There is no bigger proponent of Canadian cinema than myself. If a film really captures me, I’ll go out of my way to champion it. Low budget, undetectable indies sometimes need that extra push. However, no matter if the film is big or small, if the end result is wildly inconsistent, I have to throw in the towel. Case in point: Navin Ramaswaran’s shockingly inept Chasing Valentine.
One of the most exciting voices of contemporary cinema has hit that point in his career where he needs to make his first English language feature. Thankfully, unlike countless others before him, Yorgos Lanthimos managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of the “first English feature” and results in The Lobster, a film as weird and brilliant as his previous features Dogtooth and ALPS.
Filmmaking is certainly an important form of self-expression, but not all films are created equal; sometimes a film comes out that serves no purpose, makes no impact and leaves no impression. Gerard Barrett’s Glassland is a perfect example of such a film. His film completely lacks any purpose other than to be a series of images giving an illusion of motion on a screen. Glassland never rises above a TV-movie-of-the-week, and its attempts at slow and…
A film titled A Perfect Day opens itself to a lot of critical wordplay. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect and it’s not imperfect – it’s definitely somewhere in the middle. An Okay Day just doesn’t have the same ring.
Jesse Owens is a fascinating individual and he absolutely deserves a biopic, but Race is not it. Interestingly enough, the title gives away many of the film’s faults: it conflates racism and running to an uncomfortable degree. Stephen Hopkins’ movie is almost completely devoid of subtlety – it’s so naive, it hurts.
Addison Wylie 2015 cranked out a lot of great movies. I was actually able to form a “best of” list before even thinking of those cinematic duds. However, that doesn’t excuse the following films. These frustrating films put my patience to the test, even so far as to push me out of the movie altogether. Don’t worry though, I returned to finish that defeating film. And, yes, it was the worst film I saw all year.
Nice People is a very timely film. In our current state of mass migration of Arabic and African refugees to European countries and the right-wing propaganda that follows such events, it is important for audiences to get a view of the conditions of these people. The fact that Nice People’s view is all wrapped up in a feel-good narrative about a happy-go-lucky sports team is just a smart strategy from documentarians Karin af Klintberg and Anders…
Addison Wylie 2015 was a great year for movies, and I hope returning readers will see those results on the lists below. However, I understand if my favourites at the tip of the iceberg aren’t surprising – they haven’t changed since the mid-year report. A couple of excellent documentaries, and an army of dogs set the bar astronomically high. On another note, I hope people will consider checking out the films that flesh out the…
