By: Anthony King GOING IN: Pierce Brosnan is back and he seems pissed off. I don’t know where he went, but I know I haven’t seen him in a while. So, initially I was excited to see him in a new trailer. I’m not a huge Bond guy, nor do I particularly like Pierce in the role for a few reasons. Firstly, his Bond movies get increasingly more stupid and unrealistic as they go on….
By: Addison Wylie Jennifer M. Kroot’s documentary To Be Takei is cheesy and cute. Then again, so is her subject: actor and activist George Takei. Takei, most notably known for his work on Star Trek as Lieutenant Sulu, is a busy man and yet we never hear him complain. When he’s not acting, he’s passionately speaking to crowds about homosexual orientation and the deserved right for same-sex marriage. After years of withholding his sexual preferences…
By: Addison Wylie God’s Not Dead – one of the many mainstream films to be released this year that central around religion – is a project that’s easy for select opinionated movie goers to pile on. With its earnest ambitions and its obvious preferences as to who the film is geared towards, some are ready to stamp Harold Cronk’s movie as manipulative pap just by viewing the trailer. Well, curiosity got the best of me…
By Parker Mott Sin City: A Dame to Kill For seems to almost prey on our memories (and, for some, admiration) of 2005’s first Sin City by reintroducing many of the same shadowy characters in the same grim, gutless city and not providing a narrative motor to make the return worth it. The film not only wastes the audience’s time, but the characters’s as well. Without injecting urgency to each plodding minute, A Dame to…
By: Addison Wylie As soon as I found out Señoritas was the feature debut for filmmaker Lina Rodriguez, everything started making sense. Señoritas reminded me a lot of Krivina and Tower, two indies I caught at TIFF two years ago. Both films featured up-and-coming filmmakers taking on character studies and applying a drawn out pace. What separates those two independent films from Señoritas is that they were building towards something. Krivina applied a twist that…
By: Addison Wylie In an attempt to be complementary, but at the same time seem unintentionally inconsiderate, I enjoyed Life of Crime because it lacked a notable visionary’s presence. It didn’t feel the need to impress the audience with any sort of pizazz. It has a solid story, an array of interesting people ranging from low-lifes to the pompous rich, and a good time period to reference through lavish art direction and a sensational score….
By: Addison Wylie It’s been about a week since I’ve seen Richard Linklater’s much anticipated Boyhood. I don’t usually give myself that amount of time to conceive a write-up. Boyhood’s different though. Boyhood’s an ambitious project that had Linklater shooting scenes over a 12 year period capturing his young lead Mason (played by Ellar Coltrane) mature into a strong-willed individual. He, along with his cast, crafted a story around that filmmaking method and then –…
By: Addison Wylie In the literal sense, Frank is an adult male – roughly 5′ 10 – who wears a magnificent paper mâché crown equipped with bulging blue eyes and a moony mouth. Frank’s the frontman of an avant-garde band named “Soronprfbs” – a name that’s not so much a title, but something you say as you cough up phlegm. He pushes his bandmates to their limits and makes them reach deep inside themselves to…
By: Addison Wylie The word “incompetent” is usually associated with low intelligence. In the case of Hard Drive, I think the melodrama is outrageously incompetent, but I don’t think its writer/director William D. MacGillivray is stupid. MacGillivray’s achievements were attached to the press notes, and there’s enough proof in the pudding to make me believe he ain’t no dummy. The filmmaker has been attached to projects that have earned him acclaim, Canadian credibility, and a…
By: Addison Wylie There’s a craft to making dirty words and sexual innuendos funny that Sunflower Hour never masters. Aaron Houston’s mockumentary gathers a decent amount of giggles when its playing up pathetic characters in cleverly clean ways, but the comedy would much rather have those dolts exclaim expletives, or call things “gay”. The film centres around puppeteers competing for an open slot on ‘Sunflower Hour’, a supposedly successful – albeit cheaply made – children’s…