At times, it feels like the filmmakers behind Coconut Hero had a genre grocery list handy and were checking off various requirements for their film. A lovable misfit from a small town? Check. Well-meaning parents who are frustrated with their incomprehensible social-outcast offspring? Check.
For two-and-a-half years, Stefan Phillips has been working on his first feature length film titled The Pasta Killer with frequent collaborators that make up his YouTube ensemble ‘UnorthodoxPoppycock’. The project – a faithful film noir – was a labour of love.
Portrait of a Serial Monogamist, so far, is the best Canadian indie of the new year. Filmmakers John Mitchell and Christina Zeidler have co-wrote and co-directed an identifiable and balanced film about stalled romance.
By: Addison Wylie After accumulating directorial experience with shorts films and serving as a producer on critically acclaimed indies such as Simon Killer and Martha Marcy May Marlene, Josh Mond has taken the leap to feature films with James White. A film that will convince you that Mond has been in this business longer than his back catalogue suggests.
By: Addison Wylie As much as I would like to commend writer/director Jeremy Thomas for making a sophisticated and adult film about grief and the internal struggle to define what is morally correct, his woeful feature Ally Was Screaming is an anticlimactic and overcooked blunder that drove me crazy. Although, Thomas’ maturity is essentially what was much needed in January’s I Put a Hit on You. Seth, Nole, and Ally were a friendly and tender trifecta….
By: Addison Wylie Life With Derek’s Michael Seater gets his directorial feet wet with the ensemble dramedy People Hold On. It’s a good place for the budding filmmaker to start. The film itself is contained within few environments and doesn’t call for visual tricks, which leaves Seater a lot of time to draw characters and connect with his tight-knit cast. The filmmaker must’ve also felt another level of comfort and confidence knowing co-star Paula Brancati – whom…
By: Addison Wylie Aaron K. Carter’s thinly budgeted zombie romp Dead Kansas wears the same pants as that punch drunk comedy Tetherball: The Movie I reviewed in April. Not only because the filmmaker reached out to Wylie Writes to get an opinion on his modest horror, but Dead Kansas is also filled with that same vigour that can only be supplied by friends who make films because that’s what they love to do. These cinephile fellas pulled together resources…
By: Addison Wylie Cobie Smulders continues to collect indie cred with Kris Swanberg’s Unexpected, where the How I Met Your Mother actress plays high school teacher Samantha who learns of her surprise pregnancy during her final year at an inner-city school ceasing closure. At the same time, Samantha discovers one of her students is also with child (Jasmine played by firecracker Gail Bean). Unexpected doesn’t issue a new perspective on poverty-stricken pregnancies, or a new display of…
By: Addison Wylie Jay and Mark Duplass hopped on board Sean Baker’s Tangerine to lend their support as executive producers. The mumblecore founders are always keeping their eyes peeled for innovation in independent cinema, and Tangerine – a film shot entirely on the iPhone 5S – was their calling. Tangerine reminded me of Christos Sourligas’ Happy Slapping, a film that followed hopeless teens via handheld footage shot on earlier generation smartphones. Happy Slapping may have more interesting things to…
By: Shannon Page Adam Scott has been around for a while and his latest project, the indie sex-comedy The Overnight, is certainly not his first attempt at acting or producing. Though he is probably best known for his work as Ben Wyatt on the television sitcom Parks and Recreation, Scott has also appeared in movies such as Step Brothers, The Aviator and Our Idiot Brother. The Overnight stars Scott as Alex and Taylor Schilling (of…