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One-on-Ones

People Hold On (plus a One-On-One with Director Michael Seater)

October 7, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Life With Derek’s Michael Seater gets his directorial feet wet with the ensemble dramedy People Hold On.  It’s a good place for the budding filmmaker to start.  The film itself is contained within few environments and doesn’t call for visual tricks, which leaves Seater a lot of time to draw characters and connect with his tight-knit cast.  The filmmaker must’ve also felt another level of comfort and confidence knowing co-star Paula Brancati – whom…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto Youth Shorts’ T24 2015: Challenging Perfection

October 6, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Toronto Youth Shorts’ T24 challenges filmmakers to create, finish, and submit a short film to the festival’s committee within 24-hours.  Before heading out to plan their production, each team is given a page-long mission statement for the challenge documenting the themes that their works should fulfill. This year, festival director Henry Wong and his team were inspired by recent, humbling articles complimenting the GTA.  The Toronto Youth Shorts committee state the long and…

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Festival Coverage
I Smile Back still

TIFF 2015: Smiling Back with Adam Salky, Amy Koppelman, and Paige Dylan

September 25, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Shannon Page Wylie Writes had the opportunity to sit down with director Adam Salky (Dare), as well as writers Amy Koppelman and Paige Dylan, about their film I Smile Back which stars Sarah Silverman as a drug and alcohol abusing New Jersey housewife trying to keep herself and her family together.  Koppelman and Dylan co-wrote the screenplay, based off of Koppelman’s 2008 novel by the same name. “The novel was incredibly helpful in making…

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Reviews

Hellions

September 24, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool) is a very busy filmmaker.  In 2010 alone, the award-winning director released three films.  If I don’t like one of McDonald’s films, I can at least find something I can appreciate about his filmmaking, but his latest horror Hellions suggests to me that the next best thing for his career may be some downtime. The main problem with Hellions, a film about a…

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Festival Coverage

Wylie Writes at Fan Expo ’15

September 21, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery At Toronto’s Fan Expo (an annual gathering for sci-fi super fans, comic book buffs, anime addicts, gaming geeks, horror… fans), badge-wearing nerds flock from all around, many garbed as pop culture icons, to enjoy a convention of collective interests.  It’s a place where people can gather in community, compliment each other’s costumes, bathe in their favourite entertainment cultures and, of course, enjoy the celebrity guests.

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Festival Coverage

TIFF 2015: ‘Lolo’

September 14, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Shannon Page While on a spa retreat in the countryside with her best friend (Karin Viard), Violette (Julie Delpy, who also directs) meets geeky computer engineer Jean-René (Danny Boon).  Their romance gets rocky when Violette brings Jean-René into her sophisticated life in Paris and introduces him to her nineteen year old son, Lolo (Vincent Lacoste).  An unhappy Lolo attempts to sabotage his mother’s new relationship. The script – which was co-written by Delpy and Eugénie…

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Festival Coverage

TIFF 2015: ‘Invention’

September 13, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie It takes patience to mull thorough Mark Lewis’ Invention.  However, even the calmest movie goers may find themselves jiggling their leg and looking at their watch. Invention features visual artist Lewis and a wandering, hovering camera (driven by cinematographers Bobby Shore and Martin Testar) visiting Toronto, Paris, and Sao Paulo.  His feature film debut asks audiences to find fascination in minor details.  The camera floats, locks in on open, negative space and waits for…

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Festival Coverage
I Smile Back still

TIFF 2015: ‘I Smile Back’

September 12, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Shannon Page Probably best known for her stand-up comedy and satirical roles, Sarah Silverman isn’t the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of serious dramatic actresses – but maybe she should be. Directed by Adam Salky (Dare), I Smile Back stars Silverman as Laney Brooks, a suburban housewife and mother of two.  In between packing lunches and driving the kids to school, Laney’s self-destructive behavior and out-of-control drug use begin to…

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Festival Coverage

TIFF 2015: ‘Northern Soul’

September 11, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery In 1978, John (Elliot James Langridge) is a lonely English youth with a penchant for vandalism.  He goes from creepily shy to dance machine after meeting cool guy Matt (Josh Whitehouse) and being introduced to the sounds of American soul music.  And speed.  Lots and lots of speed. The two bond quickly over records and dancing.  John ditches his good boy life, rudely telling his parents and teacher to go elsewhere, and…

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Festival Coverage

TIFF 2015: ‘Ville-Marie’

September 11, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery College senior Thomas (TIFF rising star Aliocha Schneider) witnesses a young mother’s suicide after she hands him her baby and dives in front of a truck.  Guy Édoin’s Ville-Marie takes two paths from this first scene tragedy: one, following Thomas as he reunites with his estranged actress mother shooting on location in Montreal, Sophie (Monica Bellucci), and the second following the hospital staff – a paramedic who shows up to the scene,…

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