Latest

2015

Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘3 Still Standing’ and ‘Deep Web’

April 27, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

3 Still Standing (DIR. Robert Campos, Donna LoCicero) By: Trevor Jeffery What do you call three comics who keep doing stand-up instead of landing a sitcom role?  “Working”. 3 Still Standing looks into the lives of three comedians who never took their career beyond the microphone.  In their early days, political satirist Will Durst, funny everyman Johnny Steele and self deprecating Larry “Bubbles” Brown were part of the 1980s San Francisco comedy boom that launched careers…

Read More
Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Monty Python: The Meaning of Life’

April 26, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Monty Python: The Meaning of Life (DIR. Roger Graef, James Rogan) By: Addison Wylie If Monty Python Live (Mostly) was the comedy troupe’s last hurrah, Monty Python: The Meaning of Life is their congratulatory curtain call and encore. It goes without saying that Roger Graef and James Rogan’s film is essential viewing for any Monty Python fan, or anyone who caught their live show.  This documentary provides audiences with alternate angles, exclusive behind-the-scenes tomfoolery, and…

Read More
Reviews

Hot Docs 2015: Being Canadian

April 25, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

Being Canadian (DIR. Robert Cohen) By: Addison Wylie Comedy writer Robert Cohen hits the road to Vancouver with a documentary crew in Being Canadian, a humorous look at Canadiana.  Cohen’s goal is to reclaim Canada’s identity and deconstruct the stereotypes that have long followed Canucks;  including igloo assumptions, shabby television programming, adamant politeness, and the country’s overflowing supply of comedy legends. Cohen’s dry wit and bewildered fascination drives this labour of love (no pun intended) in…

Read More
Reviews

Pump

April 24, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Actor Jason Bateman narrates Pump as if he’s providing a voiceover for a car commercial.  This is fitting since a large chunk of the documentary feels like one extra-long commercial for alternative fuels and electric vehicles.  However, Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell have conceived a lively, well intended film that I ended up being quite fond for. Many documentaries chronicling selfish behaviour behind big business (or, in this case, Big Oil) have…

Read More
Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: A One-On-One With Committed’s Vic Cohen

April 24, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Where there’s a Howie Mandel production, Vic Cohen is most likely close by.  It’s quite obvious the two comedians are close supportive friends, however audiences are seeing that connection run deeper in the documentary Committed. For twelve years, Mandel has recorded Cohen with a video camera and chronicled his budding career as a comic and as an outrageous, fearless performer.  The documentary has been also been shaped by co-directors Reed Grinsell and Steve…

Read More
Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Elephant’s Dream’ and ‘Milk’

April 23, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

Elephant’s Dream (DIR. Kristof Bilsen) By: Addison Wylie As Kinshasa’s struggling economy heals after the civil war in the DRC, its population waits for stable change.  People try to march on with their community through unfortunate situations with limited resources, but it’s achingly hard.  A sequence featuring a reckless fire burning downtown shows the audience how dire Kinshasa’s firefighting team is. Supreme danger spirals out of control, the help is flustered, and panicked pedestrians criticize. …

Read More
Reviews

The Forger

April 23, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie I truly believe that everyone starring in The Forger knows they’re capable of more.  John Travolta, Tye Sheridan, Christopher Plummer, everyone.  There are moments in Philip Martin’s crime thriller where you can catch an actor glimpse at a chance to open up their performance, but these fleeting breaths are revoked by Martin’s generic filmmaking and Richard D’Ovidio’s routine screenplay. First of all, Travolta doesn’t fit the build of art theif Ray Cutter….

Read More
Reviews

Lost River

April 22, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Josh Chenoweth Lost River marks the directorial and writing debuts of actor Ryan Gosling, known for mainstream successes like The Notebook as well as critical darlings like Drive. After getting a less than pleasant response at Cannes in 2014, I was curious to see if Lost River was really all that bad.  The answer: a resounding yes. Shot in a decaying suburb near Detroit (where else?), Lost River focuses on Billy (Christina Hendricks), a single…

Read More
Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Nuestro Monte Luna’ and ‘Welcome to Leith’

April 22, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

Nuestro Monte Luna (DIR. Pablo Alvarez-Mesa) By: Trevor Jeffery Nuestro Monte Luna is a story of a bullfighting school, and the teenage boys who attend to train in a well-hated tradition. Nuestro Monte Luna’s narrative starts strong.  It manages to immediately set up the scenario – you’re not just watching people in Choachi, but you are experiencing the little Colombian town through the camera.  However, as the movie trails on, interest wanes and clarity takes a…

Read More
Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘The Circus Dynasty’ and ‘The Messenger’

April 20, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

The Circus Dynasty (DIR. Anders Riis-Hansen) By: Gregory Breen The Circus Dynasty’s opening caption prepares the audience for the doc’s concept – a grand dynamic between two of Europe’s greatest circus families. The Berdino family (one of Europe’s largest families of artists) and the Casselly family (the world’s most award-winning artist family) have been delighting audiences all across Europe with the joint circus Arena for 21 years.  A special relationship has developed with the two clans creating…

Read More