By: Addison Wylie If The Guilt Trip does anything right from beginning to end, it’s the casting. Not only do Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand play off one another well, but they make a very convincing mother-son team. It’s easy to believe Rogen as an embarrassed hard worker who tries to separate himself from his overbearing mother, and Streisand takes hold of that smothering role with great effect. She’s irritating at times, but that just…
By: Addison Wylie Kevin MacDonald’s adaptation of Meg Rosoff’s novel How I Live Now is a bit of a struggle for movie goers trying to figure out what type of movie this is. Mostly because How I Live Now has two sets of confusion working for and against it. MacDonald begins his film on an aggressive note to mirror the personality of our lead, Daisy (played by Saoirse Ronan). While it fulfils its goal, the rebellious…
By: Addison Wylie Considering the talent involved, it’s hard to believe everyone agreed to star in a film this goofy and shallow. Especially, by actors like Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, and Josh Brolin who have recently been very selective about their work. Gangster Squad appears to have done its homework considering its 1940’s backdrop. Its attractive period style, make-up and costuming convince us the film will have more weight to it since more effort is…
By: Addison Wylie Here’s a fun social experiment: try describing the premise of Jacob Vaughan’s Bad Milo to movie goers and see how long it takes for each of those people to give you a skeptical glance or laugh out of nervousness. It’s because Bad Milo is an odd movie with an odd set-up. On the surface, it’s Office Space with a dash of Gremlins mixed in with a rough night after some bad Taco…
By: Addison Wylie Some would say talk-show host Morton Downey Jr. was a smart man. Others would comment but they may be too busy plugging their ears from his ranting and raving. Movie goers can see that filmmakers Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger easily fall into the former category. With their new doc Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, the trio starts from Morton’s early years – where he was known as…
By: Addison Wylie Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s universe they’ve created for their comic book Kick-Ass is severely twisted. Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn took that warped sense of humour and gritty violence to the big screen in 2010 where it was received with mixed reactions, but has earned cult status. Three years later, another filmmaker has decided to capture Millar and Romita Jr.’s insanity for a balls-to-the-wall sequel. For writer/director Jeff Wadlow, the hardest part…
By: Addison Wylie Taking a break from his independent fare, filmmaker David Gordon Green got familiar with the Apatow brat pack – launching him to direct the uneven but oddly memorable Pineapple Express. His directorial hand was embraced and pushed him down a path helming louder movies like Your Highness and The Sitter, two off-putting crudities that aren’t worthy of Green’s time and talent. With Prince Avalanche, it feels as if Green is making the…
By: Addison Wylie The Oxbow Cure had me shivering for all sorts of reasons. Directors Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas are able to flawlessly create moods and feelings using minimalist tactics. With its few instances of dialogue aside, this low budget Kickstarter passion project is practically a silent film as we watch a distressed but tranquil woman named Lena (played carefully by playwright Claudia Dey) escape to a snowy cabin in the woods to carry…
By: Addison Wylie This year’s first “save the President” action yarn, Olympus Has Fallen, is a D movie trying to fill B movie shoes. It’s a movie that should buckle audiences in for ecstatic escapist entertainment. Unfortunately, it’s trying too hard to have its cake and eat it too by becoming too emotionally involved. We’ve all seen mindless action flicks that centre around a terrorist attack. We may have also seen one of these action films…
By: Addison Wylie I can only write a review for Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight with a biased opinion. Not only am I a fan of Linklater’s two previous acquaintances with romantics Jesse and Céline (both played wonderfully by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy), but I’m also someone who fell head over heels for someone lovely who soon became my wife, and we proceed to take long walks and ramble until we forget where we were…