By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) This week, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the critically acclaimed indie dramedy The Diary of a Teenage Girl on Blu-ray. Minnie (Bel Powley) is a 15 year old aspiring artist in 1970s San Francisco, who accelerates her coming of age when she starts an inappropriate relationship with her freewheeling mother’s (Kristen… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl
By John Corrado Today, 20th Century Fox is releasing the science fiction blockbuster The Martian on Blu-ray. A remarkable return to form for director Ridley Scott, the film follows ingenious astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is left stranded and presumed dead on Mars after his crew is forced to leave without him in the wake… Read More Blu-ray Release: The Martian
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Today, Sony Pictures is releasing last year’s popular sequel Hotel Transylvania 2 on Blu-ray. The film opens with the plucky vampire Mavis (Selena Gomez) and human Jonny (Andy Samberg) getting married at the monster hotel. This leads to the birth of their son Dennis, a half-human, half-vampire child that… Read More Blu-ray Review: Hotel Transylvania 2
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from writer-director Woody Allen, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing Irrational Man on Blu-ray today. Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) is a brooding professor who has just started teaching philosophy at a local university, where he catches the attention of bright young student Jill (Emma Stone). But when he… Read More Blu-ray Review: Irrational Man
By John Corrado A charming indie dramedy set in the music industry, Svengali is being released nationwide on all Video On Demand platforms this week. The film follows Dixie (Jonny Owen), an optimistic local from a small mining town in Wales, who moves to London with his girlfriend Shell (Vicky McClure), to follow his dreams of managing… Read More VOD Release: Svengali
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The latest from visionary screenwriter and co-director Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa is a moving and strikingly unique love story, that uses innovative stop motion animation to put an inventive and poignant twist on the usual romance between strangers plot. The main character is Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a middle… Read More Review: Anomalisa
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Forbidden love is a subject almost as old as storytelling itself, but these themes are made to feel completely evocative in Carol, a beautifully crafted story of the passionate love affair between two women in the early 1950s, a time when same-sex relationships were still largely considered to… Read More Review: Carol
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the small gem Infinitely Polar Bear on Blu-ray, after a long run on the festival circuit. Based on writer-director Maya Forbes own childhood in the 1970s, the film follows Cameron (Mark Ruffalo), a charming but erratic man with bipolar disorder whose wife (Zoe Saldana) goes away to… Read More Blu-ray Release: Infinitely Polar Bear
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures is releasing The Walk on DVD. The latest from visionary director Robert Zemeckis, this thrilling and surprisingly moving film recounts the true story of Phillipe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who completed his seemingly impossible dream of hanging a tightrope between the Twin Towers, and performing atop it. Although The Walk… Read More DVD Release: The Walk
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Today, Paramount is releasing the spiritual drama Captive on DVD. The film recounts the true story of convict Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo), who escaped confinement and went on a shooting spree, before forcing himself into the house of Ashley Smith (Kate Mara), a single mother and struggling drug… Read More DVD Review: Captive
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The Big Short opens with a quote from Mark Twain that perfectly encapsulates the grey zone occupied by its characters. “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This quote helps set the tone for a… Read More Review: The Big Short
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The story of Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence), highly successful entrepreneur and inventor of the self-wringing Miracle Mop, might not sound like obvious fodder for an awards season biopic, lest the basis for gripping entertainment. But in the hands of director David O. Russell, and star Jennifer Lawrence in their… Read More Review: Joy
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Through brilliant cinematography and sound, first time director Laszlo Nemes depicts the unspeakable cruelty of the concentration camps in almost uncompromisingly bleak detail in Son of Saul, a gripping and harrowing drama that is also one of the year’s best. Saul (Géza Röhrig) is a prisoner at Auschwitz, who has… Read More Review: Son of Saul
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why, because if you don’t, an ancient evil spirit will come and terrorize your family over the holidays. This is the dark premise behind Krampus, an incredibly entertaining and also surprisingly heartfelt Christmas horror… Read More Review: Krampus
A few more last minute book ideas! These four are published by Chronicle books (distributed in Canada by Raincoast) and can be found in the film and art sections of most book stores. – Erin Corrado The Art of Inside Out The book opens a foreword by Amy Poehler (voice of Joy) and an introduction by the film’s… Read More Christmas Gift Ideas – Four books featuring behind-the-scenes art from Pixar
By John Corrado Last week, Sony Pictures released acclaimed director Jean-Jacues Annaud’s Wolf Totem on Blu-ray 3D. Taking place during China’s Cultural Revolution, the story follows Chen Zhen (Shaofeng Feng), a young student who is sent to live with the herdsman in Mongolia. Although their livestock face threats from the surrounding wolves, the villagers have found ways to live symbiotically,… Read More Blu-ray 3D Release: Wolf Totem
By John Corrado Today, Sony Pictures is releasing the popular faith-based drama War Room on Blu-ray. Tony (T.C. Stallings) and Elizabeth Jordan (Priscilla Shirer) live a privileged life with their daughter Danielle (Alena Pitts), but their lives are actually crumbling under the weight of increasing distance and a stalled out marriage, aggravated by his constant… Read More Blu-ray Release: War Room
By John Corrado Today, Elevation Pictures is releasing the solid biopic Pawn Sacrifice on DVD. The film dramatizes the famous 1972 chess match between the increasingly paranoid American prodigy Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire), and celebrated Russian Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber), in a battle that becomes about much more than just pieces on a board. Directed by… Read More DVD Release: Pawn Sacrifice
Every year, I like to profile a few film-related books as suggested gifts for Christmas. These three from Dorling Kindersley can all be found in most book stores, so are easy to pick up last minute. For Disney & Pixar fans on your list, these are all sure to be a hit! – Erin Corrado… Read More Christmas Gift Ideas – Three books for the Disney fans on your list…
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) I would like to start my review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh instalment in the classic space opera that arrives after years of almost insanely high anticipation, by saying that the film is a lot of fun. And that’s exactly what I was expecting. Fun. No, Episode 7… Read More Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Joy of Movies 