Podcast: The Righteous & Top Gun: Maverick

The Righteous & Top Gun: Maverick

Greetings, programs, and welcome to this week’s podcast! Following a year-long journey from its festival premiere at Fantasia 2021, Mark O’Brien’s The Righteous is finally coming to cinemas and on-demand thanks to Arrow Video and Vortex Media, and after a 36-year gap, Tom Cruise is back as a Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the long-awaited sequel to the 1980s classic Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick.

There are streaming links powered by JustWatch a little further down this page, and the episode should be live wherever you listen to podcasts (also including on this page) now.

Join us!

Continue reading “Podcast: The Righteous & Top Gun: Maverick”

Interview: Mark O’Brien on his film ‘The Righteous’

Mark O'Brien / The Righteous

Greetings programs! Canadian actor Mark O’Brien has been working steadily since the mid-2000s with roles in CBC’s The Republic of Doyle and AMC’s Halt & Catch Fire, and movie appearances in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story

This week sees his feature film writing and directorial debut, The Righteous, arrive in cinemas nearly a year after its premiere at least year Fantasia Festival. Grappling with themes of faith and guilt, The Righteous stars a who’s who of Canadian talent including O’Brien himself, Henry Czerny, Mimi Kuzyk, and Nygel Bennet.  It also picked up three Canadian Screen Award nominations this year including best original screenplay and best supporting actor for O’Brien himself.

I sat down with Mark this week on Zoom to talk about the film.  You can listen to it right here on the page after the jump, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I hope you enjoy it!

Continue reading “Interview: Mark O’Brien on his film ‘The Righteous’”

Fantasia ’21 Review: ‘The Righteous’ brings together faith, guilt, and excellent performances

The Righteous

Grief and guilt are often intertwined but not necessarily in the ways we expect. In The Righteous, the first feature from Canadian actor and now writer and director Mark O’Brien, guilt is met with a crisis of faith, and the results are dire.

Continue reading “Fantasia ’21 Review: ‘The Righteous’ brings together faith, guilt, and excellent performances”