By: Addison Wylie Ever since The Notebook’s crowd pleasing fame, there’s been a line of Nicholas Sparks adaptations brought to the big screen. Because these films have hit home runs at the box office, it wasn’t surprising to see other romantic book-to-film conversions follow suit. The trailer for The Fault in Our Stars gave off that cover of being “just another one of those romantic movies”. Movie goers who have read and fallen in love with…
By: Addison Wylie A high school ditzy clique suffers fatal injuries. The clique are brought back from the dead using Wiccan rituals, leading the ragtag undead to seek revenge. Yes, that premise is rote. But, when it comes to telling a story that simple, I imagine it’d be hard to screw it up. Surprisingly, the minds behind All Cheerleaders Die unfathomably do so. How do you do it? How do you mess up a movie…
By: Addison Wylie Neighbors has more than a handful of really good laughs. It’s also consistently likeable and plays with its R-rating in a way that doesn’t feel too childish. Mac and Kelly (played by Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne) are concerned about losing touch with their more spontaneous sides after they move into a new neighbourhood. They don’t hate their adult life though. They get a kick out of their baby daughter – the…
By: Addison Wylie The Sacrament is rightfully a horror movie. A damn unsettling one at that. The problem is the film’s promotional materials may be steering audience expectations in a direction less suited for Ti West’s latest. There’s no camp here. Just tragedies. In my eyes, The Sacrament is much more of a dramatic reenactment than something that is strictly here to spook you. It’s a horror in the same way some movie goers would…
By: Addison Wylie The only thing that could be more amazing than Godzilla’s timeless legacy is that Gareth Edwards was given the opportunity to direct a multi-million dollar modernized take on the creature. Seriously, let’s all take a moment and realize how crazy and ambitious the producers had to be to invest so much trust into a filmmaker who doesn’t have a whole lot of feature film experience. Those chancy attitudes have paid off big…
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? (DIR. Anna Margarita Albelo) By: Addison Wylie There’s nothing more obnoxious than a movie that thinks its being clever. Enter Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?, an indie with all the self-absorption of Michael Urie’s He’s Way More Famous Than You helmed by Anna Margarita Albelo who wishes to become Lena Dunham through eccentric styles and a hipster soundtrack. Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? has writer/director Albelo playing an exaggerated version of herself. She’s…
An Evening with the Impostors (DIR. Raymond Helkio) By: Addison Wylie Filmmaker Raymond Helkio takes a day-in-the-life approach and applies it to the Impostors, an all male performance group where the talent impersonate female celebrities. Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin, and Cher are among the names in their roster. We follow the gang as they travel to Port Hope for their largest venue yet – the Captiol Theatre. While the performers remain professional with oodles of charisma, they…
By: Addison Wylie Seth MacFarlane is known for pushing the limits. He practically takes over FOX every Sunday night with various animation programs that would make your parents cup their own ears. He’s also shown his naughty side with his feature film debut hit Ted, a crass comedy about a friend and his talking – occasionally drunk and high – teddy bear. With his latest anticipated endeavour A Million Way to Die in the West, those gross-out…
I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole (DIR. Jim Tushinski) By: Addison Wylie Jim Tushinski’s doc is exactly like his subject when Wakefield Poole is dancing. The film is nimble, lovely, and tells a story. We’re always willing to go for the ride. When it comes to the arts, Poole has nearly done it all. He’s a dancer, a choreographer, a teacher, and has been described as a wonderful cook. His most famous forte,…
By Parker Mott It’s hard to watch The Other Woman without bringing into the equation James Toback’s remarkable 1997 feature Two Girls and a Guy, a talk-heavy, one-room dramedy about two women (played by Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner) who discover they are dating the same man (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) and then conspire to make him suffer for his cheating ways. The movie found ingenuity in the shameless rationale of its male…