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Reviews

Iris

By: Addison Wylie Fashion icon Iris Apfel has such wonderment, such humbling intellect, and such bewildered enthusiasm.  She’s firm, but looks at her fame as dazed and unfazed.  Her presence is infectious, and in Albert Maysles’ documentary Iris, she helps raise the film to another level.  Without her, the audience would be stuck with Maysles’ cut-and-dry traditional filmmaking. Movie goers are taken through Apfel’s influential history, and observe her optimism when others appreciate her opinion….

Reviews

The Lazarus Effect

By: Mark Barber David Gelb’s The Lazarus Effect offers an intriguing concept, but gets bogged down by convention. Despite its compelling concept, the premise is familiar: a group of researchers led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde) create the “Lazarus” serum, a formula that brings the recently deceased back to life.  This God-like power to cheat death causes things to go awry very quickly.  Zoe is killed in a laboratory accident…

Reviews

The 50 Year Argument

By: Addison Wylie The 50 Year Argument documents the persuasive, opinionated history of the highly regarded publication The New York Review of Books.  The film chronicles the exclusive timeline decently, although the doc’s pacing and organization feels like it keeps us in our seats for fifty years. In the early 60’s, during the New York printers strike, The New York Review of Books found its footing as a magazine that didn’t feel tethered by opposing…

Reviews

Getting to the Nutcracker

By: Addison Wylie For those looking for a seasonal flick, Getting to the Nutcracker may hit the spot. Serene Meshel-Dillman’s documentary about the conception of The Nutcracker at Los Angeles’ Marat Daukayev School of Ballet is a eloquent film.  If you’re a theatre enthusiast and are already humming Tchaikovsky, Getting to the Nutcracker will have you grinning throughout its entirety. Dillman documents each phase as best as possible leading up to the big show (which…

Reviews

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

By: Addison Wylie Documentarians Daniel Geller and Danya Goldfine have a fascinating story on their hands with The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden.  It’s a real-life murder mystery that took place in the 1930’s within the secluded collection of islands located near Ecuador. In the late 20’s, a couple seeking independence and an escape from civilization took to Floreana to start a new life.  Surrounded by tortoises and iguanas, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch…

Movie Lists

Wylie Writes’ Ten Best Movies of 2013

By: Addison Wylie Now that we’ve recognized the bad movies that were slingshot at audiences last year, it’s time to move on and engulf ourselves in the cream of the crop. 2013 introduced a wide variety of great films to audiences.  I feel like I say that every year, but as I scour my selected picks, the only thing these movies share are the odd genre they’re grouped in. Take documentaries, for example.  Audiences were…

Reviews

Devil’s Knot

By: Addison Wylie The on-going trials and debates about The West Memphis Three have been discussed in Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s revered Paradise Lost documentary series.  The docs have always been on my list of films to watch, but I’ve never been able to find the time. As I watched Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot, I wished I had watched those documentaries about the controversial child murders first, rather than being educated by Egoyan’s ham-fisted reenactment….

Reviews

The Wagner Files

By: Addison Wylie German music composer Richard Wagner is an enigma of sorts and produced music on a grandiose scale.  Ralf Pleger’s documentary The Wagner Files explains that Wagner’s lengthy compositions caused a stir in the 20th century and went on to be some of the most revolutionary work to exist in the world of music. Richard Wagner is a provocative subject.  His early failures with music erupted anger and vexation in him as he…

Reviews

The Crash Reel

By: Addison Wylie Who would’ve expected one of the most important movies of the year to come swooping into theatres during the final weeks of 2013?  Lucky Canadians are currently able to catch Lucy Walker’s The Crash Reel at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox – and I highly suggest they do. The documentary addresses a number of issues worth talking about, but it all begins with the stellar success of snowboarder Kevin Pearce.  Pearce was garnering…

About Addison Wylie

Addison Wylie is a Toronto based film critic best known for his honest, no nonsense reviews of current mainstream films and his coverage of Toronto based  film festivals and events. He started his career in high school where he wrote, acted in, directed and produced short films for The A.Wylie Society on Facebook and Youtube. He then went on to get an education in television broadcasting and video production. After receiving his college diploma, Addison…