By: Addison Wylie You often hear the term “edutainment” thrown around. I’ve used it in a few reviews regarding films that keep the audience thrilled while offering plenty of food for thought, but I usually pair the word to learning tools a teacher could use in a grade school homeroom. Whether you’re watching GMO OMG for fun or using it to study up about genetically modified organisms, Jeremy Seifert’s film is able to keep you…
By: Addison Wylie Legendary British comedy masterminds Monty Python gathered at London’s O2 arena and performed their last show of Monty Python Live (mostly) on Sunday, July 20. There were plenty of animal puns, ridiculous cheekiness, and spam to go around. Monty Python Live (mostly) opens with a silly song about llamas and leads in with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and show director Eric Idle performing a sketch about reuniting and oneupmanship…
By: Addison Wylie Last year, I caught a humbling documentary called André Gregory: Before and After Dinner. Cindy Kleine’s candid look at Gregory’s life and multi-talented career stole my heart and made me very interested in what the artist had to offer for the future. In the doc, Gregory and his close collaborator Wallace Shawn are working on their latest work – an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder. You may remember Shawn for his…
By: Addison Wylie I bet if we scoured filmmaker David Wain’s DVD collection, we would find romantic comedies. A lot of them. It takes a certain kind of guilty affection to lampoon a genre this immaculately. That’s what the absurdist has done with fellow writing cohort Michael Showalter. The two collaborated on the cult hit Wet Hot American Summer – which took the piss out of camp movies – and now they go for the…
By: Addison Wylie Jackass brings back everyone’s favourite filthy grandpa in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa .5. Home viewing audiences get an assortment of pranks that were cut from the original hidden camera escapade as well as ideas that paid off with unsigned release forms or slacked pacing that may have bogged down Bad Grandpa’s storytelling. Bad Grandpa .5 is an extended behind-the-scenes feature more than anything. The indestructible Johnny Knoxville as well as director Jeff…
By: Addison Wylie One of the crimes an actor can commit is to remind the audience that they’re acting. In the case of the melodrama in Cinemanovels, the cast could all do time in the clink. Since writer/director Terry Miles is the head of this operation and knows no boundaries for heaviness or volume, he should be committed too. When a highly regarded filmmaker passes away, his distraught daughter Grace (played by Lauren Lee Smith)…
By: Addison Wylie Epiphanies are mentioned in Wish I Was Here, Zach Braff’s return as a filmmaker. It’s during a scene where Braff’s Aidan Bloom camps out with his two children Tucker and Grace (played by Pierce Gagnon and Joey King) on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where they find a gorgeous view of the desert on top of three isolated boulders. This talk about epiphanies made me nostalgic for Braff’s 2004 indie hit Garden…
By: Addison Wylie What partly hurts Bird Co. Media is its insistence to make people believe it’s a documentary. Actions in the movie may have been inspired by real life events, but once you see how the film is formatted, you’ll have all the reason to doubt. For instance, cameras follow our leads and then freely cut around them – including on the other sides of doors. Those are some nimble cameramen. Bird Co. Media…
By: Addison Wylie Good things come in pairs; such as with the clever 22 Jump Street. The comedy is a complimentary companion to its surprisingly hilarious predecessor, but also acts as another sample of how filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are the kings of their goofball trade. There’s no point for sequel naysayers to pitch that 22 Jump Street throws more of the same at its audience. It straight-up admits it! Part of the fun in watching…
By: Addison Wylie Making a movie about Dorothy Gale’s next adventure after her legendary fantasy in Oz is a tall order. There may have been movies made about life after Oz, but that doesn’t nullify the large ratio of error for future works. It’s to no surprise that the paltry produced Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return doesn’t come through. The bar is set at an impossible height it cannot reach with its ordinary animation and unrefined…