Wylie Writes’ 2020 Mid-Year Report
It’s been an unpredictable year for movies, but 2020 has offered plenty of memorable titles – which is not always a compliment.
Flying Cars
Somewhere in Dave Hill’s character drama Flying Cars is a really interesting documentary about radio-controlled car racing and its niche community.
The Hunt
The Hunt is more politically charged than expected. It’s also more cartoony than expected. It’s a sardonically funny thriller that points out hypocrisies of right-wing and left-wing beliefs, and favours extravagantly violent finales over mutual understandings. Cynical, yes; but The Hunt is a really ballsy movie for strapping on a blast suit and barrelling through such edgy, non-partisan material.
Two Heads Creek
Jesse O’Brien’s horror/comedy Two Heads Creek aims to tackle the swelling issue of racism and nationalism in Australia and the United Kingdom through the most unusual of means: cannibalism. Though it’s hard not to appreciate the attempt, Two Heads Creek’s absurd premise often overtakes the seriousness of the threat posed by racism and nationalism.
The Rest of Us
The Rest of Us needs a low triple-digit runtime, but sets up a needless challenge for itself to tell its story in under 80 minutes. What’s the hurry? And if filmmaker Aisling Chin-Yee has to compromise the narrative with condensed scenes and sharp edits to win the challenge, what’s the point?
The Departure
There is nothing charming, insightful, or engaging about The Departure, writer/director Merland Hoxha’s first foray into feature-ish length cinema (the total runtime is just a little over an hour).
You Don’t Nomi
Jeffrey McHale’s documentary You Don’t Nomi dissects 1995’s much maligned racy drama Showgirls in a similar way that Rodney Aster’s Room 237 delved into different theories on Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. Both films are about how cult interest breathed new life into a filmmaker’s original vision, however the difference between the documentaries stems from their points of interest. Room 237 was about how movie goers have interpreted visual totems within the film. You…
The Postcard Killings
By: Trevor Chartrand A plain and passable thriller, The Postcard Killings is stamped with mild mystery and timid intrigue that ultimately doesn’t deliver a whole lot of punch.
