Watching Mortdecai is painful in the same awkward way being an outcast at a shrill party can be. Everyone is having so much fun with themselves that they forget to include you. I can’t say that I was jealous from being left outside Mortdecai’s social circle though – I was too irritated to care.
By: Addison Wylie After accumulating directorial experience with shorts films and serving as a producer on critically acclaimed indies such as Simon Killer and Martha Marcy May Marlene, Josh Mond has taken the leap to feature films with James White. A film that will convince you that Mond has been in this business longer than his back catalogue suggests.
By: Trevor Jeffery There are some people who do physical challenges for the fun of it, and some people who participate in physical challenges for the accomplishment. Then, there are some people who do physical challenges because of self-loathing, mental lapse or aptitude for enduring pain. The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young is a documentary about all of these folks.
By: Mark Barber Jay Roach’s Trumbo resembles so many “awards season” films. It’s a mildly politicized, star-studded historical drama that wants you to think it’s more important than it is. Ultimately, Trumbo lacks ambition and relevance, and feels little more than a weak attempt to pander to Academy voters.
By: Mark Barber Chris Trebilcock’s The Dark Stranger understands that the power of horror is derived in part not from its tonal seriousness but from its ability to confront the issues in ways that are creatively charged. Taking on the issue of depression, The Dark Stranger might take some flak for what at times feels like a facile exploration of depression. However, Trebilcock deserves praise for creatively literalizing the demons we face as a means…
By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Requiem for the American Dream does not have anything new to say if the viewer is familiar with Noam Chomsky’s ideas, but watching one of our greatest minds speak is always a treat.
By: Addison Wylie Fed-up filmmaker Crystal, her procedural producer Dawn, and her colourful actresses travel to different theatres to screen their new film in Ryan M. Andrews’ Save Yourself. Any festival goer will familiarize with the film’s first act taking place in a packed theatre as drama unfolds behind-the-scenes. Those same patrons will also start eagerly guessing where Save Yourself is headed once the characters hit the road.
By: Shannon Page Canadian filmmaking veteran Larry Kent’s She Who Must Burn, which was directed by Kent and co-written with Shane Twerdun, follows a nurse for planned-parenthood (Sarah Smyth) who refuses to leave her clinic even after it is shut down by the state. Her persistence puts her at odds with the town’s fanatic, evangelical residents who believe that her commitment to a woman’s right to choose is a sin.
By: Mark Barber Andrew Cymek’s Night Cries is the product of a variety of recycled ideas and premises from other movies. Taking cues from The Matrix, Twelve Monkeys, Mad Max and dozens of other sci-fi/action films, Cymek’s film is too self-serious and rarely entertaining. Cymek (who also wrote, produced, and edited the film) plays Joseph, a man who searches for his wife in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by weird creatures and a gang of people…
By: Addison Wylie When the Unspecters – a team of bush-league paranormal investigators – are told to up their ante in order to score a television show pilot, they apprehensively set their sights on Farhope Tower. The high-rise has a history of undistinguished suicides, and its been uninhabited for years. The Unspecters are used to spelunking for spirits in caves and dark crevices, but they muster forward into their next challenge. April Mullen’s Farhope Tower is…