By: Addison Wylie I didn’t think it was possible for a film to be spoofed, and then be turned back into the po-faced material the parody was making fun of – then, I saw Fifty Shades of Grey. The movie feels like someone picking up the pieces to a dated romance, and trying to glue them back together to make something even more manipulative. Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film is so misinformed and shallow, you would think the filmmaker was making…
By: Shannon Page Hunting Elephants certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There are a few laughs sprinkled throughout, but don’t go into this film expecting a passive movie going experience. The film boasts an impressive international cast that includes Iraqi-born actor Sasson Gabai (who audiences may recognize, or not, from his role in 1988’s Rambo III), Moni Moshonov of Israel, as well as the incomparable Patrick Stewart as a struggling English actor looking for…
By: Trevor Jeffery Using the words “unabashed” and “propaganda” together seems redundant, but there isn’t a better way to describe James McTeigue’s Survivor. Kate Abbott (Mila Jovovich) is an officer with the US embassy in London. While on duty, Kate asks a few too many questions to a man she suspects to be (and actually is) a bio-terrorist, before letting him through customs. This sets him and his associates into freak-out mode, and they hire an…
By: Addison Wylie Early on in Results, two workout trainers are telling the other not to provoke them. These two trainers are Trevor and Kat, played by Guy Pearce and Cobie Smulders. Over the course of Andrew Bujalski’s film, the audience finds out that these two characters need to be provoked in order for them to be challenged, which in turn makes Results interesting. The person who does most of the poking and prodding is…
By: Trevor Jeffery Kristen Wiig should keep doing her thing, because it’s definitely working for her, and Welcome to Me shows it. Shira Piven’s Welcome to Me introduces itself masterfully: five minutes in and you know Alice Klieg (Wiig), her recently-unmedicated illness, and you have a good idea of how her life up to now has been. And, how someone like her winning $86 million can have negative consequences. Alice throws money around like most…
By: Addison Wylie Henry Hobson has been given a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase Arnold Schwarzenegger’s never-before-seen tender side with Maggie. I welcome my readers to send in examples of other low-key films the Terminator star has acted in, but I expect to receive no tips. The post-apocalyptic film also hands the filmmaker a chance to re-imagine zombie movies that star “the infected”. Screenwriter John Scott 3 has crafted a story concerning the rights of the…
By: Addison Wylie I can easily sell you on Relative Happiness by describing Melissa Bergland’s dynamite performance. She’s spunky and wise, manages an adorable Bed and Breakfast in Nova Scotia, and her sense of humour is quick-witted towards those who condescend her. She takes the audience’s attention and commands the screen. I wish it was that easy to describe Deanne Foley’s lukewarm dramedy. Mostly because of a deceptive bait-and-switch at the halfway hump which converts…
By: Addison Wylie Spike Lee took to Kickstarter to fund his latest joint Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. It was a bold move that opened up the floodgates for skeptics to start criticizing the filmmaker. Zach Braff endured the same with his campaign to make Wish I Was Here. Lee brings more of an argumentative crowd compared to Braff’s followers and naysayers. Some see Spike Lee as a self-serving loudmouth, but loyal fans believe he has…
By: Addison Wylie If I was an actor starring in Revenge of the Green Dragons and I was watching the final cut of the film, I would be feeling cheesed by the filmmakers. Well, maybe if I wasn’t Harry Shum Jr., the dancing charmer from Glee who takes his acting to a more dramatic level with this crime film. If I was him, I would be feeling proud that I had pulled off a such…
By: Addison Wylie There’s an aristocratic quality to Love Is Strange. Everyone is nicely dressed in houses and restaurants that could all be rated five-stars. Characters laugh at high-brow jokes and mild-mannerly talk about “the classics”. Love Is Strange is a film so tidy, that you kind of want to scowl at it. But, the film is far too sweet and performed with accomplishment to feel such resentment towards Ira Sachs’ film. Ben and George…