Wylie Writes’ 2019 Mid-Year Report
We’re halfway through the year, which means it’s time for Wylie Writes’ recap of the best and the worst films of 2019. Don’t forget to click the coloured titles to read a more detailed write-up about the film!
Shahbaz Khayambashi
The Dead Don’t Die
Jim Jarmusch has been making films for almost forty years. Despite such a prolific career, his bad works can be counted on one hand. This is a direct result of knowing his audience and knowing exactly what it is that they want. This streak continues with his latest feature, The Dead Don’t Die, a zombie horror-comedy which takes on American consumption without ever taking itself too seriously; after all, that film was made about forty…
Walking on Water
Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple who were well-known for creating massive works by altering the environment around them, often by wrapping a giant structure in plastic or introducing new foreign elements into an established setting. Their works were equally celebrated and ridiculed by the artistic elites and society at large. When Jeanne-Claude passed away from a brain aneurysm, Christo’s attempt to honour her came as a realization of a work they had planned…
Hot Docs 2019: ‘Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies’
Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies (DIR. Larry Weinstein) Larry Weinstein’s Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies is a multi-faceted historical study of the use of propaganda for political gain.
Girls of the Sun
The struggle of the Yazidi people against ISIS is a noteworthy story and one deserving of a sympathetic and heroic cinematic adaptation. Unfortunately, Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun is just not it. While the film is serviceable, its relationship to its subject matter is somehow mundane and exploitative at the same time.
3 Faces
In 2010, Jafar Panahi was arrested on the charge of making propaganda against Iran and was sentenced to not make any films for twenty years. To a filmmaker, that is akin to having one’s tongue cut off. Panahi, however, did not take that sentence into consideration; the last nine years seeing four new releases from him, making it the most prolific chapter of his career. This new act of revolutionary filmmaking has created some of…
Wylie Writes @ What The Film Festival ’19
In a city oversaturated by film festivals, it is nearly impossible to find a festival that isn’t somehow derivative of others. While many festivals have something to offer to a small, niche audience, it often seems like it’s all been done. And yet, occasionally, you find something wholly unique; something that suggests that, not only is there no similar festival in Toronto, it may well be the only festival of its kind in the world….
The Best Movies of 2018
2018’s mind-boggling award season finishes tonight with the 91st Academy Awards. Considering that the festival circuit has been a scattershot of one-off wins, the team at Wylie Writes is eager to see what happens at the Oscars. However, before that ceremony, some of our critics want to shine a spotlight on the movies they thought were the very best – including some festival favourites that will hopefully be released wider this year.
The Worst Movies of 2018
As we close in on this Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, it’s about time for Wylie Writes to weigh in with their year-end rundowns. First, the worst. Click on the blue highlighted titles to read the critic’s review.
Hal
Hal Ashby is undoubtedly one of the underrated greats of American cinema. While he never quite became a household name, his films frequently had a certain magical quality to them; never quite being the film that people think of when referring to the great works of an actor, but rather that other film that always comes out in the second or third breath. Films like Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Bound for Glory and Being There ensured that he would…