By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Renfield is a horror comedy that serves as a modern take on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, only telling the story from the perspective of the vampire’s assistant, Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). For over a century, Renfield has been the servant to Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), charged… Read More Blu-ray Review: Renfield (Dracula Sucks Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of July 7th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Joy Ride (Wide Release): The directorial debut of Crazy Rich Asians co-writer Adele Lim, Joy Ride is a lot of fun and often very funny, while also being surprisingly smart and heartfelt in how it explores culture and identity. The film… Read More New This Week (07/07/2023): Joy Ride, Something You Said Last Night, & More!
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The directorial debut of Tamil Canadian filmmaker V.T. Nayani, This Place (which premiered at last year’s TIFF) is a queer love story between two young women from different backgrounds that finds its strengths in being so culturally specific to Toronto. Kawenniióhstha (Devery Jacobs, who also co-wrote the screenplay… Read More Review: This Place
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Joy Ride, the directorial debut of Crazy Rich Asians co-writer Adele Lim, is the story of a Chinese adoptee getting reacquainted with her birth country. It’s also a raunchy, proudly R-rated road trip comedy about four friends having their bonds tested through a series of escapades involving drugs… Read More Review: Joy Ride
By John Corrado A film that foretold the boom of reality TV and celebrity obsessions, director Peter Weir’s prescient 1998 movie The Truman Show is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Jim Carrey stars in the film as Truman Burbank, a man whose entire life has been as part of an elaborate television show, masterminded… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: The Truman Show: 25th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In the summer of 2020, after having to cancel their tour due to COVID, the Canadian indie rock band July Talk decided to do a concert at the Stardust Drive-In in Sharon, Ontario. But this came with its own unique set of challenges, including figuring out the logistics… Read More Review: July Talk: Love Lives Here
By John Corrado New releases for the week of June 30th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Wide Release): The fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, following 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny finds director James Mangold taking over the reins from Steven… Read More New This Week (06/30/2023): Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Every Body, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Julie Cohen (Julia, RBG), the fascinating and highly engaging documentary Every Body explores the people who make up the I in LGBTQIA, which stands for intersex. The term intersex is used to describe those born with elements of both male and female sex characteristics, with over… Read More Review: Every Body
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Harrison Ford is back cracking the whip as the titular archeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a film that earns the designation of legacy sequel as it finds Ford returning to the role fifteen years after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At 80 years old,… Read More Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
By John Corrado New releases for the week of June 23rd, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Asteroid City (Wide Release): Wes Anderson’s latest (and best since The Grand Budapest Hotel) is also his most metatextual narrative. Set at a Junior Stargazing Convention in the 1950s, the film is led by one of his most star-studded ensemble casts,… Read More New This Week (06/23/2023): Asteroid City, No Hard Feelings, Blue Jean, & More!
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Prem Patel (Manny Magnus), the protagonist of the Disney Plus movie World’s Best, is a 12-year-old kid who is so good at math that he takes classes with the high school kids and is a shoo-in for a spot at the Mathlympics. This knack for numbers doesn’t exactly… Read More Review: World’s Best (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Wes Anderson has developed one of the most unique styles of any modern American filmmaker across his rich body of work, and his 11th feature, Asteroid City, offers perhaps his most metatextual narrative yet. And it’s his best since The Grand Budapest Hotel. Through Anderson’s playfully subversive storytelling… Read More Review: Asteroid City
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, it really felt like the film was pushing the boundaries for big screen animation, mimicking the look of a comic book with its inventive and highly stylized mix of 2D and 3D animation. Now we have Spider-Man: Across the… Read More Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
By John Corrado With the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds having just premiered on Paramount+, Paramount recently released Season One of the original series on 4K Ultra HD, including in a limited edition SteelBook set. Led by a diverse cast that includes a mix of new and pre-established characters (including cast members… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season One (Limited Edition SteelBook)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of June 16th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Elemental (Wide Release): Pixar’s latest film, which comes from director Pete Sohn, works as a charming mix of immigrant tale and forbidden love romantic comedy. Set in a place called Element City, the film is an unlikely love story between fire… Read More New This Week (06/16/2023): Elemental, The Flash, The Blackening, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Marvel Comics legend Stan “The Man” Lee gets the documentary biopic treatment in Stan Lee, an officially sanctioned project that is premiering on Disney Plus. Born Stanley Martin Lieber, and coming of age during the Great Depression in New York City, the film charts how he got his… Read More Review: Stan Lee (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Elemental is the latest film from Pixar (their 27th feature), and it could also be described as the studio’s first romantic comedy. Set against the imaginative backdrop of a place called Element City, where air, fire, water and earth residents live, the film works as a charming mix… Read More Review: Elemental
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The latest film written and directed by Zach Braff (Garden State, Wish You Were Here), A Good Person is an addiction drama that follows Allison (Florence Pugh), a young woman who becomes hooked on painkillers following a car accident. The film opens with Allison excited to marry her… Read More Blu-ray Review: A Good Person
By John Corrado New releases for the week of June 9th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Past Lives (Limited Release): Celine Song’s remarkable directorial debut is opening in theatres this week after premiering to raves at Sundance, and it lives up to the hype. The story of two people, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo),… Read More New This Week (06/09/2023): Past Lives, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, & More!
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the seventh film in the big screen Transformers franchise, serving as both a prequel and soft reboot of sorts to the five Michael Bay movies, and it’s one of the more watchable entries in the series, at least. While it doesn’t exactly… Read More Review: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
The Joy of Movies 