By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Who knew that the man behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch has such an interesting life? But this is one of the biggest takeaways of the charming I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, which premiered at Hot Docs in 2014, and is finally opening at the… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
By John Corrado Last week, Charles Chaplin’s Limelight was released on Blu-ray, as part of the Criterion Collection. Through one of his most personal and emotional screenplays, the 1952 classic shows the bond that forms between Calvero (Charles Chaplin), a fading clown who is struggling to remain relevant, and Thereza (Claire Bloom), a depressed young ballet… Read More Criterion Release: Limelight
Tomorrowland – A Walt Disney Studios Release http://movies.disney.com/tomorrowland/ Release Date: May 22nd, 2015 Rated PG for violence Running Time: 130 minutes Brad Bird (director) Damon Lindelof (screenplay) Brad Bird (screenplay) Michael Giacchino (music) George Clooney as Frank Walker Hugh Laurie as Nix Britt Robertson as Casey Newton Raffey Cassidy as Athena Tim McGraw as Eddie… Read More Three Views: Tomorrowland
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Inside Out Film Festival starts tonight, and will be going strong at TIFF Bell Lightbox until May 31st, celebrating LGBT cinema from around the world. Audiences are in for a real treat tonight with the Canadian premiere of the Sundance hit Grandma, which isn’t even opening in… Read More Previewing the 2015 Inside Out Film Festival
By John Corrado The latest from acclaimed animator Bill Plympton, levelFILM is hosting a special one night only screening of Cheatin’ tonight at the Royal Cinema in Toronto. The film starts at 9:30 PM, and more information can be found right here. Free of dialogue, Cheatin’ recounts the whirlwind romance between Ella and Jake, two… Read More Bill Plympton’s Cheatin’ screens tonight only at the Royal Cinema in Toronto
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the acclaimed Russian drama Leviathan on Blu-ray. The film takes place in a small coastal town, where Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) and his wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) are fighting to save their property from the corrupt mayor (Roman Madyanov), but the arrival of his lawyer (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) leads… Read More Blu-ray Release: Leviathan
By John Corrado Today, Touchstone Pictures is releasing Strange Magic on DVD. The animated musical follows fairy sisters Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood) and Dawn (Meredith Anne Bull), who get involved with the jilted Bog King (Alan Cumming), when lovestruck elf Sunny (Elijah Kelley) unleashes a love potion. Dumped into theatres back in January, I wasn’t really… Read More DVD Release: Strange Magic
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) George Miller is seventy years old, but Mad Max: Fury Road feels like the work of a director half that age. The Australian filmmaker has raised the bar so high with this exhilarating continuation of his now legendary original trilogy, that that he’s created a whole new level… Read More Review: Mad Max: Fury Road
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Maybe it’s just that I have a soft spot for movies about film critics, or can admittedly somewhat relate to the title character, but I really enjoyed Ben’s At Home, a micro budget picture that offers big rewards. After winning the award for Best Feature at the Canadian Film… Read More Review: Ben’s At Home
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) What exactly constitutes a “good kill?” And is there even such a thing as one, or are these two fundamentally different words just put together to try and justify war and conflict? With drone warfare becoming an increasingly more common tactic in the arsenal of tools used by… Read More Review: Good Kill
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Assembled from old home movies, interviews with his family and friends, and even animated segments taken right from his journal entries, the electric Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck offers the definitive portrait of this tortured artist, and a gripping exploration of drug addiction and untreated mental illness. After two… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing Still Alice on Blu-ray. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a highly intelligent linguistics professor and mother of three, who finds her life turned upside down when she is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, putting a strain on her relationship with husband John (Alec Baldwin) and their freethinking… Read More Blu-ray Release: Still Alice
By John Corrado Last week, Sony Pictures released Masters of Sex: Season Two on Blu-ray. Dramatizing the lives of famed sex researchers Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), this second season of the acclaimed show continues to explore how their relationships in and out of the office are affecting both their work and those around… Read More Blu-ray Release: Masters of Sex: Season Two
By John Corrado Last week, Paramount released the complete series of Cheers and The Fugitive on DVD, giving fans and television aficionados the perfect opportunity to own two of the most beloved shows of all time. Cheers: The Complete Series: Running from 1982 to 1993, and paving the way for a spinoff series centred around freelance psychiatrist… Read More DVD Release: Complete Series of Cheers and The Fugitive
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) After moving to the United States and working as a sitcom writer, Rob Cohen returns to his native land of Canada after two decades, taking a road trip from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, and interviewing various Canadians in attempts to shine a light on what gives our country… Read More Review: Being Canadian
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing Mr. Turner on Blu-ray. Directed by Mike Leigh, the biopic documents the life and affairs of the gruff and anti-social landscape painter Joseph Mallard William Turner (Timothy Spall). Although a bit dry and overlong, and often moving at a slow pace, this is an artistic achievement that… Read More Blu-ray Release: Mr. Turner
By John Corrado Today, Paramount is releasing Selma on Blu-ray. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the incredibly powerful drama follows Martin Luther King Jr.’s (David Oyelowo) historic civil rights march in 1965, putting pressure on President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to sign the Voting Rights Act. Although nominated for Best Picture, and deservedly winning Best Original… Read More Blu-ray Release: Selma
By John Corrado Last week, Paramount released The Gambler on Blu-ray. A remake of the 1974 James Caan classic, the film follows Jim Bennet (Mark Wahlberg), a depressed university professor who moonlights as a high stakes gambler and owes money, forcing him to connect with a loan shark (John Goodman), and complicating his relationship to… Read More Blu-ray Release: The Gambler
By John Corrado The 22nd edition of Hot Docs has now officially come to a close, which means that it’s time to share my eighth and final batch of capsule reviews, bringing my total count up to 46. I finished the festival with The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young last night, which provided… Read More #HotDocs15: Final Batch of Reviews
By John Corrado The final weekend of Hot Docs is now upon us. I’ve got several more films on the docket for today and tomorrow, all of which I have high hopes for. Below are my thoughts on five good ones that I have seen over the past couple of days, including Fractured Land, Radical Grace… Read More #HotDocs15: Seventh Batch of Reviews
The Joy of Movies 