By: Addison Wylie Filmmaker Sean Cisterna and executive producer Avi Federgreen reunite after their likeable road trip romp Moon Point to collaborate in new territory. With 30 Ghosts, Cisterna trails the paranormal investigating life of Kim Hadfield and the rest of her Halton Paranormal Group. The troupe head out on night long trips to capture suspicious spiritual activity hidden away in the looming shadows. When she’s not hitting up abandoned houses and taking video proof…
If you’ve been keeping up with my writing at Film Army, you would’ve been more than acquainted with our coverage of this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The festival which focuses on bringing hardcore genre films (short and feature length) to eager audiences has been stronger than last year but still hit-and-miss. While gems like We Are What We Are and Big Ass Spider! had audiences glued, other horrors like Silent Retreat and Septic…
By: Addison Wylie If you thought the big screen world of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs couldn’t get any stranger, you obviously haven’t visited a world full of live, hybrid leftovers. Directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn (the latter having some involvement with the film’s predecessor) are fully aware as to how Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs won audiences over with its wild visuals and bizarre sense of humour. That’s why there’s even…
By: Addison Wylie The latest film from french filmmaker Claire Denis deals with people grieving and coping. The situations are bleak and only become more sullen. It’s particularly unsettling due to Denis taking a very close look into these troubled lives, adding a very personal vibe to the dreariness. This confidential approach serves Bastards well when Denis and her actors can gel on the same intimate level. Scenes involving drawn out foreplay and sex between…
By: Addison Wylie I’m all for art taking different forms. Art doesn’t necessarily always have to contain deeper meanings. In the case of NY Export: Opus Jazz, having the intentions of emulating a classier time of musical cinema in a modern world is perfectly fine. However, when the featured silenced dancers show this much talent and capability as they do in NY Export: Opus Jazz, it’s hard not to expect something more than “just dancing”…
By: Addison Wylie It’s always a bad sign while watching a movie when you realize the first three minutes are probably going to be the best moments the film can offer. Machete Kills kicks off with a trashy trailer for a third Machete film – appropriately titled Machete Kills Again…In Space. The insane trailer shows audiences which characters have returned and what battles ensue, essentially giving away spoilers about the film you’re about to watch….
By: Addison Wylie There’s no other way to put it: Epic is uninteresting. It’s attractive, but very dry. Almost everything about it amounts to a sigh as the audience waits for Chris Wedge’s animation to go through the usual family friendly motions. I didn’t find the film’s eco-friendly message to be clamouring, but its ability to tell an inventive story is seriously lacking. Especially when the film is visually brimming with imagination. James V. Hart,…
By: Addison Wylie A catastrophic zombie outbreak occurs and its up to a former member of the UN to protect his family, re-team with past coworkers and zealous fighters, and travel to different destinations in order to figure out the origin of this deadly attack and figure out a way to an end to the madness. Somewhere in there he takes a nap. Brad Pitt plays the good doing husband in World War Z and…
By: Addison Wylie There’s a lot of talk about “magic” in Muscle Shoals, a documentary about the influentially groundbreaking music that was produced in a small Southern city in Alabama. It’s understandable as to why one would think “magic” was in the air during recording sessions with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and The Rolling Stones. There was an essence that lingered within the walls of studios FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound that…
By: Addison Wylie Alan Zweig won top honours at the Toronto International Film Festival this past September for his documentary filmmaking with When Jews Were Funny – but, I needed more convincing. When Jews Were Funny – a doc on how a Judaic approach to comedy made its way into our funny bones – had appropriate subjects to interview, a proper conversational vibe about it, but its scope was too narrow. Zweig didn’t have enough…