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Festival Coverage

Inside Out 2015: ‘Limited Partnership’ and ‘Super Awesome!’

May 26, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Limited Partnership (DIR. Thomas G. Miller) By: Addison Wylie With Limited Partnership, documentarian Thomas G. Miller shows the audience the lengthy struggle Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan faced when trying to validate their relationship through marriage.  Love conquers all, but the feeling of outsider confusion and neglect suggested a hopeless future for the gay couple. Limited Partnership is the first film in a while that has really shown how raw and ill-advised the opposing side to homosexuality…

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Iris

May 14, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Fashion icon Iris Apfel has such wonderment, such humbling intellect, and such bewildered enthusiasm.  She’s firm, but looks at her fame as dazed and unfazed.  Her presence is infectious, and in Albert Maysles’ documentary Iris, she helps raise the film to another level.  Without her, the audience would be stuck with Maysles’ cut-and-dry traditional filmmaking. Movie goers are taken through Apfel’s influential history, and observe her optimism when others appreciate her opinion….

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi’ and ‘Raiders!’

May 6, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi (DIR. Neil Broffman) By: Shannon Page If you own a computer, have a Facebook account, frequent Twitter, or read the news – basically, if you interact with information and technology at all – you should watch Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi.  The emotional and thoughtful film, directed by Neil Broffman, tells the story of a Brown University student who went missing one month prior to the Boston Marathon bombings and…

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Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

May 3, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Many associate angst with Kurt Cobain.  The feeling is riddled throughout his musical work and how he presented Nirvana to the world.  With Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, documentarian Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) has peeled back the musician’s enigmatic career to find the origin behind his hurt and disassociation. Cobain is respectfully represented as someone who was robbed out of an upbringing he wished he had growing up…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ’Live From New York!’ and ‘The Queen of Silence’

May 2, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Live From New York! (DIR. Bao Nguyen) By: Trevor Jeffery How do you describe a forty-year “New York institution” in 90 minutes?  Live From New York! explores both the mythos and the cultural significance of the longest running sketch comedy series, Saturday Night Live (SNL). The documentary covers a lot of ground: the rise (and fall and rise);  behind the scenes;  cultural impact;  and the ongoing issues with race and gender dynamics.  While each topic…

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Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police

April 30, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police has the novelty of guitarist Andy Summers reading his memoir to which this film is based on.  The audience watches Andy Grieve expansive documentary with full investment, but the experience feels more like a tell-all with a legend. Summers takes us on his journey beginning with his dog days of cutting his teeth in the music industry.  He glides through his past roles in other bands…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘3 Still Standing’ and ‘Deep Web’

April 27, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

3 Still Standing (DIR. Robert Campos, Donna LoCicero) By: Trevor Jeffery What do you call three comics who keep doing stand-up instead of landing a sitcom role?  “Working”. 3 Still Standing looks into the lives of three comedians who never took their career beyond the microphone.  In their early days, political satirist Will Durst, funny everyman Johnny Steele and self deprecating Larry “Bubbles” Brown were part of the 1980s San Francisco comedy boom that launched careers…

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Festival Coverage

Hot Docs 2015: ‘Monty Python: The Meaning of Life’

April 26, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Monty Python: The Meaning of Life (DIR. Roger Graef, James Rogan) By: Addison Wylie If Monty Python Live (Mostly) was the comedy troupe’s last hurrah, Monty Python: The Meaning of Life is their congratulatory curtain call and encore. It goes without saying that Roger Graef and James Rogan’s film is essential viewing for any Monty Python fan, or anyone who caught their live show.  This documentary provides audiences with alternate angles, exclusive behind-the-scenes tomfoolery, and…

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Hot Docs 2015: Being Canadian

April 25, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

Being Canadian (DIR. Robert Cohen) By: Addison Wylie Comedy writer Robert Cohen hits the road to Vancouver with a documentary crew in Being Canadian, a humorous look at Canadiana.  Cohen’s goal is to reclaim Canada’s identity and deconstruct the stereotypes that have long followed Canucks;  including igloo assumptions, shabby television programming, adamant politeness, and the country’s overflowing supply of comedy legends. Cohen’s dry wit and bewildered fascination drives this labour of love (no pun intended) in…

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Reviews

Pump

April 24, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Actor Jason Bateman narrates Pump as if he’s providing a voiceover for a car commercial.  This is fitting since a large chunk of the documentary feels like one extra-long commercial for alternative fuels and electric vehicles.  However, Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell have conceived a lively, well intended film that I ended up being quite fond for. Many documentaries chronicling selfish behaviour behind big business (or, in this case, Big Oil) have…

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