Shameless Self Expression

Kari Wuhrer plays a young woman who has fled an abusive partner, given up her baby for adoption, and gets the hell outta town. She ends up lonely on the streets of freezing Toronto. However, a street-wise hooker named Ola (Rae Dawn Chong) takes her under her wing, and helps her stay away from the clutches of sleazy, manipulative pimp Hassan (Lou Diamond Phillips). Eventually a bond forms between the two women. Meanwhile, tough cop McClaren (Lance Henriksen) hounds Ola for information about a murder she saw Hassan commit, but Ola’s keeping her lips zipped for fear of Hassan’s wrath. Also, Wuhrer’s abusive ex is on the lookout for her. The story goes: Back when video/DVD rental stores were still a thing, I used to go to the video/DVD store a few times a year and get 10 ‘weeklys’ (older movies, not new releases) for $10. It’s probably the main thing that started me on this journey to being a film reviewer/movie lover. One day back in I think 1998 or so, I mistakenly came home wi...

Loosely based on the true story of Don Aronow, John Travolta plays renamed speedboat racing magnate (and former racer) Ben Aronoff, whose business practices and associates aren’t exactly above board. Basically, he’s a drug trafficker. All fun and games for a while, the whole thing ends up getting Aronoff in big trouble from both drug lords and the DEA. Katheryn Winnick and Jennifer Esposito play the women in Aronoff’s life, Michael Weston plays Aronoff’s right-hand man, Jordi Molla plays a rival dealer, James Remar is famed gangster Meyer Lansky, with Kellan Lutz as Lansky’s petulant dickhead nephew who tries to give Aronoff shit at every opportunity. Tom Sizemore appears briefly as a hitman and Matthew Modine plays a character so poorly integrated that I only know he played then-VP George H.W. Bush because I read it afterwards. John Travolta seemed to have horrendous luck with mob-related biopics in 2018 with the much-maligned “Gotti” and this Jodi Scurfield (who suspicious...