By: Addison Wylie I have no doubt that many will walk out of Pitch Perfect, the comedy/musical about competitive glee clubs, either singing or humming with a smile on their faces as the credits roll. But when deciding whether or not Pitch Perfect is a good movie itself, one has to decide if they’re rating the movie on the musical elements or the movie as a whole. Pitch Perfect is Jason Moore’s feature film debut….
By: Addison Wylie For a Good Time, Call… uses colourful language whenever it can. It needs to. When a film has two lead characters opening up their own phone sex hotline, naughty language is a prerequisite – and the film has certainly earned its R rating. However, the film also needs the salty language to cover up just how lifeless the film is. If actresses Lauren Miller and Ari Graynor talk excessively about penises and…
By: Addison Wylie LOL, a film starring Miley Cyrus directed by Lisa Azuelos, is wildly inconsistent. It’s consistently inconsistent. I didn’t think such a thing would be possible. But, what’s even more confusing, is how badly Azuelos has dropped the ball. LOL is the North American remake of a French film she made earlier in her career called LOL (Laughing Out Loud). Having not seen the original and only reading the plot synopsis online, LOL…
By: Addison Wylie Life can imitate art and vies versa. For novelist Calvin Weir-Fields, he’s still trying to figure out where his encounter with Ruby falls. What an audience can be certain about though is that Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Ruby Sparks always keeps things interesting. Calvin (played by Paul Dano) is a neurotic character – as all movie writers usually are. From Nicolas Cage’s portrayal of Charlie and Donald Kaufman in Adaptation. to…
By: Addison Wylie “Excuse me. I just….I know I’m in the way. I know, I know, I know, I just need to do one……….thing. I know I’m in your way. I just need to do….this. Do you mind? If you mind, I can move. But, I’ll be quick. There! Did it. Sorry to be such an inconvenience.” Inconvenience is right. If Lockout was a living person, it’d be “that guy”. The guy who knows what…
By: Addison Wylie These recent concert documentaries have done a terrific job at peeling away layers of a hot musical artist and presenting them to audiences in a vulnerable way. Katy Perry: Part of Me may just be the most naked one yet. That’s not to say Perry DOES get naked. That would obliterate any chance of getting a PG rating and creating an accessible product for her young fans. Perry does however keep up …
By: Addison Wylie Back when we all had a little bit more patience, it felt that films like People Like Us took up over half the screens at local movie theatres; most notably in the 90’s. Come to think of it, here’s a perfect example. With all the film’s scenes featuring characters talking about favourable vintage music, People Like Us has a High Fidelity vibe going for it. That’s not to say Alex Kurtzman’s film…
By: Addison Wylie I remember starring in a high school play, a play that shall remain nameless, where I didn’t know what was going on. Not in a way that I was passed out and my body was strung up resembling a Weekend at Bernie’s scenario; I legitimately did not know what the play was about, my character’s motivation, or what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. Being that the play was…
By: Addison Wylie Derick Martini’s Hick reminded me of Deborah Kampmeier’s 2007 indie film Hounddog. Both with it’s Southern setting and the state’s troubled habitants but also because both films took innocent, young actresses and positioned them in harsh adult themes. Hounddog was all the hubbub because of a certain scene involving Dakota Fanning’s Lewellen being sexually assaulted. It easily made people aware of the film because we could never picture the delightful actress from…
By: Addison Wylie Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Can I see you in my office for a moment? Hi, guys. Let me tell you, you two had quite the promising start. Your innovative Crank films have split audiences. But, even to those who think those two action films are crass and immature, they can’t deny that what you two insane directors are doing is something audiences haven’t seen in a mainstream flick. You guys have…