By: Addison Wylie Stylistically, The Double is – so far – the best film I’ve seen all year. Richard Ayoade – an indie filmmaker who you may have recognized as “that random guy with the hair” on posters of 2012’s The Watch – brings a creation that does exactly what a film should do. The Double transports viewers to another world. Ayoade has built industrialized settings that emulate a rigid dream. The filmmaker also uses…
By: Addison Wylie I have a bit of history with Silent Retreat. I caught Tricia Lee’s thriller at last year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival where it received its fair amount of warm reception. Though the filmmaker was clear about the film’s intentions in a post-Q&A, it was a pick at the festival that really rubbed me the wrong way. The flick’s primary problem was that it was dramatically overscored. It’s smothering music told the…
Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? (DIR. Anna Margarita Albelo) By: Addison Wylie There’s nothing more obnoxious than a movie that thinks its being clever. Enter Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?, an indie with all the self-absorption of Michael Urie’s He’s Way More Famous Than You helmed by Anna Margarita Albelo who wishes to become Lena Dunham through eccentric styles and a hipster soundtrack. Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? has writer/director Albelo playing an exaggerated version of herself. She’s…
The Foxy Merkins (DIR. Madeleine Olnek) By: Addison Wylie Margaret (played by Lisa Haas) has taken on the life of prostitution and homelessness. Being that she’s a lesbian, her clients are all high end females looking for a good, undisclosed time. While on her way to find a place to sleep, she meets Jo (played by Jackie Monahan). The two hit it off almost instantly, and Jo – who’s also homeless – soon starts to show Margaret…
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…
By: Addison Wylie For better or for worse, Algonquin is unpredictable. What starts as Canada’s independent answer to last year’s Academy Award nominee Nebraska finds unique footing after a detour in its narrative. I suppose any film related site listing the synopsis for Jonathan Hayes’ feature film debut would give away this major turn. Because I certainly didn’t see it coming, I’ll back away from that specific spoiler. It’s an example of how Hayes isn’t…
By: Addison Wylie Authors Anonymous didn’t have any laughs in it for me, but I believe that’s because I couldn’t relate to it. The mockumentary about five writers who gather to critique their works-in-progress hopes to derive humour from these eccentric personalities. One author is desperate for attention, one is the “ideas guy”, another likes to remind others of his future success while another writer can’t name a single author. There’s a young slacker who…
By: Addison Wylie Recently, we’ve seen Hansel and Gretel battle witches with steampunk weaponry in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and defeat a nefarious pot-peddling evildoer in Hansel & Gretel Get Baked. I’m still racking my brain as to why these Brothers Grimm siblings got the resurgence they did. Perhaps, the timing of it all makes H&G initially refreshing. It’s nice to see filmmaker Danishka Esterhazy take a low-key approach to this fairy tale and…
By: Addison Wylie Down River has so much emotion in it, the film is almost bursting at the seams to contain all of it. Actor turned filmmaker Ben Ratner pushes his four lead actresses to the brink of hysteria, but for fathomable reasons. Harper (played by Colleen Rennison) struggles as a lowly musician who’s losing touch of her sexuality, Fawn (played by Corner Gas’ Gabrielle Miller) is an actress who’s feeling a disconnect between her…
By: Addison Wylie I’ve been selling Nebraska to people as “a charming version of Fargo without the violence”. That gets attention fairly quickly. Alexander Payne’s drama, however, is more quaint than quirky. Nebraska’s prominent road trip involving a distracted father Woody (played by Bruce Dern) and his patiently courteous son David (played by Will Forte) coasts along flat landscapes. The two converse about the past and the exciting current possibilities of million dollar winnings Woody…