By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following her 2017 nun drama Novitiate, writer-director Maggie Betts takes a real life contract law case from the 1990s about the haves and have-nots in the world of funeral home owners, and crafts it into an entertaining legal drama in The Burial (which recently had its world premiere… Read More Review: The Burial (Prime Video)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Following its run in theatres over the summer, Paramount is releasing Transformers: Rise of the Beasts on… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 6th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: The Exorcist: Believer (Wide Release): This legacy sequel to the late William Friedkin’s 1973 classic finds director David Gordon Green setting his sights on revamping another iconic horror movie after completing his Halloween trilogy last year. The film stars Leslie Odom… Read More New This Week (10/06/2023): The Exorcist: Believer, The Royal Hotel, Strange Way of Life, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The new English-language short film from writer-director Pedro Almodóvar, Strange Way of Life is an enjoyable queer Western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal that serves as the Spanish filmmaker’s “answer” to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, which he was offered to direct but declined. The short, which premiered… Read More Review: Strange Way of Life
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The latest film from New York writer-director Rebecca Miller (her first since Maggie’s Plan in 2015), She Came to Me is an absurd, operatic melodrama that takes the bones of a romantic comedy and remixes it into a sort of soap opera. The result is somewhat of an… Read More Review: She Came to Me
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In the Canadian time travel comedy Relax, I’m From the Future, New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby is delightfully able to take centre stage as Casper, a time traveller from an unspecified point in the future, who lands back in the 2020s. The title comes from Casper’s reassurance to… Read More Review: Relax, I’m From the Future
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 29th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Saw X (Wide Release): While Saw X is the tenth film in the nearly twenty year old franchise, it feels more like a legacy sequel that exists to bring back Tobin Bell as John Kramer. Set between the events of Saw… Read More New This Week (09/29/2023): Saw X, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, Flora and Son, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Solo, which recently won the Best Canadian Film prize at TIFF, is a character drama set in Montreal’s drag scene. In her third feature, Quebec writer-director Sophie Dupuis (Family First, Underground) captivatingly explores the dynamics between the performers at a Montreal gay bar. The film centres around the… Read More Review: Solo
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The rescue pups are back for another big screen adventure in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, a worthy sequel to 2021’s surprisingly good PAW Patrol: The Movie. This new spinoff film from the popular Canadian children’s TV series and toys, which serves as another co-production between Nickelodeon, Paramount… Read More Review: PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Nearly twenty years after the original Saw in 2004, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) returns in Saw X, the tenth film in the franchise that somewhat cleverly serves as a sort of “midquel” by positioning itself between the events of Saw and Saw II. There is only so much… Read More Review: Saw X
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The title of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, the latest film from DreamWorks Animation, tells you basically everything you need to know about the movie; it’s about a 15-year-old girl named Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor), who, well, happens to be a kraken. Ruby is living on land… Read More Blu-ray Review: Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 22nd, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Dumb Money (Limited Release): Following a world premiere at TIFF, Dumb Money is starting its run in limited release this week. Directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), the film serves as an entertaining dramatization of the GameStop saga, when regular people… Read More New This Week (09/22/2023): Dumb Money, No One Will Save You, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A mix of home invasion thriller and alien invasion movie, No One Will Save You is a pretty good little sci-fi flick from writer-director Brian Duffield (Spontaneous), that does some stylistically interesting things with its premise. This includes unfolding with minimal dialogue to focus on the more visceral… Read More Review: No One Will Save You (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (which was voted the winner of the TIFF People’s Choice Award for Documentary) is a heartwarming documentary about a childhood icon, that also touches on the history of Canadian children’s… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar returns with Dear Jassi (which was awarded the Platform prize at TIFF), a stylistically mature romantic heartbreaker rooted in tragic fact that is both the Indian-born director’s first film set in India, and his most… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Dear Jassi (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. The debut feature from writer-director Weston Razooli, Riddle of Fire is a delightful childhood fantasy shot on 16mm, that really feels like watching a piece of lost media from the 1970s. Razooli has described his film… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Riddle or Fire (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. The latest film from New Zealand director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), Next Goals Wins is a simple crowdpleaser that tells the story of the American Samoa football team, trying to rebound following a historic loss when… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Next Goal Wins (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film from Danish director Lone Scherfig (An Education), The Movie Teller is a solid, old fashioned drama about the magic of movies. Based on… Read More #TIFF23 Review: The Movie Teller (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film from Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, following his Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist is a very interesting cinematic experience that mixes elements… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Evil Does Not Exist (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Aggro Dr1ft, the latest cinematic provocation from director Harmony Korine, is less a movie and more an experimental (and experiential) film that defies convention or easy… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Aggro Dr1ft (Midnight Madness)
The Joy of Movies 