March 2023

Reviews

You Can Live Forever

You Can Live Forever is the latest romance in queer cinema to tell a story about “forbidden love” in unlikely places, as two young women start falling for each other within their Jehovah Witness community.  It’s a good movie that not only shows an accurate portrayal of yearning hearts, but also teaches viewers about the upbringing in this specific devout life – the film is emotional and educational.

Reviews

Brother

Leading the Canadian Screen Awards with 14 nominations, Brother is an enthralling family drama that’s well realized by Lie With Me director Clement Virgo.  Though comparisons to 2016’s Oscar winner Moonlight and 2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco are inevitable given the coming-of-age material and how a family’s dynamic is examined during a sprawling time frame, Brother still stands out as a true Canadian original.

Reviews

The Quiet Girl

The Quiet Girl appears to tell a simple story about a young girl, Cáit (newcomer Catherine Clinch, who shows incredible range in her brilliant and award-winning acting debut).  She’s relocated to live with foster parents for a Summer to relieve the tension in her household.  The house she moves to temporarily is owned by a sweet, older couple (Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett), and Cáit is almost immediately met with nurturing support.  Following an expected trope in…

Reviews

Cram

By: Jeff Ching I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a horror movie more relatable than Abie Sidell’s Cram.  I also really don’t know if there will be a better horror movie this year.  Cram was made for nerds with severe procrastination issues.  Don’t get me wrong, if you’re one of those freaks that study for your exams a month in advance, watch this movie and understand the pain of being a procrastinator – this is in…

Reviews

Adult Adoption

By: Trevor Chartrand Quirky and surreal, Adult Adoption is the bizarrely unique directorial feature film debut from Karen Knox (star of Letters to Satan Claus).  The movie explores its characters with a delicate balance of intrusive empathy, and Knox’s filmmaking is executed in such an uncomfortable way that viewers may feel like they’re trespassing on the intimate details of a person’s private life.

Movie Lists

The Best Movies of 2022

The 95th Academy Awards are tonight!  Are any of Wylie Writes’ favourite flicks on the list of nominees?  Have some of these titles have already been praised by the Academy Awards?  Are there any hidden gems that may have not made the cut?  The answers are: yes, yes and absolutely!

Reviews

I Like Movies

I Like Movies, a coming-of-age dramedy set in the early-2000s, alternates between the double life of 17-year-old Burlington native Lawrence Kweller (Isiah Lehtinen): an outspoken high school senior and an obsessive film buff at his local video store, Sequels Video, who is simply trying to fit in. Lawrence is an opinionated know-it-all under both roofs, but he feels more in his element at Sequels and is elated when they finally hire him on as an…

Reviews

Enter the Drag Dragon

It’s been over a decade since being first exposed to Canadian cult hit Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter and Lee Demarbre’s wholesome filmmaking for mature audiences.  Underneath its goofy and ambitious premise about our lord and saviour socking it to some blood-suckers was an infectious love for filmmaking and community.  It’s main concern other than entertaining audiences was having fun with friends behind-the-scenes.  And while that rallying doesn’t always work for all indies, it benefited Demarbre’s…

Reviews

Return to Seoul

A coming-of-age story centring around an adult’s personal issues with their adoption would be really interesting and, quite frankly, a cathartic outlet for those viewers who share similar feelings.  Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is very close to pulling off this type of character study, but it doesn’t quite go as far as it can with this premise.