By John Corrado Originally airing in 1978 on NBC, the mini-series Holocaust is now available for the first time on Blu-ray in a new 2-disc set from Paramount. The series follows a fictional Jewish family throughout the 1930s and 1940s, unfolding over roughly a decade as the Nazis seize power in Europe. The Weiss family is… Read More Blu-ray Review: Holocaust
By John Corrado Originally airing over four nights on ABC back in 1994, the mini-series The Stand has now received a new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release from Paramount to mark it’s 25th anniversary. Adapted from Stephen King’s mammoth 1978 bestseller, which is one of his longest books at over eight hundred pages, the series unfolds… Read More Blu-ray Review: Stephen King’s The Stand: Collector’s Edition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Deep in South America, amidst the mountaintops and rainforests of Colombia, a ruthless band of teen soldiers hold an American woman (Julianne Nicholson) captive. They are known simply as the Organization, and when we first meet these rebels in the film Monos, their leader (Wilson Salazar), a short-statured… Read More Review: Monos
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling folk musician in the small English town of Suffolk, who finds himself in a complicated predicament when he gets hit by a bus and knocked off his bike at the exact same moment that a global blackout shuts off the world’s… Read More Blu-ray Review: Yesterday
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) When Men in Black: International was being released in theatres this summer, I kept forgetting that the movie even existed, and I say that as someone who grew up with the first two films in the series and was pleasantly surprised by the belated 2012 threequel Men in… Read More Blu-ray Review: Men in Black: International
By John Corrado The remake of Child’s Play, which many assumed would be another needless horror redo, actually ended up being one of the better surprises of the summer moviegoing season for me. It’s a twisted and often very enjoyable film that is more entertaining than it probably had any right to be, and it’s… Read More Blu-ray Review: Child’s Play (2019)
By John Corrado One of the highest grossing documentaries of the year so far, and a film that has found a way of connecting with audiences since it played at TIFF last year, The Biggest Little Farm is now available on DVD. The film follows a couple, director John Chester and his wife Molly, who gave… Read More DVD Review: The Biggest Little Farm
By John Corrado It’s been a long time coming, but after finally arriving in theatres earlier this year over forty years after it was originally shot, the Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace is now available on DVD. The film documents the production of Franklin’s classic 1972 gospel album of the same name, which was… Read More DVD Review: Amazing Grace
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Following the outbreak of a mysterious illness that wiped out all of the grown ups, leaving just the teenagers behind, the town of Potter’s Bluff has divided into two halves. The East Siders are scrappy survivalist punks who get by on their own, and the West Siders have… Read More Review: Riot Girls
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Phyllis Ellis, who takes an investigative approach to the material, the documentary Toxic Beauty explores how harmful ingredients like phthalates, parabens and even formaldihyde are lurking in a lot of the soaps, deodorants, creams and shampoos that many women use on their bodies every single day.… Read More Review: Toxic Beauty
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Toronto’s own Daniel Roher, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is an engaging and emotional look at Robertson’s own life and career as lead guitarist and main songwriter for The Band, as well as the rise and fall of the group itself. The film… Read More Review: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, following up his radical English-language biopic Jackie, Ema opens with an image of a street light on fire, and this provides an oddly fitting start to the film. Ema (Mariana di Girolamo) is a professional dancer who adopted a young son from… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Ema (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Set in a sleepy Irish town that offers little in the way of economic opportunity, Calm With Horses follows Douglas “Arm” Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis), a physically imposing former boxer who struggles with anger management issues. Desperate for cash, he is hired to be an enforcer for the Devers, a… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Calm With Horses (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The winner of the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award, The Platform is a grisly and nasty Spanish thriller that boasts a really interesting premise. The film is set in a vertical prison called The Pit that has hundreds of floor, and two people trapped on each. At the start… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Platform (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Shot on a shoestring budget in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, Crazy World is the latest action movie from Wakaliwood filmmaker IGG Nabwana. Starring Nabwana’s own kids and other locals, the loose plot involves the Waka Stars, a group of kids who are trained in kung-fu. When they get… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Crazy World (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Taking place over a single night, and often unfolding in long takes, The Vast of Night is one heck of a filmmaking debut for first time director Andrew Patterson. The film is set in the 1950s, with the Space Race still in its infancy. While a basketball game goes… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Vast of Night (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A rare horror movie rooted in Judaism, The Vigil uses Jewish traditions and beliefs as the basis for its haunted house story, rather than the Christian beliefs that usually inform these sorts of narratives. The film opens with Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis) meeting with other young adults who have… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Vigil (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Ling (Yeo Yann Yann) is a Mandarin teacher at a high school in Singapore, whose home life is increasingly depressing. She has been trying unsuccessfully for years to conceive a child, and is tasked with looking after her father-in-law (Yang Shi Bin), who is in the advanced stages… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Wet Season (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The second film directed by celebrated Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, following his 2007 directorial debut Déficit, Chicuarotes follows teenaged friends Cagalera (Benny Emmanuel) and Moloteco (Gabriel Carbajal), who live in the impoverished neighbourhood of San Gregorio Atlapulco in Mexico City. The film opens with them on a… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Chicuarotes (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Started as an eco-friendly alternative to the fuel-burning of Formula 1, Formula E is a racing series that has been going strong since 2014, in which the drivers compete against each other in battery operated cars, offering a carbon neutral alternative to the high emissions of traditional motorsports.… Read More #TIFF19 Review: And We Go Green (TIFF Docs)
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