As 2019’s awards season comes to a close with the upcoming Oscars ceremony on February 9, the critics at Wylie Writes would like to shine a spotlight on the movies they thought were the very best of the year – including some festival favourites that will receive wider releases this year.
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Gille Klabin hits a surprising home run with The Wave, a fast-paced, drug-fueled, comedy/thriller with an unexpectedly cathartic conclusion. It’s a film rich in tone and atmosphere, similar to the time-slipping (500) Days of Summer or even Tim Burton’s whimsical Big Fish. The movie is set in an enriched, highly-detailed world that would require multiple viewings to discover each layer of creative foreshadowing, and each hidden easter egg.
By: Trevor Chartrand Based on a true story, Brotherhood is a harrowing tale of survival that recounts the tragedy beset upon a boy’s summer camp in Balsam Lake, Ontario in 1926. On the night of July 20, thirteen boys and two camp counsellors set out to cross the lake in a canoe to gather food and supplies for the camp. They encountered high winds that capsized the boat, leaving them floating in the cold water…
By: Trevor Chartrand Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory is a well-crafted melodrama; an emotional piece weighed heavily by its evocation of sadness and regret. The film stars Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo, an aging filmmaker who reflects on his past and the mistakes he’s made – mistakes that seem more clear through older, wiser eyes. Almodóvar explores themes of life, love, family, regret, and retribution, all through the lens of the classic mantra: ‘hindsight is…
By: Trevor Chartrand The beloved and monstrous Addams Family returns to cinemas this Halloween; animated for the first time ever on the big screen, and directed by the duo who brought adults Sausage Party. This new film focuses on a real estate mogul trying to drive monsters out of town (à la Shrek), Pugsley Addams’ bar mitzvah, Wednesday Addams’ teenage rebellion, Lurch endlessly playing pop songs on a piano, and a never-ending slurry of other superfluous subplots…
By: Trevor Chartrand Former actress Amy Jo Johnson’s second directorial effort is Tammy’s Always Dying, an incredibly painful look at dysfunctional family dynamics. The film explores the dark and unstable relationship between the understandably broken Catherine (Anastasia Phillips) and her suicidal mother Tammy (Felicity Huffman).
By: Trevor Chartrand Canadian films have the unfortunate reputation for being ‘bad’ or ‘poorly produced,’ and as much as it hurts to admit, the generalization tends to be accurate. That’s certainly the case with the latest film from directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Michelle Derosierand. Angelique’s Isle tells the true story of a First Nations woman and her wilderness survival during the copper rush of the late 1800s.
By: Trevor Chartrand Danish filmmaker/journalist Mads Brügger hits an incredible home run with his latest intense and heartbreaking documentary, Cold Case Hammarskjöld. The film sets out to explore a fifty-year-old unsolved mystery, which is intriguing enough, only to end up unravelling a much larger, gut-churningly appalling conspiracy.
By: Trevor Chartrand Chasing Perfect is a car design documentary with a very narrow focus, and it will undoubtedly appeal to a fairly niche audience as a result. The film chronicles the life and career of legendary car designer Frank Stephenson, the creative mind behind a variety of modern vehicles from flashy sports cars to practical SUVs.
By: Trevor Chartrand In Dogman, a mild-mannered dog groomer named Marcello (Marcello Fonte) struggles to make ends meet in his Italian slum. He gets by in his community, which is populated by a variety of small-time crooks, by dealing cocaine to support his ex-wife and their daughter. After standing up to a notorious citizen however, the former boxer and town bully Simoncino (Edoardo Pesce), Marcello loses the respect of his neighbors and is forced to…