The Foxy Merkins (DIR. Madeleine Olnek) By: Addison Wylie Margaret (played by Lisa Haas) has taken on the life of prostitution and homelessness. Being that she’s a lesbian, her clients are all high end females looking for a good, undisclosed time. While on her way to find a place to sleep, she meets Jo (played by Jackie Monahan). The two hit it off almost instantly, and Jo – who’s also homeless – soon starts to show Margaret…
An Evening with the Impostors (DIR. Raymond Helkio) By: Addison Wylie Filmmaker Raymond Helkio takes a day-in-the-life approach and applies it to the Impostors, an all male performance group where the talent impersonate female celebrities. Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin, and Cher are among the names in their roster. We follow the gang as they travel to Port Hope for their largest venue yet – the Captiol Theatre. While the performers remain professional with oodles of charisma, they…
I Always Said Yes: The Many Lives of Wakefield Poole (DIR. Jim Tushinski) By: Addison Wylie Jim Tushinski’s doc is exactly like his subject when Wakefield Poole is dancing. The film is nimble, lovely, and tells a story. We’re always willing to go for the ride. When it comes to the arts, Poole has nearly done it all. He’s a dancer, a choreographer, a teacher, and has been described as a wonderful cook. His most famous forte,…
Masculinity/Femininity (DIR. Russell Sheaffer) By: Addison Wylie It’s so limited, but it interrupts the whole filmmaking process. It’s not a steady stream of consciousness as much as some of the performers would like it to be. It kind of breaks it up. That’s a quote from someone describing super 8 film in Masculinity/Femininity. A format of film so cumbersome, it would take an ambitious individual to want to shoot on it to make a modern movie….
By: Addison Wylie If you think you know Divine, think again. At least, that was the thought swimming through my head as I discovered new information about the drag queen turned actor turned musician turned superstar. As a high school movie fanatic eager to watch anything and everything, I thought I had found the ultimate lost artifact when I picked up a copy of John Waters’ Pink Flamingos. When I saw Divine’s Babs Johnson compete…
By: Addison Wylie I haven’t seen it in a good long while, but I was surprised by Darren Stein’s 1999 dark comedy Jawbreaker. It brought that same guilty satisfaction you get when you eat peanut butter out of the container with a giant spoon. You shouldn’t be enjoying it, it’s probably bad for you, but you can’t stop soaking in the indulgence. Since Stein’s latest film G.B.F. deals with this same visual style and the…
By: Addison Wylie A tragically troublesome story involving a 14-year-old executing a fellow eighth grader by aiming and shooting a gun at their head during class seems about as open-and-shut as cases come. However, filmmaker Marta Cunningham explores the event from every angle to get every side of the story that she can in Valentine Road. It isn’t because she’s suspicious and smelling something fishy in the events leading up to this kill. As a…
By: Addison Wylie The quiet character study In The Name Of is driven by a superb performance by Andrzej Chyra. His character of Father Adam is mesmerizing to watch. Chyra handles the subtleties that lie within his role and Adams’ motives so carefully. His readings and lines are filled with sincerity, subdued frustration, and hurt, but Chyra is able to tell all of this with a single hopeful glance. I really liked Malgorzata Szumowska’s film….