ending on that note, “where this thing still has power over me,” didn’t sit well with him. Instead, he boards a plane at the end, but the documentary’s final images are a slide show of family photos, including his wife Kourtney Kardashian and kids.

“I almost died,” he says. It “could be helpful to share my life.”

Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week

TORONTO - Five things to watch for in the Canadian business world in the coming week:

Auto talks

Unifor is expected to open contract negotiations with General Motors on Monday. The union represents more than 4,600 members at Ontario GM facilities, including the Oshawa assembly plant, the CAMI facility in Ingersoll as well as operations in St. Catharines and Woodstock. The union has already reached a deal with Ford and will take on Stellantis after GM.

Cineplex results

Time-travel mystery Rose of Nevada a hallucinogenic trip

Here’s a spooky premise: A fishing boat, the Rose of Nevada, that disappeared along with its crew 30 years ago, makes a mysterious return — empty but unchanged — to a small village in Cornwall, on England’s southwest coast.

“She’s back,” the boat’s owner says ominously. Even more ominously, he doesn’t sound particularly surprised. It feels as if this has happened before.

There’s something unsettling going on in this strange and singular film. Cornish writer-director Mark Jenkin (Bait, Enys Men) has crafted a ghostly time-travel tale that collapses past and present, leaving his characters — and the audience — in haunting emotional and moral quandaries.

If the film’s sense of time can be deliberately hazy, its sense of place is very clear. All three of Jenkin’s features have been set in Cornwall, and there’s an intimate, immediate sense of connection to this coastal town, which is depressed and dwindling, its inhabitants beset by economic precarity. The harbour is deserted, the pub is empty, shop windows are boarded up and the young people are leaving. It seems as if the disappearance of that boat and crew broke not just the men’s grieving families but the whole community.

TIFF’s Midnight Madness lineup includes Brian Mulroney doc, a variety of horror flicks

TORONTO - What can moviegoers expect from Midnight Madness, TIFF's celebration of genre film, this year? A bit of everything, says programmer Peter Kuplowsky.

"I don't want to play 10 films in a row that just feel like they're the same kind of experience," he said on a recent video call.

"And so I love that I'm moving from classic horror to experimental documentary, to Yakuza crime movies to martial arts vampires and then concluding with interstellar warfare ... I really relish that there is that range and variety."

Opening the program, whose films all premiere at midnight, is "River," which Kuplowsky describes as a "John Carpenter-esque slasher."

Prime Video teen drama ‘Sterling Point’ tackles romance and Muskoka class conflict

TORONTO - Muskoka is having a moment.

The summertime hot spot in Ontario's cottage country has long been a fixture in film and on TV — including a recent turn in "Heated Rivalry" — but it's typically dressed up as somewhere else, said director Megan Park.

Not so for "Sterling Point," the Canadian auteur's new teen drama series, now available to stream on Prime Video: Muskoka plays itself in the show.

"We ... get into the real culture there and the real conflict that's happening, and can really be in that world," Park said on a recent video call from her home outside Toronto.

Documentary captures Siloam’s mission of mercy

Margot Ross says there’s a 70-something year old woman using Siloam Mission’s services who used to volunteer there.

“She was taken in by an internet financial scam and was too embarrassed to tell anyone, and eventually was evicted,” she says.

Ross is the interim director of development at Siloam, which offers shelter, meals and wellness supports to people experiencing homelessness and poverty. She has plenty of similar stories of bad luck and sudden reversals of fortune.

So does The Mission, a new 45-minute documentary about Siloam by Winnipeg filmmaker Kevin Nikkel, which premières on CBC next week.

Films from Ron Murphy, Marie Clements programmed at TIFF

TORONTO - The Toronto International Film Festival is adding a handful of Canadian movies to its main program, including "Back in Black" starring Christopher Walken.

The film from Canadian TV mainstay Ron Murphy is about a struggling mortician in a wellness-obsessed town where death has become obsolete.

The Centrepiece program, which includes projects from about 50 countries, also features "How We Stand," a film about two sisters separated by tragedy, directed by Métis playwright and filmmaker Marie Clements, who made "Bones of Crows."

Latvian-Canadian author and director David Bezmozgis is also premiering the adaptation of his 2014 novel "The Betrayers," about a disgraced Israeli politician and the man who denounced him to the KGB.

Simu Liu says the path to a ‘Shang-Chi’ sequel ‘feels clearer than it’s ever been’

After years of waiting, Simu Liu says he's more optimistic than ever that a "Shang-Chi" sequel is finally on the horizon.

The Canadian actor broke out as the star of Marvel's first Asian-led superhero franchise in 2021's “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” playing a martial artist who inherits mystical powers and is forced to confront his family's complicated legacy. The film earned more than US$430 million worldwide despite a pandemic-era release.

Now, Liu is set to reprise the role in this year's "Avengers: Doomsday," his first live-action appearance as the character since his stand-alone debut.

Last week, he told The Canadian Press that conversations about a sequel have become increasingly encouraging after years of uncertainty.

TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

Ted Lasso

Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns!