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Festival Coverage

Canadian Film Festival ’15: Ben’s at Home

March 23, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Earlier this year, I gave I Put a Hit on You an unfavourable review.  This led me to believe that making a compelling comedy about snippety people bumming around their house was impossible. Mars Horodyski proves me wrong with Ben’s at Home.  This film is funny and fully realized, successfully capturing an introvert’s post-breakup buffer period. Ben (played with wit by Dan Abramovici) chooses to stay housebound because he’s satisfied with personal…

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Festival Coverage

Canadian Film Festival ’15: The Cocksure Lads Movie

March 19, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Musicians Mike Ford and Murray Foster have a shared enthusiasm for toe-tapping britpop.  This appreciation motivated the compadres to develop The Cocksure Lads, an imitation homage to the lively tunes. Foster has taken the ruse further with The Cocksure Lads Movie.  While the comedy is lightheartedly harmless, I have a disagreement with how this nutty band has taken the leap to the big screen. The Cocksure Lads, a tame group of goodie-goodies,…

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Reviews

Standstill

March 14, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Standstill seems straightforward enough with its plot involving a photographer overhearing and witnessing the brunt of a murder.  However, I believe, a lot of Majdi El-Omari’s story is up for interpretation.  Movie goers will pull details out of El-Omari’s screenplay and apply them to their own vision of Standstill. Elements of mysteries and road movies ring throughout the black-and-white movie.  Arihote (played by Atewenaron David Dearhouse) gives Wedad, the perplexed Palestinian murderer,…

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Reviews

Big News from Grand Rock

February 26, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Big News from Grand Rock is a petite Canadian comedy with petite laughs about a petite town where nothing really happens. Grand Rock’s friendly and carefree community is always seen smiling and wishing healthy salutations to each other.  While this may be nice for people living here, it’s dull for those who work for the local newspaper.  They have nothing significant to report on.  Leonard Crane, a local try-hard journalist, tries to…

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Reviews

Wolfcop

February 18, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie To say Wolfcop is howlingly bad would suggest that (a) the film is terrible and (b) Lowell Dean’s horror film has a sense of humour.  Only one of those is correct. Wolfcop has a concept – that’s all.  That concept being a police officer who transforms into a grotesque werewolf, yet still protects the streets.  It’s a character that has trouble stimulating a five-minute conversation around the water cooler let alone having…

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Reviews

Tru Love

January 21, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie As much as technology has progressed and storytelling has creatively evolved, the film industry still remains on a playing field where movie goers – all too easily – can look at a project and label it as something that’s either for males or for females.  Of course, there are exceptions, but this sort of divvying haplessly exists. Moviemaking thankfully advances as films open themselves for its audience to overlap.  When I sat…

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Reviews

Corner Gas: The Movie

January 13, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Corner Gas: The Movie is a prime candidate for a review that requires me to cop out.  The bottom line: if you liked Corner Gas during its humbling five year run on television and have since enjoyed reruns in syndication, then you’ll enjoy its big screen debut.  But, let’s see if I can elaborate. The original cast of Canada’s beloved Corner Gas have reunited for an encore, which includes Saskatchewan funny man…

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Reviews

Heartbeat

November 26, 2014Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Heartbeat is a nice party guest that’s too shy to say anything.  After a while, you’re a little annoyed that they haven’t involved themselves more.  And when they finally speak up, they fish for compliments in a coy manner but also try and convince you that they have low self esteem.  By the end of the night, cleaning up crushed red cups and mopping up spilled brew is more fun than trying…

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Festival Coverage

Blood in the Snow ’14: Serpent’s Lullaby & Berkshire County

November 25, 2014Addison Wylie3 Comments

As movie goers prepare for the season’s holiday offerings, horror fans buckle up for a round of Canadian talent at this year’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival. The festival, founded by Kelly Michael Stewart, features the cream of the genre crop.  Blood in the Snow’s selections range from unsettling slow burns to the visually grotesque.  It’s a competently passionate showcase that gives indie filmmakers a fantastic opportunity to premiere their work, and hands audiences a rare…

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