Articles by Addison Wylie

Reviews

Megadoc

Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, Hotel) directs Megadoc, a feature-length fly-on-the-wall documentary about the making-of Francis Ford Coppola’s polarizing self-funded epic Megalopolis. The doc proves that cinephiles and critics alike weren’t the only people puzzled by last year’s movie – everyone featured in Megadoc is trying to make heads or tails of Megalopolis, including Francis Ford Coppola. The documentary is as much about Megalopolis as it is about collaborating with Coppola. The interviewed cast and crew are ecstatic to be…

Reviews

D(e)ad

With such surly sentimentality, Claudia Lonow’s D(e)ad could be the Lifetime movie-of-the-week on the unhinged and uncensored network in Swearnet. But, that isn’t a knock against Lonow’s very funny dramedy – it’s a compliment towards the film’s charm and the honesty behind grief as penned by screenwriter/star Isabella Roland. Brilliantly enough, while watching D(e)ad, the audience is always on the razor’s edge of laughing or crying. Daniel has been a lousy father and a brash…

Reviews

Light of the World

In Light of the World, directors Tom Bancroft and John J. Schafer issue a fresh perspective on the story of Jesus for a young audience – a beautifully animated recollection told from the experience of Jesus’ apostle John. This film is another chapter for The Salvation Poem Project, a non-profit, Christian-based collective co-founded by Schafer that wants to find different ways to deliver devout stories to viewers. Up next is their video game Clayface. I…

Reviews

The Threesome

I will go to the ends of the earth for actor Zoey Deutch (Flower, Buffaloed), but I have to draw a line at Chad Hartigan’s nonsensical romantic-dramedy The Threesome. An indie that positions the ambitious performer as a second, sometimes third, banana portraying a waffling love interest. Deutch plays Olivia, a sarcastic server, who incessantly teases guy pal Connor (Jonah Hauer-King of 2023’s The Little Mermaid). This sharp-tongued playfulness turns Connor on, but Olivia has…

Reviews

My Mother’s Wedding

For her directorial and screenwriting debut, actor Kristin Scott Thomas retreats to tried and tired formulas in My Mother’s Wedding to tell an autobiographical story. Luckily for Thomas, she’s been blessed with star-power who can not only sell this routine family dramedy, but can also make the movie out to be a matinee must-see. Thomas also co-stars as bride-to-be Diana. Diana, twice widowed by men who both served in the Royal Navy, is excited to…

Reviews

The Toxic Avenger

“Extreme” “Gruesome” “Unreleasable” These words, among others, have been used to describe Macon Blair’s adaptation The Toxic Avenger, along with the film’s tumultuous journey to the big screen. The popularity of the horror genre, however, hasn’t wavered; leading to studios and distributors making big, ambitious swings. The hit success of Terrifier 3 certainly helped The Toxic Avenger find a home, along with a “carte blanche” decision to release it “unrated” in the United States. Although, Canada had no problem issuing…

Reviews

She Talks to Strangers

Bruce Sweeney (Crimes of Mike Recket, The Dick Knost Show) returns to the big screen (since 2018’s Kingsway) with She Talks to Strangers, a brazenly funny black comedy that gives the Canadian filmmaker a turn to mine for gold in the trends of compulsive true crime followings. The backbone of Sweeney’s Toronto-set thriller, however, is the condensed, character-driven story of clumsy curmudgeons picking feuds with each other to gain a sense of control. Leslie (Camille…

Reviews

Boys Go to Jupiter

Julian Glander’s vaporwave indie Boys Go to Jupiter is an exercise in procrastination. Experienced by the characters, but felt – with each painstaking step – by the audience. In a Floridian suburb, high school dropout-turn-courier-for-hire Billy 5000 (voiced by Jack Corbett) has set a goal to save $5,000. Why $5,000? Because Billy 5000 supposes he could finally get his life moving with that much dough. He’s also discovered a currency glitch through his courier’s app that…

Reviews

Shook

Shook puts the “eh” in GTA; as in someone from the Greater Toronto Area recognizes something they see in the movie, elbows you and says, “eh! Remember that? From Toronto! Pretty neat that it’s in a movie, eh?”. Truth be told, Amar Wala’s feature filmmaking debut has been conceived from a genuine, semi-autobiographical point-of-view (expanding on Wala’s short film of the same name starring Fondi ’91‘s Raymond Ablack and The Joke Thief’s Sugith Varughese). However, Wala’s attempts at authenticity…

Reviews

Magnetosphere

Nicola Rose’s sophomore feature Magnetosphere reminded me of Nickelodeon programming I grew up with – family friendly fodder that used sitcom conventions as an entry way for outcasts to identify with off-beat humour and a unique perspective on life.  While the nostalgia is hard to shake, with this current collection of coming-of-age films aimed at pre-teens, Magnetosphere is in a league of its own. Maggie (played by newcomer Shayelin Martin of Wild Goat Surf) sees…