By: Addison Wylie I wasn’t going to see Noah to look for religious inaccuracies and become very picky about its epic portrayal of Noah’s Ark. I left my biblical checklist at home. I went into Noah wanting to see how a creative filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky could handle a big budget blockbuster, and wanting to observe how well his integrity would float in mainstream waters. This would be a first for the Oscar-nominated director who…
By: Addison Wylie If I have one positive to say about Matthew Pollack’s autobiographical documentary, it’s that the film is rightfully titled. By the end credits, I didn’t want anything to do with Pollack. I actually wished I hadn’t bothered with this icky film in the first place. Run Run It’s Him is supposed to serve as a coping tool and a means of comprehension for Pollack with his obsessive addiction to pornography. Matthew’s fascination…
By: Addison Wylie Alive Inside is a touching documentary that may have entered your life without you even knowing. A video circulated around the Internet featuring Henry, a mumbling man living with dementia who’s mind is expanded when he listens to music. His eyes bulge, he starts to move in his seat, and he can inspiredly recollect memories. This segment emotionally affected people across the globe, and it’s just one of the many moving moments…
By: Addison Wylie Authors Anonymous didn’t have any laughs in it for me, but I believe that’s because I couldn’t relate to it. The mockumentary about five writers who gather to critique their works-in-progress hopes to derive humour from these eccentric personalities. One author is desperate for attention, one is the “ideas guy”, another likes to remind others of his future success while another writer can’t name a single author. There’s a young slacker who…
By: Addison Wylie Every so often, a tall glass of ridiculousness helps break up moviegoing monotony. Some filmmakers have tried their hardest to makes escapist entertainment, and have instead delivered films that were too heavy on lunkheaded machismo. Gary Fleder’s Homefront had come in under the radar – or, so it seemed to me. Since it stars Jason Statham as the lead, it fell into that vaguely generic category most people seem to group Statham…
Out of all the festivals I’ve ever covered, the Hot Docs Film Festival is one of my favourites. It’s a festival that always promises a deep array of different types of documentaries from a variety of different countries. It’s very hard to find one doc that resembles another in Hot Docs. The press conference held at Toronto’s Bloor Hot Docs Theatre on March 18 certainly built the buzz well. The audience had the pleasure of…
By: Addison Wylie As someone who has never set eyes on the cult television hit Veronica Mars and knows extremely little detail as to what took place on the show, the film puts me in an unusual spot for this detective’s feature film debut. Rob Thomas’ film is bound to please any fan who’s been begging for a Veronica Mars reunion, but the real test is how it stands as its own movie. Can outsiders…
By: Addison Wylie Why is it that Out of the Furnace has so many accomplishments going for it, yet it’s an impossible recommendation? Telling someone to watch Out of the Furnace would be like telling someone to hold a bunch of wild snakes and assuring them they won’t get bit. Scott Cooper’s thriller is one of those movies you appreciate a few hours after having watched it. Viewing Out of the Furnace for the first…
By: Addison Wylie While it may not be one of the more memorable animated features in recent memory, Mr. Peabody & Sherman gives audiences a respectful amount of inventiveness and good humour. Making a splash during classic Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, time travellers Mr. Peabody and Sherman would rapidly entertain within a short period of time. I always remembered these segments for their agility and their knack to glide across history using blink-or-you’ll-miss-’em tactics. The…
By: Addison Wylie Opening this weekend is Canadian indie Down River, a drama that peers into the lives of three strong women pushed to extremes in order to fulfill an artistic destiny. What they also have in common is their connection to Pearl, an old soul who is ready to drop everything if she’s needed for friendship and support. Down River is a character study that offers a fair bit to chew on and doesn’t…