By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Filmmaker Bing Liu returns to his hometown of Rockford, Illinois in his remarkably powerful documentary Minding the Gap, to tell the stories of himself and two other young guys who all grew up together skateboarding around the city. There’s Zack Mulligan, who is struggling to come to terms with… Read More Review: Minding the Gap
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from director Wash Westmoreland, who helped guide Julianne Moore to her first Oscar in Still Alice, Colette is a biopic of French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) that features a similarly awards worthy performance from its lead actress. The film takes place at the turn of the… Read More Review: Colette
By John Corrado Disney’s most recent entry into the Star Wars franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story is arriving on Blu-ray this week, following its theatrical release over the summer. While I had some issues with this film, starting with the fact that I didn’t entirely believe Alden Ehrenreich in Harrison Ford’s iconic role, this… Read More Blu-ray Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) How did America get to the point in 2016 where the ubiquitous businessman turned realty show star Donald Trump was able to win the presidency? This is the basic question fuelling Michael Moore’s latest film, Fahrenheit 11/9, a sometimes engaging but mostly frustrating and ultimately overly simplistic and… Read More Review: Fahrenheit 11/9
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, which is opening in theatres today fresh off of playing as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness, is the first movie I have ever seen that opens with a series of “trigger warnings.” These warnings, which are presented in a firmly tongue-in-cheek way and are… Read More Review: Assassination Nation
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The latest film from Dan Fogelman, best known as the creator of the hit TV show This Is Us, Life Itself is a film that has inspired a myriad of reactions since it premiered at TIFF. I spoke to a lot of people at the festival who loved the… Read More Review: Life Itself
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) An excellent portrait of the late comic superstar Gilda Radner, Love, Gilda is a documentary that strikes just the right balance between being funny and moving. The film takes us through the entirety of her career, from her early start in the star-studded Toronto production of Godspell, to her big break… Read More Review: Love, Gilda
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) A female-driven spinoff of Steven Soderbergh’s slickly entertaining Ocean’s trilogy, Ocean’s 8 focuses on Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister of George Clooney’s title character, and the results are very mixed. The story here begins as Debbie is just getting out of jail after five years, with her brother… Read More Blu-ray Review: Ocean’s 8
By John Corrado A Halloween special done in the same stop-motion style as the delightful Christmas special It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! from a few years back, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom is now available on DVD after making its broadcast premiere last year. The story centres around SpongeBob (Tom Kenny), who doesn’t want to be… Read More DVD Review: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A black and white homage to the Mexico of his youth and the women who raised him, Alfonso Caurón’s Roma is a beautiful and haunting work of art that unfolds through the eyes of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young housekeeper and nanny working for a family in Mexico… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Roma
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When her husband Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) is killed during a heist gone wrong, Veronica (Viola Davis) enlists the help of the widows of the other men involved in the job – Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) – to finish the job and… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Widows
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Lara (Victor Polster) is a teen girl in Belgium who is working hard to realize her dreams of becoming a ballerina, having been accepted into a prestigious ballet academy. She also happens to be transgender, having been born in a male body, and is in the process of chemically… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Girl
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The directorial debut of actor Max Minghella, Teen Spirit follows Violet (Elle Fanning), a 17-year-old in a small town in the Isle of Wight who dreams of becoming a pop star. Despite her mother’s (Agnieszka Grochowska) best wishes, who would rather that her daughter just remain singing in the… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Teen Spirit
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from director Jason Reitman, The Front Runner is a polished and expertly acted dramatization of Gary Hart’s failed 1988 presidential bid, working as a cautionary tale that is particularly relevant in this current political climate. The film unfolds over three weeks, and opens with Colorado Senator… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Front Runner
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) With its silver body and gull-wing doors, the DeLorean sports car has become an iconic part of pop culture history through its usage as a time machine in the Back to the Future films. But what’s lesser known is the wild true story involving the creator of the… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Driven
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from Quebec’s Xavier Dolan, and his first in English, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is still a work that is distinctly his, featuring the same soaring cinematography, musical interludes set to pop songs, and underlying themes of mother-son love as his other films. The… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from writer-director-star Emilio Estevez, The Public centres around Stuart Goodson (Estevez), a local librarian who ends up in the middle of a standoff with Detective Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin) when a group of homeless men led by Jackson (Michael K. Williams) occupy the Cincinnati Public Library… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Public
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a kindergarten teacher in New York going through a bit of a midlife crisis, seemingly unhappy with her family life. When she overhears one of her young students, Jimmy (Parker Sevak), reciting a poem he has written, she is convinced that he is… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Kindergarten Teacher
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest film from David Lowery, following his haunting minimalist drama A Ghost Story and his charming remake of Disney’s Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man & The Gun is as light as a feather, and just as buoyant. The film recounts the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford),… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Old Man & The Gun
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Based on the bestselling young adult of the same name by Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give is a gripping and well made big screen adaptation that provides proof of the ability that even the most commercially viable movies can have to tell powerful and relevant stories. The… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Hate U Give
The Joy of Movies 