November 2018
Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back)
When a film’s only flaw is its title, it’s safe to say that audiences are in the clear. Such is the case for Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back), an edgy British comedy starring two-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton) and Aneurin Barnard (Bigger).
The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret
“We should have known this.” “Someone must have known.”
The Price of Everything
The central question at the core of Nathaniel Kahn’s The Price of Everything is how importantly, or inherently, is money connected to art? The answer reveals itself through the understanding of artists, historians and dealers, with that importance going higher as monetary power does. In other words, this documentary ultimately makes two points: art is inherently financial, and capitalism will slowly but surely cause the demise of it.
The Christmas Chronicles
Netflix Originals come and go, but the streaming service’s latest festive flick The Christmas Chronicles is a new holiday classic – an entertaining family film that will hold resonance for years to come.
Green Book
There is a certain sort of film that defies classification. The quick description is the sort of film that is not perfect by any stretch of the term, but which contains just a little something that manages to hit on a collective pathos in the audience. Those films release a positive feeling into the audience that can actually be felt when one is in such an environment. Green Book is just such a film: it…
Wylie Writes @ The 2018 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Nov. 8 -16) has ended yet another successful run, continuing to offer filmmakers and storytellers an integral platform to connect with audiences. I was fortunate enough to catch a couple of the feature films programmed at this year’s Reel Asian Film Festival but, unfortunately, I was left feeling underwhelmed by my selections.
Number 37
Number 37, which recently premiered this summer at the Fantasia Festival, proves an old argument: some films should not be remade. In this case, director Nosipho Dumisa has updated and resituated Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window within the generic contours of the gangster sub-genre.
Room For Rent
Room For Rent isn’t quite the dark comedy it strives to be. Instead, in the same hunky-dory spirit as The Birder or Big News from Grand Rock, it’s another sample of funny people trapped within a flavourless Canadian comedy.