By: Addison Wylie When audiences aren’t following the documentary’s main court case involving 83-year-old jewel thief Doris Payne, Payne is telling us about her wild history. It’s during these stretches where The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne has all the snazziness of a grand scale heist movie bundled up within a teeny, tiny doc. We get great amusement watching Payne recollect about past “jobs” and how she got away with it. However, it looks…
By: Addison Wylie Brothers Hypnotic seems like it does everything right. It’s a good looking doc and an even better sounding one. Filmmaker Reuban Atlas knows how to show how music can explode with vibrance as various crowds bob their heads happily. All the songs that are featured and played by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are great examples of the band’s range and how their chemistry expands their performance etiquette. The boys in the ensemble all…
By: Addison Wylie The Sacrament is rightfully a horror movie. A damn unsettling one at that. The problem is the film’s promotional materials may be steering audience expectations in a direction less suited for Ti West’s latest. There’s no camp here. Just tragedies. In my eyes, The Sacrament is much more of a dramatic reenactment than something that is strictly here to spook you. It’s a horror in the same way some movie goers would…
By: Addison Wylie The only thing that could be more amazing than Godzilla’s timeless legacy is that Gareth Edwards was given the opportunity to direct a multi-million dollar modernized take on the creature. Seriously, let’s all take a moment and realize how crazy and ambitious the producers had to be to invest so much trust into a filmmaker who doesn’t have a whole lot of feature film experience. Those chancy attitudes have paid off big…
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…
By: Addison Wylie My affection for We Are The Best! could be compared to the happiness some found in last year’s sleeper hit Good Vibrations. Both films share the same type of optimism towards punk rock music, as well as curious characters figuring out life through the off-beat genre. Good Vibrations won many audiences over with its sentimentality. Though the whole thing was too precious for me, I’m happy for those who found pleasing values…
By: Addison Wylie Doug Block started shooting wedding videos because it was a good opportunity to earn some extra dough. But as his filmography grew, so did his fascination with different couples and the dynamics he caught on camera. The question that’s been rattling around in his head is: what happens years after the wedding and the honeymoon? Can these giddy newlyweds keep up their love once reality settles in and kids enter the picture?…
By: Addison Wylie Mustering through Making the Rules is like watching a bunch of people try and sail using only the framework of a boat. The film marks the acting debut of musician Robin Thicke. This triggers a question right off the bat: is watching thespian Thicke as painful as it sounds? My answer may disappoint those wanting me to slam the Blurred Lines hit maker. I honestly couldn’t tell you if his performance is…
Just as other festivals offer a “Midnight Madness” selection, Hot Docs hopes to bring in the same crowd with its Nightvision screenings. These documentaries feature brazen topics and massive cult followings; films that are certainly unlike any other. An added bonus is the discounted price of films screening after 11:00 p.m. For a cool $7, treat yourself to some of these neat docs. If you’re into horror, you should give Alexandre Philippe’s doc a shot. Doc of the Dead (DIR. Alexandre Philippe)…
By Parker Mott It’s hard to watch The Other Woman without bringing into the equation James Toback’s remarkable 1997 feature Two Girls and a Guy, a talk-heavy, one-room dramedy about two women (played by Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner) who discover they are dating the same man (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) and then conspire to make him suffer for his cheating ways. The movie found ingenuity in the shameless rationale of its male…