Film

Reviews

Pogey Beach

Pogey Beach offers a predicament: it’s a comedy that’s not necessarily funny, but you’ll still laugh for the right reasons.  Jeremy Larter’s slacker comedy will put the viewer in more of a fugue state than sun stroke ever could.

Reviews

We

By: Trevor Chartrand Director Mani Nasry has made a very personal film with We, and it’s certainly commendable, brave even, to see how transparent this young director has been in making the film – I suspect we’re getting a deep look into his mind, his personal philosophies and hardships.  Nasry and his crew deserve a lot of respect for what their film is trying to do – however the finished product is far from flawless.

Reviews

Dawson City: Frozen Time

Film, as a physical material medium, is an unusual object: film reels can often survive in strange settings, remaining undiscovered for decades, and yet these same reels can suddenly go up in a blaze, often taking their surroundings with them.  This is an underplayed theme in Dawson City: Frozen Time, the newest work of filmmaker Bill Morrison.  Film is at once destructive and salvageable, destroyed and saved.

Reviews

Closet Monster

Closet Monster is not only another case of a filmmaker who has taken the leap to long-form filmmaking after establishing themselves with short films, but it’s also a satisfying example of a storyteller succeeding under new guidelines.

Reviews

The Pasta Killer

For two-and-a-half years, Stefan Phillips has been working on his first feature length film titled The Pasta Killer with frequent collaborators that make up his YouTube ensemble ‘UnorthodoxPoppycock’.  The project – a faithful film noir – was a labour of love.

Reviews

Star Men

Four English astronomers hit the road to celebrate fifty years of their time with each other and in their field of work.  They stop at telescopes they have histories with and reflect on the past.  It’s a reunion that could’ve been more special and intimate if filmmaker Alison Rose wasn’t trying to retrofit these men and their stories into a boring documentary.

Reviews

Hitchcock/Truffaut

By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Hitchcock/Truffaut is a perfect example of a book-to-film adaptation that has been made to relieve viewers from having to read.  It’s a SparkNotes version of the eponymous book, taking bits and pieces of the writing and spacing it out with interviews so movie goers will be distracted from the lack of attention in the production.

Reviews

Ally Was Screaming

By: Addison Wylie As much as I would like to commend writer/director Jeremy Thomas for making a sophisticated and adult film about grief and the internal struggle to define what is morally correct, his woeful feature Ally Was Screaming is an anticlimactic and overcooked blunder that drove me crazy.  Although, Thomas’ maturity is essentially what was much needed in January’s I Put a Hit on You. Seth, Nole, and Ally were a friendly and tender trifecta….