Tag: Hotel Paranormal

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Legend of the Underground (June 29, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

As Pride Month events wind down in Toronto and other places around the world, it’s worth noting the ongoing persecution of anyone who doesn’t conform to a heterosexual ideal of masculinity in Nigeria — so much so that media reviewing this documentary were asked not to refer to interview subjects still living in that country as gay, homosexual or anything else that would imply they weren’t straight.

And frankly, I have no issue with that because I watched “The Legend of the Underground” with an underlying sense of dread of what could happen to the “non-conformists” who appeared on camera saying or doing things that might single them out for punishment by a homophobic regime and a citizenry that largely approves of its anti-gay laws.

And yet, the human spirit is resilient. These men persist — despite a law passed in 2014 that bans not only same-sex marriage and relationships but participation in “gay clubs, societies and organizations”; and the risk of torture, even death, at the hands of police and vigilantes.

The doc, directed by Jamaican-American Giselle Bailey and Nigerian-American Nneka Onuorah, focuses on men who live in ways that defy the prevailing norms, whether that’s dressing in women’s clothes, wearing makeup or dancing in high heels.

There are scenes of joy throughout the film — dancing and partying and sharing meals and hugs — but also sobering reminders of the price of not conforming.

James, a young man with a flare for feminine fashion and a large social media following, shows the scar where his aunt bit him on the eye, and screens full of death threats.

There are also emotional scars, no less real for the men rejected by their families.

One of the film’s key subjects, Micheal, says he was asked to leave home at 12 or 13 and lived on the streets for years, becoming infected with HIV.

He fled Nigeria in 2012 after a photo taken of him at an AIDS conference in Washington was seen online back home. When he returned, his apartment was ransacked and he was beaten until he passed out.

He settled in New York but still feels the pull of the country of his birth, returning in the doc to visit friends and meet with fellow activists.

There are signs of hope referenced — the striking out of charges last October against 47 men charged with public displays of same-sex affection at a party; country-wide protests that same month against police brutality — but there is clearly a long way to go.

Micheal continues his advocacy from the relative safety of New York, having founded the non-profit group GBGMC, but others try to effect change from inside Nigeria, including James, who expresses his wish to inspire billions of people with his videos and posts. 

“You have rights. Do you know why?” he asks. “Because you’re human.”

No Sudden Move (July 1, Crave)

The main reason to watch this film from the prolific Steven Soderbergh is to see skilled actors practising their craft.

Don Cheadle leads the cast as Curtis Goynes, a hood just out of jail in 1954 Detroit who takes on what’s supposed to be an easy job for an unknown boss. He and Ronald Russo (Benicio Del Toro) are told to “babysit” a wife and two kids in a suburban home while Charley (Kieran Culkin, “Succession”) drives the husband, Matt (David Harbour of “Stranger Things”), to his office to steal documents from his boss’s safe.

Obviously things don’t go as planned — there wouldn’t be a film if they did — and a double cross sets the criminals for hire on the trail of whoever’s behind the job with the goal of enlarging their payout. And then the double crosses just keep on coming as Curt and Ronald put the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.

Other notables in the cast include Brendan Fraser, Jon Hamm, Matt Damon; Ray Liotta and Bill Duke as a pair of mob bosses, and the late Craig muMs Grant (“Oz”), who died in March of complications from diabetes.

There aren’t a lot of women in the flick, including Amy Seimetz as Matt’s wife; Julia Fox as a mob wife and Frankie Shaw as the secretary with whom Matt is having an affair, but at least they get some agency in relation to the men.

As for the documents at the centre of the action? They’re nowhere near as sexy as the targets in other Soderbergh heist movies like “Out of Sight” and “Ocean’s Eleven.” They’re plans for a piece of automotive technology, the significance of which is explained in a postscript about a real life anti-trust case against GM, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors in 1969.

If that seems a bit prosaic for a gangster film, well, my take on “No Sudden Move” is that it keeps the brain engaged but doesn’t really make the pulse quicken.

Crave also has “Intergalactic” (July 2), a series about a female cop in outer space (Savannah Steyn) wrongly convicted of a crime whose fellow prisoners stage a mutiny aboard a prison transport ship.

Staged (July 1, Hollywood Suite)

It’s no secret that success in showbiz can lead to excess, a truth proven by any number of wretched movie sequels and seasons of shows that have gone on too long.

Alas, “Staged” — a gem of a series that I loved first time around — has fallen into the trap of thinking more is more.

In its first iteration, Michael Sheen and David Tennant played pandemic versions of themselves, bored actors attempting to rehearse a play by Zoom but spending most of their time sniping at or commiserating with each other as their hair, and the lockdown, grew longer.

Clearly, this wasn’t a reality show, but its fly-on-the-wall vibe made it feel fresh and funny.

Alas, Season 2 feels too, well, staged. It’s gone meta with the premise that Season 1 of the show was enough of a hit in the U.K. for the greenlighting of an American remake, one that Sheen and Tennant aren’t welcome in because they’re not considered famous enough in the States. The pair spend most of the new episodes plotting to sabotage the recasting of their roles, but the series’ charm has decreased in inverse proportion to the growth of its guest stars (15 to the first season’s five) and episodes (eight instead of six).  

It still has its moments — mostly when Sheen and Tennant are onscreen alone together, although Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Cate Blanchett are also entertaining in Episode 7  — but the instalments feel long and overstuffed.  

And although the timing of its Hollywood Suite debut isn’t the show’s fault, it’s less appealing now to watch people boxed in by computer screens just when life in Canada is getting back to some semblance of normal. 

Hotel Paranormal, Season 2 (July 2, 9 p.m., T+E)

The closest I’ve come to staying in a haunted hotel was having dinner at the Angel Inn in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. I felt a sense of unease when I went downstairs to use the washroom and later learned guests had been seen ghosts there. If I’d encountered anything like the spirits in “Hotel Paranormal” I might have ditched my date and run screaming into the night.

The spectres in the show’s second season — at least the first episode, which is the only one I screened — bring more than unease; they seem downright terrifying, whether it’s a spirit trying to drive away the new owners of the Jefferson Hotel in Texas; the ghost of a sadistic prison warden in a Scottish hostelry; or the apparition of a very unhappy woman in an English hotel.

But if you love a ghost story you’ll enjoy these vignettes, which feature interviews with the hauntees and spooky re-enactments of the hauntings, whether or not you’re a true believer. Speaking of believers, “Ghostbuster” Dan Aykroyd, who comes from a long line of paranormal explorers, is back to narrate the show. I had a chance to chat with him for the Toronto Star and you can read the interview here.

Odds and Ends 

Disney Plus has something that I believe, sight unseen, is definitely worth watching, “Summer of Soul (. . . Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (July 2), a documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson featuring previously unseen footage from the so-called “Black Woodstock,” the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. It includes performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips and more. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance.  

I didn’t get an advance look at film “The Tomorrow War” (July 2, Amazon Prime Video), but it stars Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) as a hot dad who has to travel to the future to fight a battle to save humankind.

Netflix has a bunch of new things out July 1 that I also didn’t get to screen. They include the Swedish drama “Young Royals,” a gay coming-of-age story about a prince; the Italian romantic drama “Generation 56K,” which shifts timelines between the present and 1998, when its protagonists were first introduced to the internet; and “Audible,” a documentary about a deaf high school football player. On July 2, the streamer has “Fear Street Part 1: 1994,” the first in a series of adaptations of the popular teenage horror novels of the ’90s and beyond.

Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald are back for Season 5 of “The Good Fight” (June 1, 9 p.m., W Network) and the partners are under pressure over Diane’s status as a white principal in a Black law firm.

If you’re a fan of gritty crime drama, morally ambiguous detectives and/or Idris Elba, then note that all four seasons of “Luther” are on BritBox July 1 (and are also viewable free on CBC Gem if you don’t mind the ads).