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Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes @ Inside Out 2014: The Impostors in a Sham

May 31, 2014Addison Wylie0 Comments

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…

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Reviews

Mistaken for Strangers

April 10, 2014Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie There’s this strange little number named Mistaken for Strangers that has me all around impressed.  The documentary is a peculiar one because it plops the audience in a position that automatically has us feeling very skeptical moments out of the gate. We’re quickly introduced to the film’s focus – the rock and roll band The National – and shown the key element all five musicians have in common.  Each member has a…

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Reviews

Alive Inside

April 1, 2014Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Alive Inside is a touching documentary that may have entered your life without you even knowing. A video circulated around the Internet featuring Henry, a mumbling man living with dementia who’s mind is expanded when he listens to music. His eyes bulge, he starts to move in his seat, and he can inspiredly recollect memories. This segment emotionally affected people across the globe, and it’s just one of the many moving moments…

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Articles

Lancelot Link: The Ludicrous, The Lame

February 9, 2014Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie I usually stick to reviewing movies or anything related to cinema.  But, every once in a while, I bend the rules pending on what gets zipped to me through my inbox.  Recently, the DVD release of the short lived television series Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp was that exception. The series lasted from September 1970 to the cusp of January 1971, and the cast was made up by chimpanzees.  It featured the title character…

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Reviews

Inside Llewyn Davis

January 22, 2014Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie My experience with Inside Llewyn Davis is not like any I can recently recall off the top of my head.  My appreciation for it came hours after watching it and declaring the film was a bit of a wet noodle. The latest film from the Coen Brothers was unsatisfying.  Then again, the film was the type of work from Ethan and Joel Coen that is not my cup o’ tea. The Coen’s…

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Reviews

Good Vibrations

December 22, 2013Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Across the pond, Good Vibrations has been considered a crowd pleaser.  During its release earlier this year, its swept audiences off their feet with vivacious music and a profound true story about Terri Hooley’s struggle with individuality in 1970’s Belfast and acquiring peace through music. This holiday season, Toronto gets the opportunity to see this highly regarded movie.  Well, call me a Grinch because Good Vibrations didn’t do it for me. I…

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Reviews

The Wagner Files

December 17, 2013Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie German music composer Richard Wagner is an enigma of sorts and produced music on a grandiose scale.  Ralf Pleger’s documentary The Wagner Files explains that Wagner’s lengthy compositions caused a stir in the 20th century and went on to be some of the most revolutionary work to exist in the world of music. Richard Wagner is a provocative subject.  His early failures with music erupted anger and vexation in him as he…

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Reviews

The Broken Circle Breakdown

November 9, 2013Addison Wylie4 Comments

By: Addison Wylie I get worried when I feel emotionless at the end of a movie like The Broken Circle Breakdown. Felix Van Groeningen’s drama didn’t make me feel depressed to a point of numbness.  In fact, he wants his audience to feel high levels of emotion more than anything.  The film offers a lot to smile and cry about with its themes of love and loss, and a lot to tap your toes to…

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Reviews

Muscle Shoals

October 5, 2013Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Addison Wylie There’s a lot of talk about “magic” in Muscle Shoals, a documentary about the influentially groundbreaking music that was produced in a small Southern city in Alabama. It’s understandable as to why one would think “magic” was in the air during recording sessions with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and The Rolling Stones. There was an essence that lingered within the walls of studios FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound that…

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Reviews

The Sheepdogs Have At It

June 21, 2013Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie I went into The Sheepdogs Have At It with interested, persuasive ears. I had heard some of the band’s work and liked it, but never found myself yearning to find out more about the band members themselves. I would take the music at face value and soak in the nostalgia that lined the tracks. The Sheepdogs Have At It offered insights here and there regarding how the band got started and how…

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