By: Addison Wylie “Have you ever exceeded the limits of pain?” Now, I have. When Your Flesh Screams is in need of more lighting, more rewrites, more experienced actors, and more time in an edit bay. Most of all, Guillermo Martínez’s low-rent ode to exploitation-horror is in need of someone to show it the door. This is a film made by people who have seen raw works like Last House on the Left and are only interested in the…
By: Addison Wylie Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool) is a very busy filmmaker. In 2010 alone, the award-winning director released three films. If I don’t like one of McDonald’s films, I can at least find something I can appreciate about his filmmaking, but his latest horror Hellions suggests to me that the next best thing for his career may be some downtime. The main problem with Hellions, a film about a…
By: Trevor Jeffery At Toronto’s Fan Expo (an annual gathering for sci-fi super fans, comic book buffs, anime addicts, gaming geeks, horror… fans), badge-wearing nerds flock from all around, many garbed as pop culture icons, to enjoy a convention of collective interests. It’s a place where people can gather in community, compliment each other’s costumes, bathe in their favourite entertainment cultures and, of course, enjoy the celebrity guests.
By: Shannon Page Probably best known for her stand-up comedy and satirical roles, Sarah Silverman isn’t the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of serious dramatic actresses – but maybe she should be. Directed by Adam Salky (Dare), I Smile Back stars Silverman as Laney Brooks, a suburban housewife and mother of two. In between packing lunches and driving the kids to school, Laney’s self-destructive behavior and out-of-control drug use begin to…
By: Addison Wylie As the city of Toronto gears up for its most prestigious film festival, passengers of the city’s TTC subway service will be occupied by various one-minute silent short films while they gaze at platform monitors and await their ride. TUFF (the Toronto Urban Film Festival) remains the largest film festival for commuters in North America. From September 12th to the 20th, shorts from around the globe will play on TTC’s 290 available…
By: Addison Wylie Parents: if you feel your child is too old for those Air Bud movies but too young for Wild America and Alaska, that happy medium you’re looking for can be found in The Journey Home. A boy named Luke (played by Dakota Goyo) attempts to reunite a lost polar bear to its mother by travelling across perilous, icy terrain through flurries of snowstorms and over ice caps. The polar bear (which is eventually given…
By: Addison Wylie In five years, when you catch We Are Your Friends on cable, you’ll regret not seeing it in theatres. For me, I felt like I was watching an exciting, addictive shockwave. A realized movie that knew the power of music and its behavioural persuasion, as well as the importance of a key controller. The movie may not have fast cars or roaring dinosaurs, but We Are Your Friends calls for a big screen experience….
By: Addison Wylie David O. Russell hit the nail on the head by distancing himself from the farcical fumble Accidental Love. To say the film has had a tumultuous past would be putting it lightly – just as saying the movie is merely bad would be doing it a favour. Production on the film (formally named Nailed) began in 2008, and suffered from financial woes and reshoots. James Caan reportedly walked off the set over…
By: Mark Barber Chaitanya Tamhane’s courtroom drama, aptly titled Court, has received broad international acclaim for its compelling minimalism and intelligent use of realism, but also deserves praise for its insightful analysis on the lingering effects of colonialism on India’s legal system. Understated and distanced, Court eschews the familiar Hollywood-style intensity of John Grisham adaptations. A procedural take on the Indian legal systems and the personal lives related to one case, Court examines its postcolonial…
By: Mark Barber Adam Macdonald’s Backcountry is a terrifying mix of Jaws and Blair Witch, but manages to avoid the usual kitschy pastiche of recent Canadian genre films. Unlike the campiness of Wolfcop and Hobo with a Shotgun, Backcountry is an intense, serious horror film. Inspired loosely by tragic events, Backcountry follows a Toronto couple, Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym), as they become lost in a camping trip in a northern Ontario park….