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…
By: Josh Chenoweth Lost River marks the directorial and writing debuts of actor Ryan Gosling, known for mainstream successes like The Notebook as well as critical darlings like Drive. After getting a less than pleasant response at Cannes in 2014, I was curious to see if Lost River was really all that bad. The answer: a resounding yes. Shot in a decaying suburb near Detroit (where else?), Lost River focuses on Billy (Christina Hendricks), a single…
By: Mark Barber The Dead Lands is a rare pre-colonial narrative. Rarely does a film provide a cinematic lens through which we may see a pre-westernized, pre-colonial native culture. Given such emancipating opportunities, it’s curious that director Toa Fraser would make such a comfortable film for western audiences. Featuring an all-Maori (people indigenous to New Zealand) cast, young Hongi (James Rolleston) seeks revenge on a rival tribe that eradicated his people. To do so, he…
Committed (DIR. Howie Mandel, Reed Grinsell, Steve Sunshine) By: Addison Wylie Vic Cohen was a faithful writer on The Howie Mandel Show, but had the presence of someone who was weak. Mandel (who is naturally attracted to peculiar, desperate people) wanted to learn more about him, and decided to keep a camera rolling on the pair; documenting their collaborations as well as Cohen’s growth as a confident performer. By capturing twelve years of footage, Committed…
By: Addison Wylie After baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, dodgeball, figure skating, and ping pong all received big screen treatments, I think we all subconsciously knew a tetherball movie was coming along. Personally, I thought such a movie would ride off of Napoleon Dynamite’s freak success. I did not expect such a movie to be released, well, now. But, here we are. Director Chris Nickin and screenwriter Rick Dawson have given movie goers a competitive tetherball…
By: Addison Wylie Adam Carolla plays curmudgeon comic Bruce Madsen in Road Hard, a semi-autobiographical sophomore effort co-directed and co-written by Carolla and frequent collaborator Kevin Hench. Maden feels like he’s in the shadow of everyone more successful than him. This film would probably feel the same way about its presence next to Judd Apatow’s Funny People. That said, I know a lot of people who quiver just thinking about Apatow’s expansive ode to comedians….
By: Addison Wylie Why Don’t You Play in Hell? features characters who are crazy about filmmaking. And, with cruel irony, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? made me want to abandon movies. Have you ever been around a group of people who like something? I mean, REALLY like something. The wave of high-pitched enthusiasm is enough to make you suffocate. This unwatchable film takes that glee and warps it into a form of aggressive, painful…
By: Mark Barber The Oscar-nominated doc Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the title legendary country singer through both his final tour and his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Necessarily poignant (if artificial) and urgent about the subject and his inevitably fatal illness, the film still occasionally struggles with the presence of exploitation. Numerous interviews with family, friends, and celebrities set up a touching rumination on the ineluctable flow of time. But the oft-witty Campbell serves…
By: Anthony King GOING IN: A small disclaimer here before we get started: I love these types of movies. If your movie has Kings, Knights, sword battles and even wizards, then I’ll probably be into it. I’ve been known to enjoy movies more and even give them a pass on a few of their flaws just because I like being in that world so much. I didn’t even hate Season of the Witch with Nicolas…
By: Addison Wylie Fresh off its stardom at the Canadian Screen Awards after earning nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, the general moviegoing public gets to see if Cast No Shadow lives up to the hype. I congratulate director Christian Sparkes and his team on the nominations, but Cast No Shadow didn’t work for me. Slivers of ideas are buried under the uneven tone of the film. If you disregard…