Latest

Gravitas Ventures

Reviews

Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story

By: Trevor Chartrand While entertaining and informative, Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is a documentary with two very different and almost contradictory goals.  On the one hand, the film takes a mostly light-hearted look at the making-of a beloved animated series.  But on the other hand, however, the doc is also a dark character study featuring the disturbing behaviours of Ren and Stimpy’s show creator, John Kricfalusi.

One-on-Ones

Wylie Writes’ One-On-One with Kris Rey

I Used to Go Here works as a coming-of-age story, a college comedy, and a self-reflective character piece.  While the cast and crew deserve credit for how well the film pulls off this hat trick, writer/director Kris Rey is the glue holding this project together.  With her latest film, Rey continues to prove her expertise in characterization and intentionally awkward comedy, and how magic can be made when those two elements are perfectly mixed together. I recently…

Reviews

Blush

Wendi McLendon-Covey is experiencing a really unique resurgence as an actor.  After establishing herself as a quick-witted commedienne on Comedy Central’s Reno 911!, a longstanding role on ABC’s The Goldbergs has propelled her towards more endearing roles.  While it’s a different change in pace for McLendon-Covey’s repertoire, she still knows how to bring the laughs.  Blush is another career tilt for the actor but, this time, the tone is much darker and stranger than anyone…

Reviews

It Started As a Joke

By: Trevor Chartrand It Started as a Joke is an emotionally charged documentary that will sort-of sneak up on you.  It’s so sneaky in fact, that the film will try to convince you that you’re watching ‘just another Netflix-style comedy special’ – until you’re suddenly not.  You’ll let your guard down, laughing with the featured comedians, chuckling at their on and off stage antics.  It’s funny, it’s goofy, and it’s a great time… and then…

Reviews

Appiness

YidLife Crisis co-creator Eli Batalion makes his feature-length filmmaking debut with Appiness, a film that aspires to be a timeless buddy comedy but somewhat expires as a bland underdog story.

Reviews

Airplane Mode

Airplane Mode made me feel old.  Not because I didn’t recognize most of the YouTubers that fill out the cast, but because I was constantly startled and taken aback by the film’s hyper and annoying immaturity.