By John Corrado It’s the final day of 2024, which means that another year has come to an end. The preambles to these lists are always hard to write, so I’m going to keep this one short. I saw a lot of movies in 2024, and liked quite a few of them. It’s been assessed… Read More The Best Movies of 2024
By John Corrado Director James Mangold arguably perfected the modern biopic structure with Walk the Line, his Oscar-winning 2005 portrait of country singer Johnny Cash. Mangold now returns to this genre and time period with his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (in fact, Cash is even featured here as well, as a contemporary of Dylan’s). Dylan, one… Read More Movie Review: A Complete Unknown
By John Corrado Wicked is the long-in-development film adaptation of the Broadway musical from over two decades ago, with director Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) finally bringing this Wizard of Oz prequel story to the screen. Well, Act One of it anyways; the film is a two-parter, with Act Two (officially… Read More Movie Review: Wicked
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 25th, 2024. Merry Christmas, everybody! Theatrical Releases: The Brutalist (Limited Release): Director Brady Corbet’s Vistavision epic is now arriving in theatres, after gaining buzz throughout its festival run. I’ve been singing the praises of this one since I saw it at TIFF. Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour film… Read More New This Week (12/25/2024): The Brutalist, Better Man, Babygirl, Nosferatu, & More!
By John Corrado Nosferatu is the fourth film from director Robert Eggers, and it finds him reimagining F.W. Murnau’s German Expressionist film of the same name from 1922. This passion project from Eggers has shades of his 2015 debut The Witch, but on a much larger scale. Whether you view this as a remake of the Murnau… Read More Movie Review: Nosferatu
By John Corrado Writer-director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl is a compelling modern twist on the erotic thriller, that centres around a woman with power who gets turned on by giving it up, as she embarks on an inappropriate workplace relationship with a male intern. These fascinating power dynamics are portrayed by Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson,… Read More Movie Review: Babygirl
By John Corrado Red One, directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level), is a not as bad as it could have been but still thoroughly mediocre film that takes the Santa Claus story and turns it into a bloated, big budget action fantasy. The movie (which played in theatres for a… Read More Movie Review: Red One (Prime Video)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 20th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Mufasa: The Lion King (Wide Release): This good enough prequel to Disney’s 2019 “live action” remake of their animated classic The Lion King comes to us from director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk). The story centres around Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara… Read More New This Week (12/20/2024): Mufasa: The Lion King, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, & More!
By John Corrado The third film in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, adapted from the SEGA video games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 finds director Jeff Fowler delivering another hybrid of live action and animation that feels very consistent with the first two. In other words, it’s fun. Sure, these aren’t cinematic masterpieces by any stretch.… Read More Movie Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
By John Corrado Warner Bros. has just released the first teaser trailer for James Gunn’s Superman, starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent. We also get first glimpses at Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther, and of course Superman’s dog Krypto. It feels a bit more like a sizzle reel with the… Read More Teaser Trailer for James Gunn’s Superman
By John Corrado The most surprising thing about Mufasa: The Lion King, which serves as both a prequel and sequel to Disney’s 2019 “live action” remake of their 1994 animated classic The Lion King, is that it’s directed by Barry Jenkins. Jenkins is best known for the Oscar-winning dramas Moonlight and If Beale Street Could… Read More Movie Review: Mufasa: The Lion King
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Joker: Folie à Deux. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my theatrical review right here. Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to his 2019 box office smash Joker, is now arriving on… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Joker: Folie à Deux
By John Corrado It’s that time of year again for my annual Christmas and holiday gift guide. This is for the movie lovers and physical media collectors on your list, featuring a number of titles on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray that I can personally recommend, ranging from recent blockbusters to several old classics that… Read More The Joy of Movies 2024 Christmas Gift Guide
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 13th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The End (Limited Release): This ambitious musical set at the end of the world serves as the narrative debut of documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing). It follows a young man (George MacKay) who has spent his life in… Read More New This Week (12/13/2024): The End, Queer, September 5, & More!
By John Corrado At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, a group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic Village and kidnapped Israeli athletes, holding them hostage in a tense standoff. Director Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 is a movie about this hostage crisis, but somewhat indirectly; the film is based on the true story of the ABC… Read More Movie Review: September 5
By John Corrado Elton John: Never Too Late, the new music documentary that premiered at TIFF and is now being released on Disney Plus, follows the British rockstar on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Co-directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, the film counts down to his final concert in North America at Dodger… Read More Movie Review: Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+)
By John Corrado Dream Productions, the new Disney Plus limited series “from the world of Inside Out,” presents somewhat of a departure for Pixar. It’s not only their first stab at episodic storytelling, but also done in the style of a mockumentary. The four-part series is presented as a “behind the scenes” look at Dream Productions,… Read More Review: Dream Productions (Disney+)
By John Corrado A24 has released the new full-length trailer for The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s 3-and-a-half-hour Vistavision epic, starring Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones in three of the best performances of the year. The full trailer is embedded below. I saw The Brutalist at TIFF (in 70mm with the intermission), and it’s… Read More New Trailer for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist
By John Corrado If you could radically change your appearance, would you? That’s the question at the centre of writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, a fascinating mix of piercing character study and absurdist, Charlie Kaufman-esque tragicomedy. Schimberg’s film is a sort of modern riff on Flowers for Algernon, the classic book in which a man with… Read More Movie Review: A Different Man
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 6th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Girl with the Needle (Limited Release): This period piece has been gaining buzz since premiering at Cannes. Set in Copenhagen after WWI, it follows a poor factory worker (Vic Carmen Sonne) who becomes pregnant and gets entangled with a woman… Read More New This Week (12/06/2024): The Girl with the Needle, That Christmas, & More!