Canadian Film Festival ’16: Borealis
Borealis is a film I’ve been waiting for: Canadian cinema that’s tragic, but neither melodramatic or gratuitous.
Wylie Writes
Canadian Film Festival ’16: The Sabbatical
Producer/director Brian Stockton pulls a reverse Ghost World with The Sabbatical, a low-key comedy where the older eccentric follows a current generation through a younger artist.
Miracles from Heaven
The producers of the surprising Heaven Is for Real offer audiences a similar slice with the pleasant yet generic Miracles from Heaven.
Canadian Film Festival ’16: 20 Moves
In the spirit of Harv Glazer’s Rubik’s Cube documentary 20 Moves, I really tried to sum up my opinion about the film in 20 words – it didn’t work. But, hey, I don’t mind elaborating on the aptitude of Glazer’s satisfying work.
Toronah
When I had an interest in reviewing Toronah, filmmaker and Wild Wing founder Rick Smiciklas insisted I watch a season of his reality TV show Wingmen before jumping into his feature film debut. I agreed, and watched the first season on iTunes (which I liked despite its forgetful narrative).
Life Off Grid
Jonathan Taggart’s bare-bones documentary about people disconnected from electric or natural gas infrastructure has a loose, unpolished feel. It’s a fitting accompaniment to an exploration of people who live in a way that many of us would find bafflingly inconvenient.
About Scout
About Scout could’ve gone in the wrong direction, but it doesn’t. Despite following a “to do” list of quirky indie things with precocious characters who have been schooled by Juno Technical Institute, there’s a consistent sincerity that never failed to smitten.
My Beautiful Broken Brain
After a night of friends and leisure, Lotje Sodderland suffered an unrelated stroke; resulting in her short-term memory and various reactionary impulses being wiped away. She chronicles her progress on her iPhone, as well as her sadness, her epiphanies, and candid vlog entires.
The Lobster
One of the most exciting voices of contemporary cinema has hit that point in his career where he needs to make his first English language feature. Thankfully, unlike countless others before him, Yorgos Lanthimos managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of the “first English feature” and results in The Lobster, a film as weird and brilliant as his previous features Dogtooth and ALPS.