Reviewing movies can be such a subjective experience. Sure, I’m writing about my feelings towards the film and how it affected me, but I also have to keep in mind that an audience – completely different to myself – may engage with it more.
Horror fodder like Friend Request tends to be dismissed based on its timely nature, which is really too bad. These digital age thrillers may borrow from other formulas (or other movies), but they certainly are not derivative. In the case of Friend Request, it owes a debt of gratitude to fellow social media flick Unfriended, but it fuses its modern premise of cyberstalking with revered lore and finds a good balance between “old” and “new”…
Set on the sunny California coast, director Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West is a dark critique of social media that manages to hit its mark, despite some minor flaws.
The Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival is still going strong with a total of 44 locally produced films screening over a two-day period (August 5 and 6).
By: Addison Wylie It’s often said that art reflects life. Unfriended turns the mirror towards a modern age of teenagers who sometimes veer on being brain dead, yet can problem solve with the drop of a hat when they need to use technology. Twenty years ago, a movie would only call on one token techie. Now, a movie can afford to fill its roster with this type of character. While Unfriended deals with terrors that…
By: Addison Wylie David Cross is one of the best comedians working in the business today. His blunt, unmerciful opinion carries through his routine as he nails each punchline with the right amount of sarcastic wit. But as clever as he is, Cross’ brand of curt comedy needs to form in a new direction if he plans on carrying on making movies. HITS marks the comic’s directorial debut, and he also penned the screenplay that…
By: Addison Wylie InRealLife is bothersome with its portrayal of the Internet, those who use it, and its overall miscalculated goal. It feels as if filmmaker Beeban Kidron is out to scare rather than to inform. Kidron even goes as far as to show the traveling of online information in the dankest of spots using creaky sound effects to get the viewer to put up their safeguard. I thought I signed up for watching a…