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2015

Reviews

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

June 11, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Mark Barber Swedish auteur Roy Andersson completes his so-called “living trilogy” with the sombre, contemplative A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, a masterful blend of dour themes and dark humour. Andersson’s Pigeon resists a coherent synopsis.  The film is told through multiple intertwining stories.  At the centre of these stories is a pair of travelling novelty salespeople–Jonathan (Holger Andersson) and Sam (Nils Westblom), both of whom share the same reflective deadpan…

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Reviews

Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant

June 7, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant is a vehicle made for Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).  The leading role, however, has been given to Royal Pains’  Mark Feuerstein, who commits to the dopey womanizing role but is far too driven to drill in each punchline.  In Feuerstein’s defence, the actor is only following Sam Friedlander’s untamed filmmaking. The film deals with a lead character who is unfamiliar to his arrogance because he’s too…

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Reviews

(Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies

June 6, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie That title is a turn off, but (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies is an enthralling investigative film that will hopefully serve as a role model for documentarians. Duke University professor Dan Ariely speaks to a crowd of eager ears at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey.  He stands at the foot of the stage and explains numerous experiments his team has conducted to test society’s moral fibre and…

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Reviews

Sunshine Superman

June 5, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Carl Boenish wanted to test the human spirit.  In doing so, his willingness to jump off breathtaking heights pioneered what we know now as “BASE jumping”.  Filmmaker Marah Strauch has matched Boenish’s go-getter attitude and gumption with Sunshine Superman, a documentary about the jumper’s fearless outlook and how he serves as an inspiration for adventure and living life to its fullest. If you’ve seen James Marsh’s Man on Wire, you’ll sense Marah…

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Reviews

Love & Mercy

June 4, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery Over the past few decades, the biopic has been more or less perfected and recreated over and over, to the point of boring predictability.  While ultimately Love & Mercy is no exception, the film deviates from the structure enough to make the journey feel like a new, albeit shaky, perspective on the formula. Following Beach Boy Brian Wilson, the film jumps between the 20-something-prodigy Wilson in the 1960s (played by Paul Dano)…

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Reviews

After the Ball

June 4, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie I went into After the Ball already admiring three of its main stars: director Sean Garrity, co-writer Kate Melville, and actress Portia Doubleday.  After the Ball isn’t a type of film I get excited to see, but these are three people I’ve been wanting to see more of ever since they’re strong debuts. Garrity impressed me with his slow burn drama Blood Pressure, yet temporarily lost me when his filmmaking pizazz was…

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Reviews

Dark Star: HR Giger’s World

June 3, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Mark Barber Swiss surrealist H. R. Giger was something of a phantom, often disappearing into one of the many nooks and crannies of his own home.  Yet, what makes Giger so unique and compelling–both as an artist and as a person–is another elusive phantom in Belinda Sallin’s Dark Star: HR Giger’s World. Dark Star disappoints not in its reasonably zealous adoration of Giger’s cyborg nightmares, but in its simplistic analytical approach to both himself and…

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Festival Coverage

Inside Out 2015: A One-On-One with Filmmaker Kyle Reaume

June 2, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Shannon Page One of the great things about film festivals is their potential to showcase and foster emerging talent.  The Toronto Inside Out LGBT Film Festival’s Local Heroes short film screening is aimed at drawing attention and giving space to local filmmakers.  It’s a space where audiences can see what is being created in their own back yards, and where beginning filmmakers have the opportunity to see their work screened alongside more established artists….

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Festival Coverage

Inside Out 2015: ‘Sand Dollars’

June 1, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

Sand Dollars (DIR. Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán) By: Shannon Page Like the Dominican Republic of its setting, Sand Dollars is both ugly and beautiful;  it is complex and often overwhelming in its starkness, yet showcases a landscape that most would equate with paradise. Written and directed by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Sand Dollars stars Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of the legendary Charlie Chaplin) as an aging European woman who falls in love with a much…

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Reviews

Patch Town

May 31, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Patch Town is royally ambitious.  It’s also incredibly hard to synopsize making it harder to recommend despite it being a highly enjoyable live-action fairy tale. Craig Goodwill, a filmmaker who’s been comfortable making short films, expanded on his original short Patch Town and adapted it into a real nifty feature.  He’s drawn on David Lynch’s Eraserhead to define the film’s industrial dystopia where obedient workers withdrawal babies from heads of cabbage.  All…

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