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September 2017

Reviews

White Night

September 30, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

There’s an art project titled White Night.  It’s a collaborative between five filmmakers (Sonny Atkins, P.H. Bergeron, Brian Hamilton, Matt Purdy, Dan Slater) and it chronicles six fictitious stories during Toronto’s Nuit Blanche – an all-nighter dedicated to art.  One of the characters, a struggling artist named Emily, contributes a cumbersome piece made entirely out of stacked cardboard boxes.  People pass by and heckle at it, while Emily fumes and eventually releases the tension through a…

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Reviews

Our Souls at Night

September 29, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

Our Souls at Night is what I would call an “easy recommendation”.  It has a satisfying modesty that makes the viewer feel nice.  It’s also a safe suggestion for fellow movie goers within the same social circles.  However, it isn’t a “necessary recommendation” because that would require the film to carry more weight than expected while also pleasing the audience.

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Reviews

Long Time Running

September 25, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

A documentary about The Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem Tour needed to be made.  After all, it was a pivotal imprint in modern Canadian culture as the entire nation collectively considered the band’s timeless legacy and paid respects to terminally ill musician Gord Downie.  Finding filmmakers to handle such sensitive subject matter would be an intimidating order, yet Jennifer Baichwal (Watermark) and Nicholas de Pencier (cinematographer on The Ghosts in Our Machine) rise to the occasion and exceed…

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Reviews

Beach Rats

September 21, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

Beach Rats is a good coming-of-age movie from a gay perspective, but its middle portions are the most compelling.  It’s bookended by familiar emotions and the finish line is the type of gut-wrenching finale audiences expect from a sombre story like this one, but writer/director Eliza Hittman takes an interesting route to get there.

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Reviews

Big Bear

September 20, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

Bachelor parties in movies never go well, do they?  They seem to follow a three-step formula: they start with kernels of giddy excitement, then bubble over into insanity, resulting in hapless characters having to deal with the consequences.  Such is the case for the new “bro comedy” Big Bear.

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Reviews

The Neighborhood

September 19, 2017Addison Wylie1 Comment

At the moment, there isn’t a more indulgent director than Frank D’Angelo.  The Canadian entrapreneur/musician has made a film career out of mob movies featuring (and recycling) loaded casts, essentially, playing cops n’ robbers.  The material is more than criminals and anti-heroes pointing guns and using twelve-letter words to berate each other, but some have argued otherwise.  The Neighborhood, unfortunately, gives the haters ammunition.

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Reviews

It Stains the Sands Red

September 16, 2017Addison Wylie0 Comments

Las Vegas entertainer Molly (Brittany Allen) encounters a stray member of the undead in Nevada’s desert (aka. the Valley of Fire) while a zombie apocalypse breaks out.  The blood-thirsty brute terrorizes Molly by stalking her through the desolate outskirts, which is an incredible challenge since Molly has seen how ravenous and relentless her enemy is.  Knowing safety is 36 miles away is added distress for Molly since maintaining energy and will is a personal struggle for…

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