By: Addison Wylie Now that we’ve recognized the bad movies that were slingshot at audiences last year, it’s time to move on and engulf ourselves in the cream of the crop. 2013 introduced a wide variety of great films to audiences. I feel like I say that every year, but as I scour my selected picks, the only thing these movies share are the odd genre they’re grouped in. Take documentaries, for example. Audiences were…
By: Addison Wylie The Human Rights Watch Film Festival has made me exhale an astonished “wow” twice now. That’s a compliment I haven’t admitted to in a while. It’s absolutely true in the case of Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s harrowing doc Saving Face. The mighty film, which deservedly won 2012’s ‘Best Documentary Short’ Oscar, shows audiences how disturbingly frequent and heartbreakingly affective acid crimes are. Every year, numerous Pakistani women are dosed with different forms of…
By: Addison Wylie I find myself in a predicament trying to review Harry Freeland’s documentary In the Shadow of the Sun. Prior to the film, I was oblivious to the subject matter and found myself perplexed by the harsh reality that stalks Tanzanian albinos. In the Shadow of the Sun is a perfectly fine documentary, but I keep feeling as if I’m rating Freeman’s doc on the content represented rather than the film the material…
By: Addison Wylie When the only bad thing about your feature film debut is its marble-mouthed title, it’s a sign that your ambitious film is close to being sublime. When you get past that weak title, AKP: Job 27 is a really good time at the movies. It treads trodden ground by being centred around a private hitman on a mission in unfamiliar territory (the territory being Toronto), but its Michael L. Suan’s vision of…
By: Addison Wylie Personally, my knowledge of the Federal Reserve goes about as deep as a mall fountain collecting pennies and dimes. Naturally, Jim Bruce’s documentary Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve should be the perfect vehicle to educate people like me who need a bit more information about its history and the possibly bleak future it has ahead of it. Jim Bruce seems like the right filmmaker for the job seeing that he’s…
By: Addison Wylie The T24 project – a challenge in association with the Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival – asks filmmakers to create, produce, edit, and hand in a short film within 24 hours. Teams are given a lengthy essay question about the chosen theme, and are then sent off into the city. I remember the days of attending T24 screenings and feeling excited to tell others about the great shorts that screened. With prior…
By: Addison Wylie 360 Screenings is quickly becoming one of Toronto’s hottest ticket events for film lovers. Founders Ned Loach and Robert Gontier have built immersive experiences throwing audiences into the world of a secret movie and then revealing the mystery at an undisclosed location with a vast heritage. When you pay for a ticket, you enlist your trust into Loach and Gontier to bring the goods. That said, they have always managed to bring…
By: Addison Wylie Tali Barde’s feature film debut For No Eyes Only is set as a tense thriller adding a modern twist to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It doesn’t come through on being a thriller. Instead, it’s accidentally profound. What I admired most about For No Eyes Only is Barde’s perceptual take on modern day voyeurism without being too on the nose. Sam (a mopey loner played convincingly by newcomer Benedict Sieverding) suffers from a…
By: Addison Wylie The start of the year showed Toronto movie goers a more fabulous side of Baltimore, Maryland in the crowd pleasing doc I Am Divine. As January wraps itself up, those same audiences are let in to Baltimore’s inner-city brew with Lotfy Nathan’s documentary 12 O’Clock Boys. The 12 O’Clock Boys earned their name by notoriously buzzing around busy streets on dirt bikes and carrying out wheelies that appeared to hold a near 90-degree angle….
By: Addison Wylie The Final Member – an outrageous documentary from filmmakers Jonah Bekor and Zach Math – is cheekily strange and hilariously honest. I half expected mockumentary legend Christopher Guest to come running out at any moment. There’s no way this documentary about the world’s lone penis museum could be real. Fortunately, it is. And, don’t be surprised if this fascinating film becomes one of your favourite docs of the new year. Not since…