By: Addison Wylie An after hours horror show goes mad in the uneven Late Night Double Feature. Before the mayhem ensues on the set of Dr, Nasty’s Cavalcade of Horror, the audience is treated to a couple of spooky shorts intercut by commercials and previews. For the most part, the film is authentically structured like a craggy cable access show, which provides plenty of chuckles. An ill-placed ad cashing in on the night’s horror theme…
By: Addison Wylie Earlier this year, I gave I Put a Hit on You an unfavourable review. This led me to believe that making a compelling comedy about snippety people bumming around their house was impossible. Mars Horodyski proves me wrong with Ben’s at Home. This film is funny and fully realized, successfully capturing an introvert’s post-breakup buffer period. Ben (played with wit by Dan Abramovici) chooses to stay housebound because he’s satisfied with personal…
By: Addison Wylie Barn Wedding seems like it was conceived by hopeful actors supporting a “let’s put on a show” credence. Unfortunately, when things start to get interesting, Shaun Benson’s directorial debut is a day late and a dollar short when the stakes are raised. The performances in Barn Wedding are sensible portrayals of drifters who are faithful to their friends. They unite for a wedding, but the group grows suspicious about the intentions behind…
By: Addison Wylie Musicians Mike Ford and Murray Foster have a shared enthusiasm for toe-tapping britpop. This appreciation motivated the compadres to develop The Cocksure Lads, an imitation homage to the lively tunes. Foster has taken the ruse further with The Cocksure Lads Movie. While the comedy is lightheartedly harmless, I have a disagreement with how this nutty band has taken the leap to the big screen. The Cocksure Lads, a tame group of goodie-goodies,…
By: Addison Wylie By playing the role of Bianca ‘The DUFF’ Piper, actress Mae Whitman finds herself in the midst of being typecast. She plays this precocious misfit so well, that I can already envision casting agents salivating. The predicament Whitman and those eager agents find themselves in is that The DUFF isn’t a great movie nor particularly memorable. Its resonating buzz will be made up of satisfactory shoulder shrugs and head bobs from those…
By: Addison Wylie I tend to think I cover a lot of film festivals; especially those who screen short films. However, the Toronto Short Film Festival (March 16 – March 20 at Toronto’s Carlton Cinema) is new to me. By grazing over TSFF’s mission statement, the festival blends into the collection of similar screenings in the GTA. That said, I investigated more and was corrected. The Toronto Short Film Festival has a wide roster of…
By: Addison Wylie Roberto Minervini’s docudrama Stop the Pounding Heart has an intentionally intrusive presentation set in rural Americana. The audience peers in on extremely realistic conversations from a cast of unknowns to a prying degree. Stop the Pounding Heart is one of those films where you demand to read the screenplay afterwards because you’re dying to find out what was scripted and what was conjured naturally in front of the camera. With Minervini being…
By: Addison Wylie Standstill seems straightforward enough with its plot involving a photographer overhearing and witnessing the brunt of a murder. However, I believe, a lot of Majdi El-Omari’s story is up for interpretation. Movie goers will pull details out of El-Omari’s screenplay and apply them to their own vision of Standstill. Elements of mysteries and road movies ring throughout the black-and-white movie. Arihote (played by Atewenaron David Dearhouse) gives Wedad, the perplexed Palestinian murderer,…
By: Addison Wylie When I watch a documentary like Harold Crooks’ The Price We Pay, I think about that sparsely attended audience who would enjoy a doc this dense. I wonder how those movie goers find windows of fascination in a film that constantly slugs hefty loads of information towards them. How do they withstand this documentary that is so persistent to be dramatic through its B-roll, yet reels back when delivering essential facts? I don’t…
By: Addison Wylie David Cross is one of the best comedians working in the business today. His blunt, unmerciful opinion carries through his routine as he nails each punchline with the right amount of sarcastic wit. But as clever as he is, Cross’ brand of curt comedy needs to form in a new direction if he plans on carrying on making movies. HITS marks the comic’s directorial debut, and he also penned the screenplay that…