By John Corrado Starring Mads Mikkelsen in a compelling, mostly wordless performance as a man who is left stranded in the middle of the Arctic following a plane crash, and finds himself caring for an injured woman (Maria Thelma Smáradóttir), Arctic is a survival movie in the most stripped down and literal sense of the term.… Read More Blu-ray Review: Arctic
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Werner Herzog sits down with Mikhail Gorbachev in his latest documentary, Meeting Gorbachev, which he co-directed with André Singer, offering a portrait of the former and final leader of the USSR that allows him to reflect upon how his monumental political legacy helped bring about the end of the… Read More Review: Meeting Gorbachev
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A registered sex therapist turned talk show host, first on the radio and then TV, Dr. Ruth Westheimer changed the way that sex was talked about in pop culture throughout the 1980s. Already in her fifties when she gained notoriety, Dr. Ruth’s frank, no-nonsense way of speaking gave… Read More Review: Ask Dr. Ruth
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) It was a rescue dog named Todd that inspired filmmaker John Chester and his wife Molly to give up their urban life in the city and buy an old farm in California, a story that is recounted in his documentary The Biggest Little Farm. John was working as… Read More Review: The Biggest Little Farm
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Despite it being a smash hit, I didn’t love The LEGO Movie when it came out in 2014, an opinion that put me squarely in the minority. While the majority of people praised it as an inventive and imaginative animated film, and it did have a few moments, to… Read More Blu-ray Review: The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain living under the radar on a small island, and making money taking tourists out on his boat. He spends much of his time on the water, trying to catch a gigantic tuna that keeps eluding him. But things change… Read More Blu-ray Review: Serenity
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Six complete strangers find themselves locked up together in a mysterious concrete office tower and have to find their way out of a series of increasingly elaborate rooms in the aptly titled Escape Room. The latest thriller from Insidious: The Last Key director Adam Robitel, the film is inspired… Read More Blu-ray Review: Escape Room
By John Corrado Starring Nicole Kidman under layers of prosthetics to make her appear haggard and worn, Destroyer is a crime drama that follows a rogue detective working for the LAPD who gets drawn back in to investigate a deadly crime ring, following the reemergence of their leader (Toby Kebbell). For more on the film… Read More Blu-ray Review: Destroyer
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto. Below are my reviews of the films that I saw over the final weekend of the festival. My Dads, My Moms and Me – ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 2007, two years after same sex marriage and… Read More #HotDocs19: Final Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The Magic Life of V – ★★½ (out of 4) Live action role playing (LARP) provides a way for Veera, a young woman in Finland, to transform… Read More #HotDocs19: Seventh Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Seahorse – ★★★½ (out of 4) Freddy is a young gay trans man in England who wants to start a family, and decides to embark on… Read More #HotDocs19: Sixth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Scheme Birds – ★★★ (out of 4) Early on in the documentary Scheme Birds, our teenaged subject Gemma describes her hometown of Motherwell, Scotland, where she was… Read More #HotDocs19: Fifth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) At the start of Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, director Kaku Arakawa’s short and sweet documentary about the legendary Japanese animator, we see footage from 2013 of Miyazaki announcing his intentions to retire from filmmaking at a press conference, stating that The Wind Rises will be his final film.… Read More Blu-ray Review: Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The Brazilian animated film Tito and the Birds takes place in a dystopic version of our world that has been crippled by fear, leading to a mysterious outbreak of a disease rooted in fear that ravages people’s bodies to the point where they shrink down and turn into rocks.… Read More Blu-ray Review: Tito and the Birds
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up – ★★★½ (out of 4) Filmmaker Tasha Hubbard uses the tragic case of Colton Boushie, a young man from the Red Pheasent… Read More #HotDocs19: Fourth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Midnight Family – ★★★½ (out of 4) High stakes and high speed ambulance chases abound in Midnight Family, a compelling and beautifully shot vérité portrait of a… Read More #HotDocs19: Third Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In My Blood It Runs – ★★★½ (out of 4) Dujuan is a 10-year-old Aboriginal Australian boy of Arrernte descent who lives in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), and… Read More #HotDocs19: First Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Marvel has succeeded at bringing back the event movie with Avengers: Endgame. The culmination of 21 blockbusters dating back over a decade to 2008, many of them must see movies in their own right, this film clocks in at just over three hours long, and is already sold… Read More Review: Avengers: Endgame
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Based on the 2017 novel by W. Bruce Cameron, who also wrote the book behind the film A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Way Home is another story of the bond between humans and animals told from the point of view of its canine lead, this time focused on… Read More Blu-ray Review: A Dog’s Way Home
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Claire Denis does sci-fi in High Life, and the results are as confounding and maybe even weirder than you expect from the French auteur, who is also working in English for the first time. The film opens with Monte (Robert Pattinson) alone on a spaceship, tending to his… Read More Review: High Life
The Joy of Movies 