By: Addison Wylie After baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, dodgeball, figure skating, and ping pong all received big screen treatments, I think we all subconsciously knew a tetherball movie was coming along. Personally, I thought such a movie would ride off of Napoleon Dynamite’s freak success. I did not expect such a movie to be released, well, now. But, here we are. Director Chris Nickin and screenwriter Rick Dawson have given movie goers a competitive tetherball…
By: Addison Wylie Why Don’t You Play in Hell? features characters who are crazy about filmmaking. And, with cruel irony, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? made me want to abandon movies. Have you ever been around a group of people who like something? I mean, REALLY like something. The wave of high-pitched enthusiasm is enough to make you suffocate. This unwatchable film takes that glee and warps it into a form of aggressive, painful…
By: Mark Barber The Oscar-nominated doc Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the title legendary country singer through both his final tour and his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Necessarily poignant (if artificial) and urgent about the subject and his inevitably fatal illness, the film still occasionally struggles with the presence of exploitation. Numerous interviews with family, friends, and celebrities set up a touching rumination on the ineluctable flow of time. But the oft-witty Campbell serves…
By: Anthony King GOING IN: A small disclaimer here before we get started: I love these types of movies. If your movie has Kings, Knights, sword battles and even wizards, then I’ll probably be into it. I’ve been known to enjoy movies more and even give them a pass on a few of their flaws just because I like being in that world so much. I didn’t even hate Season of the Witch with Nicolas…
By: Addison Wylie Fresh off its stardom at the Canadian Screen Awards after earning nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, the general moviegoing public gets to see if Cast No Shadow lives up to the hype. I congratulate director Christian Sparkes and his team on the nominations, but Cast No Shadow didn’t work for me. Slivers of ideas are buried under the uneven tone of the film. If you disregard…
By: Addison Wylie While I watched The Resurrection of a Bastard, I often wondered where Guido van Driel’s movie was headed. It’s so aimless and without a thought in its busy little head until the existential epiphany its despicable lead character has. However, as soon as I questioned the film, I followed up with another query: Do I even care where this story ends up? Unless the movie is a slapstick send-up, the crime genre…
By: Addison Wylie Once finishing White God, one feels the need to exclaim in delight over the film’s overwhelming strengths. That, or look up other opinions. I did both. Reviews have been circulating ever since the film’s win at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival (White God won the Un Certain Regard Prize), but I didn’t dare look too far into other write-ups. However, the film’s press notes state something very interesting: “Kornel Mundruczó’s newest film…
By: Addison Wylie The Wonders is slow, unremarkable, and unfortunately, blends in all too well. Writer/director Alice Rohrwacher’s drama is a story of squashed empowerment by a superior who doesn’t know any better. The young Gelsomina (played by Maria Alexandra Lungu) finds herself as a leader within her detached family; which proves to be a blessing and a burden. She’s dependable, trustworthy, and a figure of inspiration to her siblings. However, her father Wolfgang (played…
By: Addison Wylie Barn Wedding seems like it was conceived by hopeful actors supporting a “let’s put on a show” credence. Unfortunately, when things start to get interesting, Shaun Benson’s directorial debut is a day late and a dollar short when the stakes are raised. The performances in Barn Wedding are sensible portrayals of drifters who are faithful to their friends. They unite for a wedding, but the group grows suspicious about the intentions behind…
By: Mark Barber Tracers is aimlessly plotted, driven only by a cynical, desperate need to financially exploit the parkour craze and Twilight star Taylor Lautner’s now-dwindling popularity. The film’s overall premise and execution recalls Lautner’s previous action outing, 2011’s Abduction. Although Tracers takes itself slightly more seriously, both films have a proclivity for deception. Similar to how Abduction featured no actual kidnappings, Tracers is barely about parkour; it gracelessly vacillates between a modern-day re-visioning of…