By: Addison Wylie If you grew up watching teen movies or were exposed to the batch of PG-13 high school flicks that flooded cinemas from the 90’s to the early 2000’s, it’s natural to have a repellant reaction to Charlie Lyne’s doc Beyond Clueless. The documentarian intentionally takes your beloved guilty pleasures and dissects them to find running themes. An introduction using 1996’s The Craft tells us exactly what movie goers are in for, and…
By: Addison Wylie There are things I simply can’t believe. Sasquatch claims and unicorn sightings being a couple of them. Well, there’s now a new entry: Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller’s involvement with Sex Tape’s screenplay. These two are above plodding juvenilia like this. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement and The Muppets are proof of where they can set the bar with smart comedic writing. If these two are going to pen a project…
By: Addison Wylie Wyrmwood charges through our senses. It’s easily the scariest, most effective zombie flick audiences will have seen as of late. Kiah Roache-Turner uses a dangerous form of filmmaking that is rarely seen in modern cinema. Mostly due to the fact that it’s an insane style that could go belly-up if the audience isn’t ready for its shocking invasiveness. Roache-Turner throws movie goers in the centre of the intense life-or-death face-offs. He positions…
By: Addison Wylie White Bird in a Blizzard hits you with a wallop pivotal enough to make you concussed. You walk away having appreciated Gregg Araki’s latest film, but it doesn’t entirely settle well, and its difficult to come up with reasonings as to why. Now thinking of it though, the Araki films I’ve caught (Mysterious Skin and Smiley Face) have had the same effect. Mysterious Skin is a distraught story of a troubled teenage…
By: Addison Wylie A dangerous plague has wiped out most of humanity within wide proximity of Refuge’s main family. The secluded family has stowed themselves away in their crumbling abode as life around them breaks down and dawns a bleak future. Refuge isn’t a film where the infected are on the hunt for the living. Andrew Robertson’s slow burn is a study of survival as the human race turns on each other. Unkempt gangs roam…
By: Gesilayefa Azorbo Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity is a comprehensive portrait of a controversial figure in the dance world and beyond. Director Catherine Gund has created an in-depth exploration of the principles and people behind a unique dance ideology, pop action, which was created and developed by dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Streb beginning in the 1980s in New York City. Streb is the founder of Streb Extreme Action Company, a dance troupe that…
By: Addison Wylie Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip is decently crafted by biting dialogue and watchable performances. However, I’m unsure what audiences are supposed to “get” out of the film. Perry certainly pulls us in with an atmosphere reminiscent of films made during the 70’s. He has the correct details lined within his style, as well as the rebellious glimmers in his filmmaking. However, once we’re invested and get on board with the film’s…
By: Addison Wylie I don’t know a heck of a lot about Linkin Park turntablist Joseph Hahn. His feature film debut Mall could provide some insight; although I hope I’m mistaken. Hahn could’ve been that someone who grew up resenting authority. His teenage peers could’ve been burn outs and pot heads who had no aspirations. Meanwhile, his own observations bloomed into cynical opinions about the culture around him. To him, he might’ve been the smartest…
By: Addison Wylie With recent horror anthologies, it seems as though the first instalment serves as an extreme experimental period. There’s a foreboding feeling of failure when making a project that draws in different visions from all over a filmmaking pallet, but horror nuts who are true to their craft will let their audacious attitudes plow through anything resembling an obstacle. This was a clear example for the V/H/S series – an easy comparison to…
By: Addison Wylie Not everything in Eternity: The Movie works. However, filmmaker Ian Thorpe shows audiences that clean comedy leads to the best kind of laughs with this lo-fi send-up to the 1980’s. Barrett Crake plays Todd Lucas, because – I suppose – Jon Heder had a busy schedule. Lucas is new to the Californian lifestyle. Instead of one-night stands with bodacious babes, he wishes to escape the business and get to know a girl…