By: Addison Wylie The Humbling is one greasy ham of a film. It has no plan. It has no skill. It knows no volume. When director Barry Levinson senses the audience is recognizing how little his film has to offer, he has his actors yell and ramble. Not many movies get more annoying than The Humbling. I had found a redeeming quality in Levinson’s film, and I desperately hoped that detail would grow into the…
By: Addison Wylie Housebound gives off the scent of a film written by multiple parties who want different things, even though the screenplay was solely written by director Gerard Johnstone. The film quickly develops an amusing dynamic between its two female leads. Kylie (Played by Morgana O’Reilly) is a criminal forced to live under house arrest with her mother Miriam (played by Rima Te Wiata). Mom would like to get along, but Kylie would rather…
By: Addison Wylie Corner Gas: The Movie is a prime candidate for a review that requires me to cop out. The bottom line: if you liked Corner Gas during its humbling five year run on television and have since enjoyed reruns in syndication, then you’ll enjoy its big screen debut. But, let’s see if I can elaborate. The original cast of Canada’s beloved Corner Gas have reunited for an encore, which includes Saskatchewan funny man…
By: Addison Wylie By this point, you pay to see The Quiet Ones and sort of know it’s going to be the fifty-seventh by-the-numbers possession film you’ve seen within the past decade. You get a vibe that the film is riding off the success of other, more successful horror films and a lot of the scares will be abiding by the rules of “gotcha” spooks. The Quiet Ones reminded me of movies like The Conjuring…
By: Addison Wylie Before another year of moviegoing goes into full swing, TIFF respectively collects a list of features and short films that astounded audiences and erupted conversation within the past year. TIFF’s annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival began on January 2 with Sturla Gunnarsson’s documentary Monsoon, and continues with other Canadian favourites such as Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Susan Avingaq’s doc Sol, as well as Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, which sparked buzz after the Québécois filmmaker won…
By: Addison Wylie Reviewing The Starving Games won’t take very long, so leave your coat and shoes on. This halfhearted send-up to The Hunger Games has been pieced, glued, taped, and mashed together by infamous spoofmeisters Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It crawls and wheezes to feature length, yet only has enough material to fund a commercial bumper on the MTV Movie Awards – even that is pushing it. Friedberg and Seltzer have never hit a…
By: Addison Wylie Into the Storm secures its audiences with that title and its exciting poster. You can already picture thrill seekers lining up in anticipation for an entertaining time at the movies, hoping Steven Quale’s movie will measure up to other enjoyable guilty pleasures. Twister would be the easiest to link to. In fact, the advertising’s power of persuade movie goers works so well, that we instantly recognize the bad weather as the main…
By: Addison Wylie Moms’ Night Out is a tame movie. It’s tamer than tame. If movies were made from the fabric that makes those mattresses they drop bowling balls on to show you how soothing your sleeping habits will be, Moms’ Night Out would be the ideal prototype. The film isn’t worthy of being labeled “bad”. That status goes to movies that try to achieve something, and flounder in spectacular ways. Moms’ Night Out doesn’t…
By: Addison Wylie Anthony Powell was finding it impossible explaining to others what Antarctic life is really like. For someone who has spent extended time in the chilly climate, it was truly a daunting task trying to find the right words to describe the torrential winds and the degree of cabin fever. Over the next ten years, Powell has made it his quest to create the ultimate tell-all about Antarctica. He built equipment that could…
By: Addison Wylie The nightlife throbs in Nightcrawler. When the streets are sparse and the air is humid, there’s an electricity in the air. Lou Bloom is a lonely guy who lives off of it. We don’t know much about Jake Gyllenhaal’s lonely Lou. By the end credits, we still don’t know a heck of a lot about him – it’s exactly the point. The film’s title very much fits Bloom’s personality as someone who…