The Russian Woodpecker
What we have here is a patchy documentary that works to great effect in spurts.
Wylie
Mortdecai
Watching Mortdecai is painful in the same awkward way being an outcast at a shrill party can be. Everyone is having so much fun with themselves that they forget to include you. I can’t say that I was jealous from being left outside Mortdecai’s social circle though – I was too irritated to care.
The Reflektor Tapes
By: Addison Wylie Kahlil Joseph’s Arcade Fire docu-mishmash titled The Reflektor Tapes is like a fever dream with great music that has gotten too carried away with itself. I imagine if I listened to the band’s discography and then crashed after a hard day’s work, I would start to visualize this film’s lurid activity. The Reflektor Tapes is one of these examples where you can’t stop fans from flocking to this thing, and newcomers will…
Ally Was Screaming
By: Addison Wylie As much as I would like to commend writer/director Jeremy Thomas for making a sophisticated and adult film about grief and the internal struggle to define what is morally correct, his woeful feature Ally Was Screaming is an anticlimactic and overcooked blunder that drove me crazy. Although, Thomas’ maturity is essentially what was much needed in January’s I Put a Hit on You. Seth, Nole, and Ally were a friendly and tender trifecta….
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Gridlocked’
By: Addison Wylie I don’t consider it a good sign when a film makes you consider similar movies of its kind that you’ve given bad reviews to. Take Allan Ungar’s Gridlocked. I not only didn’t like it, but it made me wonder if I was too harsh on other action copycats like Olympus Has Fallen. However, I’m not going back on my word. Olympus Has Fallen is as much of a Die Hard ripoff as…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Shut In’
By: Addison Wylie Shut In’s leading damsel Anna (played by Beth Riesgraf) and filmmaker Adam Schindler have something in common: both have the ability to surprise and disarm. Schindler’s thriller begins as one of Toronto After Dark’s tamer offerings, and then socks us upside the head with brutal consequences and intense confrontations. Anna is reserved in mourning, and her agoraphobia keeps her hushed inside a rickety house. When she’s threatened by thieves interested in her stashed wealth, Anna reveals…
Toronto After Dark 2015: Shorts After Dark
Awesome Runaway!! (DIR. Benjamin De Los Santos) By: Addison Wylie Benjamin De Los Santos’ Awesome Runaway!! is…well….awesome…for the most part. Inspired by video game combat, Looney Tunes, and the ‘Safe Haven’ segment of V/H/S/2, the filmmaker has conceived a stylistic treat that will surely delight Toronto After Dark movie goers. From the opening shot up until a final confrontation with an evil kingpin monologuing about nonsense, Awesome Runaway!! plays towards clichés in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘The Hallow’
By: Addison Wylie The Hallow is made up of great parts that build towards a fleeting good time. The adult audience gets as much satisfaction out of it as a toddler does with a mall’s mechanical horse. Within the film’s undistinguished Irish town, the community unanimously agrees that the woods are not necessarily a great place to idle. Their distain is brought out when a family of out-of-towners move to a secluded millhouse that happens…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Night of the Living Deb’
By: Addison Wylie Let’s not beat around the bush: the most comparable film you can mention when talking about Kyle Rankin’s Night of the Living Deb is Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. Both Shaun and Deb are underdogs dealing with a zombie outbreak on the fly while trying to figure out their own issues with romance. The strongest thing you can say about Rankin’s horror/comedy is that while Night of the Living Deb is…
Entourage
By: Addison Wylie I don’t regret liking HBO’s Entourage even though Doug Ellin’s cinematic continuation of the hit TV series stinks. The television show offered a sleek albeit heightened look into the politics and smooth-talkers behind Hollywood. Actor Vincent Chase was a lucrative asset to any major motion picture, and his friends witnessed this as they tagged along for the ride. Frequently vulgar and overtly macho, Entourage was amusing escapism that made filmdom look and…