Concert

Reviews

Muse: Drones World Tour

By: Graeme Howard When a live concert film is done right, it can create a viewing experience that is wholly unique to the live counterpart. Muse: Drones World Tour is an exciting live concert experience on the big screen, providing a non-stop hour-and-a-half of music and sensory overload.  That being said, there are a few minor criticisms that hold this live concert experience from a wider appeal to the masses as opposed to being just fan…

Reviews

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

The trailer for Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping implies that the mockumentary is out to be a modern day This Is Spinal Tap.  Given that the film has been produced by the musically inclined clever comedy trio The Lonely Island, the chances of the film hitting its targets is high.

Reviews

The Reflektor Tapes

By: Addison Wylie Kahlil Joseph’s Arcade Fire docu-mishmash titled The Reflektor Tapes is like a fever dream with great music that has gotten too carried away with itself.  I imagine if I listened to the band’s discography and then crashed after a hard day’s work, I would start to visualize this film’s lurid activity. The Reflektor Tapes is one of these examples where you can’t stop fans from flocking to this thing, and newcomers will…

Reviews

Going In and Coming Out: Wacken 3D – Louder Than Hell

By: Anthony King GOING IN: It’s time to head to Germany for the biggest, loudest, and probably craziest heavy metal festival on the planet;  a three day festival where you’re free to release that inner metal freak, and scream or growl all day and night to your heart’s content.  Every year, the small village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein Germany hosts the Wacken Open Air festival featuring heavy metal bands from Lamb of God to Alice Cooper….

Reviews

Forever and a Day

By: Addison Wylie At this year’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Monty Python: The Meaning of Life captured the British comedians rehearsing for their final hurrah as they recounted cherished memories.  Katja von Garnier’s concert doc Forever and a Day about German rock band Scorpions  treads similar ground, but also made me feel the exact way the Pythons did – indifferent but not enough for me to completely disregard it. Forever and a Day is…

Reviews

STRANGE PARADISE: Year of the Horse

By: Addison Wylie Wylie Writes’ coverage of TIFF’s Jim Jarmusch retrospective began with a mixed bag of shorts, and ends with a mixed bag of concert cutouts and behind-the-scenes glimpses. It’s undoubtable Jarmusch captures a raw vision of Neil Young and Crazy Horse with his scattershot Year of the Horse.  The filmmaker catalogues footage from unique perspectives;  the performances are especially visceral if occasionally obscured.  He switches between different film stocks (16mm, Hi-8 video, and Super 8)…

Reviews

Mistaken for Strangers

By: Addison Wylie There’s this strange little number named Mistaken for Strangers that has me all around impressed.  The documentary is a peculiar one because it plops the audience in a position that automatically has us feeling very skeptical moments out of the gate. We’re quickly introduced to the film’s focus – the rock and roll band The National – and shown the key element all five musicians have in common.  Each member has a…