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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi’ and ‘Raiders!’

May 6, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi (DIR. Neil Broffman) By: Shannon Page If you own a computer, have a Facebook account, frequent Twitter, or read the news – basically, if you interact with information and technology at all – you should watch Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi.  The emotional and thoughtful film, directed by Neil Broffman, tells the story of a Brown University student who went missing one month prior to the Boston Marathon bombings and…

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Reviews

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

May 5, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Mark Barber Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney’s latest film is an insightful–if perhaps overlong–two-hour reminder of the controversial Church of Scientology.  Based on and working extensively off of Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, Gibney traces Scientology’s history from its very beginnings with its erratic and odd founder L. Ron Hubbard to the assimilation of Hollywood celebrities into the cult. Perhaps most distressingly, however, is Gibney’s chosen slate…

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Reviews

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

May 3, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Many associate angst with Kurt Cobain.  The feeling is riddled throughout his musical work and how he presented Nirvana to the world.  With Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, documentarian Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) has peeled back the musician’s enigmatic career to find the origin behind his hurt and disassociation. Cobain is respectfully represented as someone who was robbed out of an upbringing he wished he had growing up…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ’Live From New York!’ and ‘The Queen of Silence’

May 2, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Live From New York! (DIR. Bao Nguyen) By: Trevor Jeffery How do you describe a forty-year “New York institution” in 90 minutes?  Live From New York! explores both the mythos and the cultural significance of the longest running sketch comedy series, Saturday Night Live (SNL). The documentary covers a lot of ground: the rise (and fall and rise);  behind the scenes;  cultural impact;  and the ongoing issues with race and gender dynamics.  While each topic…

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Reviews

Mercy Rule

May 1, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Mercy Rule is merciless.  The film does feature a restrained Kirk Cameron aiming to be more tolerable than he’s ever been before, but I’m just trying to find the silver lining within this family film that’s been conceived by blind incompetence. Cameron is an actor devout to his personal beliefs, and has been known to carry those views through faith-based flicks.  I have to give credit where credit is due, and at…

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Reviews

Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police

April 30, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police has the novelty of guitarist Andy Summers reading his memoir to which this film is based on.  The audience watches Andy Grieve expansive documentary with full investment, but the experience feels more like a tell-all with a legend. Summers takes us on his journey beginning with his dog days of cutting his teeth in the music industry.  He glides through his past roles in other bands…

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Reviews

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

April 29, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Within the first five minutes of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, Paul’s mother gets hit by a truck and dies.  She had it easy – she didn’t have to watch the movie. In 2009, I remember Paul Blart as an innocently amusing klutz.  Kevin James played a clumsy stereotype, but threw himself in the role of someone who hadn’t experienced the world outside his beloved shopping centre.  When his territory was threatened,…

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Reviews

Unfriended

April 29, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie It’s often said that art reflects life.  Unfriended turns the mirror towards a modern age of teenagers who sometimes veer on being brain dead, yet can problem solve with the drop of a hat when they need to use technology.  Twenty years ago, a movie would only call on one token techie.  Now, a movie can afford to fill its roster with this type of character. While Unfriended deals with terrors that…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘3 Still Standing’ and ‘Deep Web’

April 27, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

3 Still Standing (DIR. Robert Campos, Donna LoCicero) By: Trevor Jeffery What do you call three comics who keep doing stand-up instead of landing a sitcom role?  “Working”. 3 Still Standing looks into the lives of three comedians who never took their career beyond the microphone.  In their early days, political satirist Will Durst, funny everyman Johnny Steele and self deprecating Larry “Bubbles” Brown were part of the 1980s San Francisco comedy boom that launched careers…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Monty Python: The Meaning of Life’

April 26, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Monty Python: The Meaning of Life (DIR. Roger Graef, James Rogan) By: Addison Wylie If Monty Python Live (Mostly) was the comedy troupe’s last hurrah, Monty Python: The Meaning of Life is their congratulatory curtain call and encore. It goes without saying that Roger Graef and James Rogan’s film is essential viewing for any Monty Python fan, or anyone who caught their live show.  This documentary provides audiences with alternate angles, exclusive behind-the-scenes tomfoolery, and…

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