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  • Don’t Be Cruel: Are Canada’s Drag Race Judges Too Tough?

    Don’t Be Cruel: Are Canada’s Drag Race Judges Too Tough?

    As the first season of Canada’s Drag Race zips toward the finish line, fans of the show have already reached a conclusion of their own. And surprisingly, it’s got nothing to do with the outcome of the competition.

    Followers of the new reality-TV series, the latest offspring of the ever-burgeoning and hugely successful RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, aren’t at all happy with the attitude of the judges who’ve been working the show.

    In the court of public opinion, they’ve already been found guilty of cruel and unusual punishment.

    Getting To Know The Judges

    Before delving into the charges being laid against them, let’s review the trio of personalities who are on the Canada’s Drag Race judging panel.

    Fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race won’t require an introduction to Brooke Lynn Hytes. That’s the stage name of Canadian drag queen Brock Hayhoe. Brooke Lynn Hytes competed on Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race and finished second to winner Yvie Oddly. 

    “It had been a fantasy of mine forever for there to be a Canada’s Drag Race, because we don’t really have anything here that gives drag queens this kind of platform,” Hytes told NowToronto.com.

    Joining Hytes on the panel are Stacey McKenzie and Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman. Fashion model McKenzie also served as a judge on Canada’s Next Top Model, while Bowyer-Chapman appeared as Jay in the Lifetime dark comedy-drama series Unreal from 2015–2018.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfT2j3b9NmY

    Body Shaming Accusations

    Bowyer-Chapman was called out on social media after he made a comment to contestant Ilona Verley that she should have used foundation on her backside during a runway walk. 

    Fans felt that Bowyer-Chapman was body shaming Verley. Supporters of Verley found his critique to be cruel and humiliating.

    At first, Verley shrugged off the comment. “Their critique about putting foundation on my butt – in the moment, I didn’t really take offence to that,” Verley told Express.co.uk. 

    “And then seeing the overwhelming response on Twitter and social media about that really kind of opened my eyes to go like, ‘Oh, yeah, maybe they shouldn’t have said that.’

    “That is kind of problematic. That’s going to make people feel ashamed of their bodies if they’re showing skin and not putting foundation on it. That’s kind of a weird message to put out.”

    Hytes Says Sorry

    Brooke Lynn Hytes took to Twitter to answer criticisms of Canada’s Drag Race judging. Photo by: DVSROSS (flickr).

    Originally, Hytes backed up Bowyer-Chapman’s assessment, adding that she also felt Verley needed to apply some foundation. But as a drag queen herself, Hytes identified the reason for the criticism being due to the need to use foundation to cover up red marks that are caused by shaving. 

    Looking to slow down the backlash against the show, Hytes took to social media to offer an explanation and adamantly state that it was in no way intended to be body shaming.

    “She has a beautiful, beautiful body and it was not meant in that way at all,” Hytes tweeted about Verley. “You also can’t cover up cellulite with foundation, so yeah. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding and I understand that you probably couldn’t see that on your TV, but that’s where our critique was coming from.”

    At the same time, Hytes wasn’t about to back off any suggestions that she was a tough judge during the show’s run. 

    “I was definitely very critical, but always with a point,” Hytes said. “I was not there to make anybody feel bad or to put anybody down. 

    “It was all constructive and I was just very honest with the girls.”

    Weighing The Odds

    With two episodes to go, it’s down to the short straw at Canada’s Drag Race. Just five contestants remain in the hunt for the title.

    Rita Baga and Priyanka are the 3.00 favorites at canadasportsbetting, followed closely by Jimbo and Scarlett BoBo at odds of 4.00.

    Lemon is the longshot on the board, with a betting line of 6.00.

  • Turf Nation: Review

    Turf Nation: Review

    Turf Nation is a well-made documentary short film, that gives insight into the roots of the American Oakland-born dance form- Turfing, and also highlights serious social issues. 

    Turf Nation is narrated by Lavish and his group of friends and fellow-dancers. The style of dance is mostly explained through performances from members of the group. We learn that Turfing combines elements of tutting, gliding and bone breaking, with moves that will leave you saying “wow!”. We follow the group of dancers to where they make their daily income- the streets of the Bay Area and the tunnels and train cars of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). 

    One of the dancers explains that whist he has goals to be on tour or overseas doing shows, performing on trains is a creative outlet and platform to showcase his talent. 

    Later we see that these dancers also work in music videos, with some being featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live and America’s Got Talent. This documentary illustrates how these young men have created their own enterprise, found work for themselves and have made a business out of their talent. Moreover, it becomes evident they have done this despite the difficulties of coming from a low-economic background and having to deal with a lifetime of prejudices.

    This is shown in the scene where Lavish and Zel talk about their history with the Police, saying “It’s not that we do illegal shit, they do illegal shit to us, ‘cause we don’t fuck with them”. The dancer’s then go on to say “you know what the cop did when he arrested us? He said ‘YES! We got three of them’…He said it like he shot a three-pointer”.

    This documentary also challenges the classism linked to dance as an elitist sport. “We have changed the narrative of what it takes to be a dancer” says Lavish. It is evident that these young dancers have talent but they also put in the hours of hard work. “We created our own way, our own path”, says Lavish, “there are no limits to anything you want to do… you can start off with nothing…anything is possible.”

    As well as having an important story and powerful themes, this documentary is very well made and of excellent quality. Great camera work is used to follow and capture the continuously moving dancers as they travel through the streets and onto the trains.

    The soundtrack is cool and relevant to the subject matter, and the choreography does not disappoint. In fact, the dancers are consistently moving throughout as if they can’t stop for the love of it, which nicely captures the main premise of the documentary. This is exciting work form director Jun Bae. 

  • Black Is King: The BRWC Review

    Black Is King: The BRWC Review

    A young African king is cast out from his family into an unforgiving world. He subsequently undergoes a journey “through betrayal, love and self-identity” to reclaim his throne, utilizing the guidance of his ancestors and childhood love. The story is told through the voices of present-day Black people.

    It should go without saying at this point that Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is one of the most influential people in the world right now. Not just in the entertainment industry. Virtually everything the iconic singer-songwriter puts out gets widespread acclaim and for good reason. She is an expert at crafting music that feels real, raw, and powerful at every chance she gets. Lemonade didn’t get all of those GRAMMY nominations for no reason.

    Although the 2019 Lion King remake was a film that I overall greatly disliked, her soundtrack songs for the film were an absolute delight to listen to. Her songs were one of the only things that were keeping me from being bored out of my mind when watching that movie.

    What I am trying to get at is this – I am a Beyoncé fan. She makes some incredible music and is an inspiration to millions of people all around the world. That is why I was very surprised when I heard about the release of Black Is King, a musical/visual album of sorts released in the style of a traditional film on Disney+. Just like I had hoped, this is an amazing film and perhaps the most relaxing film of the year so far. It may feel extremely short due to its eighty-five minute running time, but it is nevertheless a visual and musical feast for the eyes and ears.

    Right from the opening scene alone, the movie reels you in with its sense of intense power and visual storytelling that only a few people would be able to pull off as well as Beyoncé does here. Every single shot in Black Is King feels important and is put to good use. There was never a moment anywhere in this film where I felt as though a certain scene felt out of place or wasn’t long enough. They all feel like they tell important pieces of the story and they all felt like they belonged.

    Something else that surprised me here was how amazing the music was. I don’t know why I was so surprised by that considering that I love Beyoncé’s music. Maybe my mindset was that since this was a film for Disney+, the music wouldn’t be as great as the rest of her discography, but thankfully, that is not the case here. I found myself getting heavily into every last song in the film, with plenty of them actually causing me to tap my feet while watching and listening. I don’t do that often, either. Only when I find a song I really, really like, and this movie has lots of songs just like that.

    When it comes to issues with the film, it does suffer from not having a traditional narrative. The film is told entirely from the perspective of music and visual shots with only a few lines of actual dialogue in the form of narration by Beyoncé sprinkled throughout. It can feel like it is a little bit style over substance every once in a while, but gratefully, that is not the case for the majority of the movie.

    If you are a massive fan of Beyoncé, this film is more than likely going to give you everything you wanted and so much more. It’s filled with catchy, meaningful songs that will not only stick in your head for days after hearing them but will leave you pondering about the meaning of life, the world, and our universe.

    Black Is King is an immensely powerful and massively entertaining film from Beyoncé filled with catchy and remarkably moving music.

  • Sister Tempest: Review

    Sister Tempest: Review

    By Betty Widdicombe.

    Sci-fi/horror comedy meets Cosmic Court drama – ‘Sister Tempest’ is the second film written and directed by comic book artist and filmmaker Joe Badon. His previous ‘The God Inside My Ear’ ’17, a surrealistic, genre-bending, comic film, shot in a not too dissimilar in style.

    Elder sibling Ann Hutchinson (Kali Russell) is under a cosmic tribunal, focusing on the mysterious disappearance of her younger sister Karen (Holly Bonney. Ann is a teacher at a private girl’s art school, where a new student, Ginger Rodgers Breadman (Linnea Gregg) (yep- that’s her real name) a child of potato farmers joins. Ann develops a rather inappropriate relationship with a new student, and swiftly they become roommates. It is not long before this simple country girl has a rapid transformation – developing a cabalistic skin condition, and a voracious cannibalistic appetite.

    Initial response after viewing…I’d been sent someone’s art school experiment. The plot is delivered via flashbacks, and a good portion is inserted with an extended montage of archive documents, photographs and stock footage. Dialogue flits between narration and  Badon’s art department and comic book background weighs heavy, with tinny props, mannequins, and cheap model making. Strangely lit at points, with strong use of ominous color pallets. The sound design is an interesting use of old-school sci-fi soundtracks and is often quite lively. This is the strongest aspect of the film and ties the story together, keeping us animated during a somewhat obscure collection of visuals.

    The film is low-budget and highly stylized, reminiscent of techniques used in 50s/70s cosmic horror and sci-fi TV/B-Movies. The structure of the narrative is choppy, surreal and at times confusing. Trawling through past interviews with Badon its clear to see this heavily stylized film is a homage to this format, but I find it misses the overall essence.

    “My films are all about my love of cinema and putting all my favorite films in a blender! I think that is what makes my voice unique, especially in today’s creative landscape… Back in the 50s and 60s, tiny production companies would make no-budget sci-fi and horror and load it up with as many locations and papier mache monsters and cheap effects as they could!” – Joe Badon in an interview by: Paul Farrell for ‘Dead Ringers Podcast’ – Apr’2019

    Personally, an avid fan of vintage B-movies, obscure horror comedies and cult TV shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Old-school Dr Who, John Waters and David Lynch – I found it quite disappointing, as it failed to deliver.

    The whole film is weird. Not good weird. Just plain odd. I think you have to have a really open-mind, or some great hallucinogenics to get on board. 

    Who knows, maybe I’ll look back on this in 5 years and shove it on the cackle-worthy list of cult trash films. 

  • Interview: Paul Hyett On Creative Freedom

    Interview: Paul Hyett On Creative Freedom

    Paul Hyett interview – Ahead of the Digital release on Aug 3 of his latest film PERIPHERAL, director Paul Hyett talks about the importance of creative freedom, the lockdown and future projects

    Peripheral is your fourth feature as director. When you started on The Seasoning House back in 2011, did you ever imagine your career would be this successful? 

    Back when I decided I wanted to make my own movie I had my prosthetics company and was doing very well, but I really wanted to tell my own stories. I said to myself, get The Seasoning Housemade, see if it’s any good> If it’s a success then I would close my workshop and concentrate on directing. When it was selected as opening film for FrightFest 2012, I was elated and decided to go that path. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have directed four films and never would have thought that would happen. 

    What drew you to Peripheral, which at first sight, would appear to have very different dramatic challenges from your previous films, being set in one location and driven heavily by psychological narrative. 

    Paul – Peripheral really appealed to me. It was so well written, really layered. It had so much to say and was so relevant at the time and even more relevant today! Throughout my career as a prosthetics guy, I’ve had to turn my art to suit other people’s tastes, in a way selling out and just having to be a commercial artist. Even in my directing career I’ve had to bend to please exec producers and financiers. So, I could connect with Peripheral, which was about an artist being manipulated, wanting to be pure but having to sell to pay her bills. And then, on top, a really interesting comment on social media, celebrity obsessiveness, fall from grace, a futile fight against what you really believe in. It was such a draw for me. 

    Peripheral was written by renowned comic book writer / screenwriter Dan Shaffer. How did you come across the script and had you worked with Dan before? 

    Craig Touhy, the producer asked me to read it, thought I’d be perfect for it. The initiall pitch was, a girl, in one location, a flat and a computer. I originally thought, after doing the SFX laden movie Howl, that I wanted to continue down that path, bigger budgets, tons of prosthetics and VFX. But I’ll always read a script, just to make sure I’m doing the right thing turning it down. I read it and I LOVED it. It was my first reading of a Dan Shaffer script, he’s a brilliant writer. 

    For your previous films you’ve been heavily involved in the writing process. How was it primarily working with someone else’s script? 

    It was fine. I’m not at all precious. All I care about is getting the script in best shape possible for day one of shooting. If a script is perfect, and I don’t have to do anything then great. But more often or not you have to do quite a bit of work on a script. But with Peripheral, it was just tweaking for me. The film deals with some topical issues such as the insidious control tech can have in our lives, addiction and mental health. How tough was it to balance this with creating an entertaining, genre-driven thriller? I always think you can take any story, any experience and turn it into an interesting, entertaining movie. When I said to people the plot for The Seasoning House they would just look at me, how is this going to be entertaining? There’s always a way. If you care about a character, whatever they go through, the audience will go through with them. The most important thing was visually, set in one location, how do I make this always entertaining to the eye, to keep people visually interesting. That was a challenge. 

    What creative influences inspired you? Cronenberg and Bernard Rose have been mentioned in the press. 

    Paul – Cronenberg was a big influence. And people saying there’s shades of Videodrome (which I love) is extremely flattering. I love all Cronenberg’s films. Someone else mentioned Demon Seed, which I hadn’t even thought about. 

    Hannah Arterton is terrific as a writer dealing with ‘second-novel syndrome’. How did you make the decision to cast her? 

    Paul – We saw nearly a hundred girls for Peripheral. We had very little prep and very little time to shoot this. Hannah had been in the back of my mind as soon as I read the script. She’s a terrific actress and we had worked well together before. I was worried about having an actress that I didn’t know and with Hannah we have a great shorthand. We know what each other is thinking before we say it. And she nailed the screen test. She was so committed to the role, totally surpassed my expectations and was a delight to work with. Bobbi is such a complex character and Hannah and I would discuss at length her motivation, her instincts, Hannah was absolutely brilliant! 

    The film’s claustrophobic atmosphere feels like the kind of film that resonates with the lockdown. How has the past three months or so been for you personally? How creative have you managed to be? 

    Yes, it is the ultimate lockdown movie. I’m sort of used to a lockdown life. Most of my time is alone at home, writing, developing projects, Skype calls etc so life wasn’t so different in the last three months. I had just got back from Boston the week before lockdown from a recce, so it was a bit of a pain as my next movie was put on hold. The biggest shock was the supermarkets running out of food, it was proper zombie panic, and I may one day write a script about the toilet roll shortage of 2020! 

    Have you watched any good horror films whilst stuck indoors? 

    I’ve been catching up on tons of movies and box sets. Really good horror movies? Gerald’s Game was great, I enjoyed The Ritual, Hereditary was cool, Underwater (I love aquatic horror) and Eurovison with Will Ferrel! Horrific (in a good way)! 

    You have two productions in development. One is The Black Site with Grimmfest films and the other is Unnatural Selection with Washashore productions. What can you tell us about them? 

    Paul – The Black Site is a psychological horror. Imagine Zero Dark Thirty meets Jacob’s Ladder. Unnatural Selection is set in a sleepy Cape Cod town and is an atmospheric Carpenter-esque New England horror story.

    PERIPHERAL is available digitally in the UK and Ireland from August 3 on iTunes, Amazon, Google, Sky and Virgin