By: Addison Wylie You have to hand it to Martin Scorsese. At age 71 with dozens of classics under his belt to which he directed, he still has the courage to make a provocative fireball of a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street. The Wolf of Wall Street chronicles the fast track lifestyle of real life wall street broker Jordan Belfort. Belfort is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who soaks in the shadiness with 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….
Are you wanting to shoot your dream project, but have a restriction on your budget? Are you wanting to support independent cinema by helping filmmakers, but have no idea how to lend a hand? CrowdFUNding, a new series on Wylie Writes, is hoping to answer those questions by helping guide filmmakers and would-be financiers towards the right opportunities. All while putting the “fun” back in crowdfunding. CrowdFUNding will highlight online campaigns looking for financial backing. Some filmmakers…
So far in this series on Wylie Writes, re-watching Parkland has been the closest I’ve come to agreeing with the other side of the fence. However, I won’t be persuaded so easily. Peter Landesman’s drama Parkland, a film documenting the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the next few days that followed it, has plenty of accomplishments. Landesman’s ability to capture 1960’s period detail is spot on, and there no sign of fabrication when the film…
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…
By: Addison Wylie The on-going trials and debates about The West Memphis Three have been discussed in Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s revered Paradise Lost documentary series. The docs have always been on my list of films to watch, but I’ve never been able to find the time. As I watched Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot, I wished I had watched those documentaries about the controversial child murders first, rather than being educated by Egoyan’s ham-fisted reenactment….
By: Addison Wylie Basketball superstar Jeremy Lin had a rise to fame that was the epitome of an underdog story. Having set aspirations to become an athlete someday, Lin rarely winced when faced with challenges. He played basketball because he enjoyed it, planted reasonable expectations while cementing his priorities, and gained notoriety by naturally being a talented player. Evan Jackson Leong’s uplifting doc doesn’t phonily paint Lin as such an upstanding individual. He simply comes…
By: Addison Wylie American Hustle is like watching a group of distinguished hard boiled card players play poker when you’re only learning the ropes. None of them will break their deadpan expression or expose their hand. Suddenly, someone will make a game changing move and raise the stakes. Someone to your left leans over and – with pure exuberance – tells you how important the move was. Meanwhile, you nod with acknowledgment and when they’re…
By: Addison Wylie It’s easy to see why Quentin Tarantino named Big Bad Wolves as the best film of 2013. It’s basically a love letter to the filmmaker’s earlier work – an elaboration on that infamous torture scene in Reservoir Dogs. Filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s bottled thriller has three men (a father who’s daughter has been kidnapped and murdered, a renegade cop, and a tied up potential criminal) spar with one another to…
One of my favourite surprises of last year was finding out how Jacob Vaughan’s creature feature Bad Milo played with a packed crowd. The scene was set at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre during one of Toronto After Dark’s pre-screenings to hype up the upcoming and highly popular genre showcase. The pre-screening audience award ended up going to Matt Johnson’s innovative indie The Dirties, but hanging in as a close runner up was Bad Milo. It proved…