By: Addison Wylie A great deal of unease works in filmmaker Cate Shortland’s favour. Her dramatic period piece Lore always feels restless. Characters – young and old – are constantly looking for stability and safety and the environments are always changing. That’s not to hint that Lore is inconsistent with a short attention span. It’s a compliment that Shortland has found the perfect unsettling tone to allow all her elements to work on. Lore shows…
By: Addison Wylie It’s hard to find dislikable qualities in Poull Brien’s crowd pleaser Charles Bradley: Soul of America. Whether you attend a screening of the film because you like Bradley’s music, funk/blues music in general, or a good underdog story, Brien’s doc will have you leaving the theatre with a giant smile plastered to your face while you bob your head to the funky tunes streamlining through your cranium. The doc quickly lets movie…
By: Addison Wylie There are short films that get wrapped up in their own mysterious styles and murky vagueness, and then there’s Jeremiah Kipp’s The Days God Slept. Kipp’s short film skates awfully close to being just another brick in the surrealistic wall but its consistency to its characters and story is what saves it, making it a memorable watch. The Days God Slept gives the power to the audience to assume the context of…
By: Addison Wylie I haven’t seen it in a good long while, but I was surprised by Darren Stein’s 1999 dark comedy Jawbreaker. It brought that same guilty satisfaction you get when you eat peanut butter out of the container with a giant spoon. You shouldn’t be enjoying it, it’s probably bad for you, but you can’t stop soaking in the indulgence. Since Stein’s latest film G.B.F. deals with this same visual style and the…
By: Addison Wylie A tragically troublesome story involving a 14-year-old executing a fellow eighth grader by aiming and shooting a gun at their head during class seems about as open-and-shut as cases come. However, filmmaker Marta Cunningham explores the event from every angle to get every side of the story that she can in Valentine Road. It isn’t because she’s suspicious and smelling something fishy in the events leading up to this kill. As a…
Director/screenwriter/producer/star Tommy Wiseau is very proud of his movie The Room, a film that has developed an impressive cult status since its initial release.
By: Addison Wylie The quiet character study In The Name Of is driven by a superb performance by Andrzej Chyra. His character of Father Adam is mesmerizing to watch. Chyra handles the subtleties that lie within his role and Adams’ motives so carefully. His readings and lines are filled with sincerity, subdued frustration, and hurt, but Chyra is able to tell all of this with a single hopeful glance. I really liked Malgorzata Szumowska’s film….
By: Addison Wylie The truth Morgan White’s doc The Rep holds is sad, but true. That constant dreaming of wanting to have access to a vintage movie house that screens older films is always apparent among film buffs and equally eager film buffs disguised as business men are wanting to bring that once-in-a-lifetime experience to an audience. It’s unfortunate that the process of getting a rep cinema off the ground and turning it into a grand…
By: Addison Wylie There’s something ingenious about the idea of Michael Bay helming a project about celebrating a shallow American dream. Who better to direct a story about a team of musclebound knucklehead criminals chasing the implausible than a guy who almost always has explosions take the lead role and lets T&A share the second billing. The film’s Miami setting takes on a “look good, feel better” attitude as all the characters are in some…
By: Addison Wylie If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for filmmaker Michel Gondry to wow you after his messy miscalculation known as The Green Hornet. In Gondry’s defence, The Green Hornet played as a film where its “it” star and successful producers had more creative control than its masterful director. Gondry’s visions work better when he’s given a fair bit of leeway and trust, and The Green Hornet didn’t allow this for the Oscar…