Addison Wylie

Reviews

The Room Next Door

By: Addison Wylie The Room Next Door is headlined by Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) and Julianne Moore (Being Alice), performing under the direction of Spanish filmmaker/screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her). While this drama feels like an easy task for these Oscar winners, that’s essentially the magic of the film and what makes The Room Next Door effortlessly great. For the Parallel Mothers filmmaker, Almodóvar makes his English-language debut with The Room Next Door; though the audience wouldn’t have noticed. Aside…

Reviews

Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point

The expectations for contemporary holiday movies is to push feel-good stories that either include a slew of cliched character archetypes (“the busy business woman”, “the hunky but humble woodsman”) or include as many identifiable symbols to represent the season. We see the latter in movies that are casual about Christmas – make a normal, low stakes schmaltz-fest and include a wreath in the background for some shots. Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point is refreshingly different….

Reviews

The End

By: Addison Wylie After being lauded for his work as a documentarian on The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, I suppose Joshua Oppenheimer was itching to cash in some clout; deciding to do so with an apocalyptic musical titled The End. Sporting impressive art direction and a well-regarded cast including Tilda Swinton (I’m Not Here), Michael Shannon (The Night Before) and George MacKay (1917), Oppenheimer fuses components of a survival thriller, a dynasty drama, and…

Reviews

The Martini Shot

Matthew Modine (of Netflix’s Stranger Things and 2011’s Wrong Turn) plays Steve in The Martini Shot, a terminally ill film director who is looking to make one last movie before his “time is up”. Even his doctor (John Cleese, the funniest he’s been since Rat Race) thinks the idea of Steve’s cinematic Irish swan song may be too ambitious given the filmmaker’s condition. But with such a loyal assistant (Fiona Glascott) and an open-minded film…

Reviews

Trailer Park Boys Presents: Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties – The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story

For 25 years, Mike Smith has co-starred in the Trailer Park Boys cult franchise as a surly yet compassionate, shed-dwelling kitten enthusiast known as Bubbles. While he may be referred to as a “second-or-third banana” in the get-rich schemes hatched by his pals Julian (JP Tremblay) and Ricky (Robb Wells), Bubbles’ side stories about his pets and his love for music has scratched the interest of fans; serving as a reason for fans to keep returning…

Reviews

Flow

Going from one survival thriller inspired by video games (Pins & Needles) to another of its ilk, Flow is a much more literal and condensed example to identify with younger audiences. The results are slight and sometimes not very attractive, eventually weighed down by its own style and visual storytelling, but Flow is clean and entertaining family fare. A curious kitty roams a forest, and finds refuge in an abandoned house where her presumed former…

Reviews

The G

Known as “The G” to family, anger hangs off of Ann Hunter (Dale Dickey of Leave No Trace and Hell or High Water). As the primary caregiver for her ailing husband despite feeling as though everyone perceives her as a liability, Ann doesn’t have time to sugarcoat anything through her utter exhaustion. When she and her husband are abruptly relocated from their suburban home to a care facility by their legal guardian, Ann is upset…

Uncategorized

Matt and Mara

Much like Netflix’s anthology series Easy and the buddy comedy Platonic on Apple TV+, Matt and Mara is a micro-scaled drama, with humourous moments, that unpacks a fractured relationship. Deragh Campbell and Blackberry’s Matt Johnson, reunited with Anne at 13,000 Ft. writer/director Kazik Radwanski, portray writers who have followed separate paths. As Matt in the movie, Johnson plays an ambitious published writer who, while visiting Toronto, reconnects with former friend Mara (Campbell). Mara has since settled down with her musician husband…

Uncategorized

Conclave

Conclave is an efficient chamber piece; evoking curiousities of how a pope is chosen as well as suggesting what cutthroat decisions happen before smoke bellows out of the Vatican to update the unsuspecting public. Overseen by Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes of The Menu), the voting procedures that follow the death of a former pope strike Lawrence at a time of doubting his faith. He keeps this vulnerability close to his chest, but is called…

Uncategorized

Wylie Writes’ One-On-One with Peter Lepeniotis

Ten years ago, I gained new respect for Peter Lepeniotis.  The Canadian animator was coming off the success of his first independently directed feature, The Nut Job, and he was very candid about the film industry with the audience at TIFF Kids.  He was a great storyteller and a fountain of knowledge.  But despite being a seasoned pro, Lepeniotis is still finding ways to challenge himself;  such as with R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town, the filmmaker’s live-action directorial…