By John Corrado The 1984 film Footloose is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and Paramount is honouring the occasion by releasing it for the first time on 4K Ultra HD this week. Kevin Bacon stars as Ren McCormack, the rebel kid from Chicago who moves to the small town of Bomont, where loud music… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Footloose: 40th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado New releases for the week of February 9th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Perfect Days (Limited Release): Wim Wenders’s masterful Tokyo-set character drama, which is nominated for Best International Feature at the Oscars, is finally arriving in theatres after bowing at Cannes last year. I caught this one during TIFF, and it’s a meditative,… Read More New This Week (02/09/2024): Perfect Days, How to Have Sex, The Promised Land, & More!
By John Corrado The Promised Land is a historical drama set in Denmark in the mid-1700s, with director Nikolaj Arcel spinning a near-epic tale out of a humble man trying to carve out his own piece of the land while going up against an arrogant nobleman. The protagonist is Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen), who… Read More Review: The Promised Land
By John Corrado British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How to Have Sex, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at last year’s Cannes, is an often vibrant mix of party movie and subtle social commentary on the post-#MeToo generation. Walker’s film centres around Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake), three… Read More Review: How to Have Sex
By John Corrado Fran (Daisy Ridley) is an office worker in Oregon who thinks a lot about dying. She sits in a daze at her cubicle, imagining her dead body decaying in the woods or being hung from the crane outside her window. Fran’s morbid daydreams provide the basis for the title of director Rachel… Read More Review: Sometimes I Think About Dying
By John Corrado Today, critics group GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (of which I am a member) announced the nominations for their 15th annual Dorian Film Awards, voted on by the group’s over five hundred members. Leading the pack is Andrew Haigh’s tender queer drama All of Us Strangers with a total nine… Read More Nominations for the 15th Dorian Film Awards from GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics
By John Corrado New releases for the week of February 2nd, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Argylle (Wide Release): Who is the real Agent Argylle? That’s the question asked in the marketing for this new spy movie from director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Kingsman), adapted from author Elly Conway’s book. It features a star-studded cast that includes Bryce… Read More New This Week (02/02/2024): Argylle, Fitting In, & More!
By John Corrado The Teachers’ Lounge is Nominated for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards Stolen cash leads to accusations of racial profiling and a growing culture of distrust between faculty and students in director Ilker Çatak’s Oscar-nominated film The Teachers’ Lounge, a tautly executed middle school drama that often moves like a… Read More Review: The Teachers’ Lounge
By John Corrado New releases for the week of January 26th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Four Daughters (TIFF Lightbox): This freshly Oscar-nominated documentary from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is a chilling and fascinating study of how radicalization takes hold. The film offers a formally audacious mix of documentary and dramatic reenactments, blending subjects and actors… Read More New This Week (01/26/2024): Four Daughters, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, & More!
By John Corrado The latest work from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (the Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin), the Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters is a chilling and fascinating study of how radicalization takes hold. The film is formally audacious in its mix of documentary and dramatic reenactments, blending subjects and actors to tell… Read More Review: Four Daughters
By John Corrado Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints’ artful, unconventional documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood follows a group of women in Southern Estonia, who are gathered together in a traditional smoke sauna hidden deep in the woods. Shot over several years, Hints follows a variety of subjects over the backdrop of changing seasons. As they sit naked… Read More Review: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
John Corrado Inspired by Pixar’s 1998 second feature A Bug’s Life, the Disney Plus series A Real Bug’s Life puts us on the ground to document the lives of real insects around the world across five half-hour episodes narrated by Awkwafina. Produced by National Geographic, A Real Bug’s Life begins on the streets of New… Read More Review: A Real Bug’s Life (Disney+)
By John Corrado The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced this morning. Leading the pack is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer with thirteen nominations, followed by Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things with eleven and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon with ten. First off, I must say that this is a very strong lineup of… Read More Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards
By John Corrado New releases for the week of January 19th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Origin (Limited Release): Ava DuVernay’s ambitious latest project aims to adapt Isabel Wilkerson’s non-fiction bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, turning it into both an exploration of the ideas within Wilkerson’s book, and a dramatization of Isabel’s experiences while writing… Read More New This Week (01/19/2024): Origin, Memory, Fallen Leaves, & More!
By John Corrado Director Thomas von Steinaecker’s documentary Radical Dreamer: Werner Herzog offers an enjoyable overview of the iconic German filmmaker’s career, known both for his accent and bold, inquisitive filmmaking style. The documentary chronologically explores Herzog’s early films as part of the New German Cinema movement, which gave way to his reputation as a… Read More Review: Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
By John Corrado The title of Memory, the latest film from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco, takes on a few different meanings throughout the course of this tender, stripped down character drama. It refers to repressed memories and the lingering impacts of childhood trauma that Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) carries with her every day, as well as… Read More Review: Memory
By John Corrado Ava DuVernay’s Origin is an ambitious film that aims to adapt Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling non-fiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents for the screen. It serves as both an exploration of the ideas within Wilkerson’s book, and a dramatization of Isabel’s experiences while writing it. DuVernay’s film finds… Read More Review: Origin
By John Corrado The third film in DreamWorks Animation’s popular Trolls franchise, Trolls Band Together explores more of this vibrant animated world, while adding a slew of boyband jokes into the mix. The story revolves around Poppy (Anna Kendrick) discovering that her boyfriend Branch (Justin Timberlake) used to be a member of the boyband BroZone,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Trolls Band Together (Sing-Along Edition)
By John Corrado The 1999 coming-of-age sports movie Varsity Blues is now available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, in honour of the film’s 25th anniversary this month. The film is set in West Canaan, Texas, a fictional all-American small town that revolves around their high school football team, the Coyotes. James Van… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Varsity Blues
By John Corrado New releases for the week of January 12th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Mean Girls (Wide Release): This musical remake of the 2004 teen classic is actually pretty good. Tina Fey returns to write the screenplay (and reprises her role as the calculus teacher), in this redo of Cady Heron (Angoirie Rice) taking on… Read More New This Week (01/12/2024): Mean Girls, Freud’s Last Session, & More!
