By: Addison Wylie A film can tell you nothing for no good reason, having you frustrated until the final frame. Sometimes, a movie can keep everything a secret and get away with it because of how intriguing it is. Alex van Warmerdam’s haunting Borgman is a magnificent example of the latter. Borgman is a weird flick, but daring because of that. The skillful filmmaker has set up his plan masterfully, and has the average movie…
By: Addison Wylie Me and You marks the return of Bernardo Bertolucci as he cozies his way back into the director’s chair. After all, it’s been a decade since audiences caught Bertolucci’s controversial, NC-17 drama The Dreamers. The filmmaker has toned matters down for Me and You compared to the graphic content in The Dreamers, but his latest is unique in its own way. I wouldn’t go as far as to say Me and You’s…
By: Addison Wylie There should be entertainment in watching something as expensive and clueless as Winter’s Tale foul up as bad as it does. To do so, there has to be peculiar performances or unusual story elements to keep us guiltily hooked. Winter’s Tale has these, but it’s empty core covers any unintentional laughs. It’s a film serviced by a writer/director who can’t fully comprehend the source material he’s adapting. Akiva Goldsman has been a producer on…
By: Addison Wylie Mustering through Making the Rules is like watching a bunch of people try and sail using only the framework of a boat. The film marks the acting debut of musician Robin Thicke. This triggers a question right off the bat: is watching thespian Thicke as painful as it sounds? My answer may disappoint those wanting me to slam the Blurred Lines hit maker. I honestly couldn’t tell you if his performance is…
By: Addison Wylie “Oh boy. We’re really in ‘it’ now,” I thought as I watched Jon S. Baird’s crackpot dark comedy about decrepit Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson fighting for a promotion and doing anything he can to guarantee the position. If he has to backstab, manipulate, and cause scenes, he’ll gleefully do so. Baird, who wrote and adapted the screenplay from Irvine Welsh’s book of the same name, is just as game as Robertson when…
By: Addison Wylie The concept of a devout character finding out their secret past is always going to be an intriguing premise – especially when the unexplored involves religion. That’s what happens to Anna in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida. Before she takes her vows of being a nun, Anna’s urged to meet with her only living family member. She sets out to meet her estranged Aunt Wanda, and fortunately does. She’s informed by her agitated Aunt…
By: Addison Wylie The German Doctor (or its Spanish title, Wakolda) is a solid slow burn. It’s also a not-so-slow slow burn. Allow me to explain. It appears this film about a relocating Argentine family who is followed by an unknown yet concerned doctor would like to move at a more patient rate. The actors on screen are prepared to show their unease with properly drawn out weariness and filmmaker Lucía Puenzo shows he has the chops to tackle…
By: Addison Wylie Audiences were given Pompeii earlier this year, a sweeping epic that had Paul W.S. Anderson bumbling his way through a history lesson and throwing every type of overused trope he could think of towards the paying public. It was a boneheaded film that was calculated by people solely thinking of what mainstream audiences eat up, yet had no respected consideration towards those who endured Anderson’s mess. What Cinco de Mayo: The Battle…
Kung Fu Elliot (DIR. Matthew Bauckman & Jaret Belliveau) By: Addison Wylie Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau’s Slamdance favourite Kung Fu Elliot goes through three stages. First, there’s the ultra cheese. Elliot Scott (also known as “White Lightning”) is a martial arts expert and is set on being Canada’s first notable action star. He’s produced a few independent films to which he also peddles out. The films shine of lo-fi aesthetics, but it’s hard to not turn…
By: Addison Wylie Jeremy Gardner’s slow burn horror The Battery has earned crowds of cheers reaching back to its early film festival days from genre movie goers. Even though I wasn’t sold on this flabby flick, that’s great news for the filmmaker. It’s a zombie movie that hardly shows you any of the walking dead. That’s a tough sell! You see limited amounts of zombies because Gardner wants to set his sights more on the…