By John Corrado Director, writer and star Jordan Firstman delivers an accomplished debut feature with Club Kid, a major crowdpleaser which plays like the gay, indie, A24-backed answer to Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy. And it’s something special. Firstman stars in the film as Peter, a club promoter in New York City who is living a… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Club Kid (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado In Fjord, his second Palme d’Or-winner following 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu crafts a complex film that masterfully balances being a family drama, coming-of-age story, and courtroom procedural. This is a film that exists purely in shades of grey, even literally with the washed out… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Fjord (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado Toy Gun Bandit, the new film from Quebec writer-director Rémi St-Michel, is a work that feels inspired by the scrappy, propulsive filmmaking of the Safdie brothers. That’s a lofty comparison, to be sure, but their influence is felt throughout this frenetic Québécois crime movie, which serves as both an entertaining and suspenseful… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Toy Gun Bandit (Centrepiece)
By John Corrado In Coward, his third and most ambitious feature yet, Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont (Girl, Close) takes us back to World War I. Dhont’s works all explore gender identity and burgeoning sexuality, and those themes get fine-tuned here as he explores the homoerotic tensions between young Belgian soldiers who arrive on the front… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Coward (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado The latest from Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, All of a Sudden is primarily a film about the different ways we care for each other, weaving themes about the bureaucratic power structure of a nursing home into a character drama. It’s an ambitious undertaking, even more so when you account for the fact… Read More #TIFF26 Review: All of a Sudden (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado Before Noel and Liam Gallagher, the rockstar brothers behind Oasis, actually took the stage again for the first show of their 2025 reunion tour in Cardiff, the idea that they would ever truly make amends, let alone walk out on the same stage holding hands, didn’t seem like a sure thing until… Read More Movie Review: Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger
By John Corrado Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, this summer’s spinoff of the Despicable Me and Minions franchises, is now available on physical media, including 4K Ultra HD. This prequel is set during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and focuses on the Minions inadvertently becoming silent film stars. The main Minion this time around is James,… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Minions & Monsters (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 4th, 2026. Theatrical Releases: Onslaught (Wide Release): Director Adam Wingard returns to the horror thriller genre with this quasi-sequel to his 2014 film The Guest. Adria Arjona stars as an Army sniper defending her trailer park and six-year-old daughter (Blake Kennedy) from a trio of… Read More New This Week (09/04/2026): Onslaught, & More!
By John Corrado Onslaught is director Adam Wingard’s return to the horror-thriller genre following his forays into monster movie blockbusters with Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. In fact, Onslaught is such a return to form for Wingard that he has said it takes place in the same universe as his… Read More Movie Review: Onslaught
By John Corrado Following a run in theatres at the start of the summer, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day was released on physical media last week, including 4K Ultra HD. Spielberg’s latest finds him going back to his roots in the sci-fi genre, crafting a UFO movie by way of whistleblower thriller. The film is carried… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Disclosure Day (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 28th, 2026. Theatrical Releases: The Dog Stars (Wide Release): This latest from legendary director Ridley Scott is a post-apocalyptic drama starring Jacob Elordi as a man navigating a world ravaged by a deadly pandemic. Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce round out the cast.… Read More New This Week (08/28/2026): The Dog Stars, Coyote vs. Acme, Finding Emily, & More!
By John Corrado It’s hard to review Coyote vs. Acme without first talking about the long, strange journey that the film has been on to actually reach theatres. After it was completed in 2023, Warner Bros. made the controversial (and quite frankly shameful) decision to not release it, and instead permanently shelve the film as… Read More Movie Review: Coyote vs. Acme
By John Corrado The romantic comedy formula is tried and true at this point, but every so often a new one comes along that reminds us just how satisfying this formula can be when done well. Such is the case with director Alicia MacDonald’s Finding Emily, a British romantic comedy that is produced by heavy… Read More Movie Review: Finding Emily
By John Corrado Sony Pictures has just put out a new trailer for The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s quasi-sequel to David Fincher’s modern classic The Social Network. Fincher, of course, isn’t returning this time around, with screenwriter Sorkin instead handling directing duties himself. Jeremy Strong is also taking over from Jesse Eisenberg in the role… Read More New Trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning
By John Corrado The Dog Stars is the latest film from director Ridley Scott, a legendary filmmaker now in his late eighties who has earned his stripes with a number of classics over the decades, but whose output has been decidedly more hit or miss in recent years. This post-apocalyptic drama, which is adapted from… Read More Movie Review: The Dog Stars
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 21st, 2026. Theatrical Releases: Late Fame (Limited Release): This character drama, which premiered at Venice last year and is finally being released, stars Willem Dafoe in a prime role as a faded poet receiving a late stage career revival when his work his discovered by… Read More New This Week (08/21/2026): Late Fame, The Magic Faraway Tree, & More!
By John Corrado Adapted from the classic children’s novels by Enid Blyton, The Magic Faraway Tree is a British live-action family film that works mostly as a cute and charming adventure. The story follows Tim Thompson (Andrew Garfield) and his wife Polly (Claire Foy), as they move to the countryside with their three kids. The… Read More Movie Review: The Magic Faraway Tree
By John Corrado Directed by Kent Jones, the film Late Fame mainly exists to give a formidable late career role to Willem Dafoe, an actor whose own current standing among young cinephiles could be seen as being mirrored in the film’s narrative. Dafoe stars in the film as Ed Saxberger, a poet living in New… Read More Movie Review: Late Fame
By John Corrado The winners of the 18th Dorian TV Awards, presented by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (of which I am one of the group’s 580 members), have just been announced. I’m pleased to say that the big winner this year is Canada’s own queer hockey Heated Rivalry, which won the awards… Read More Winners of the 2026 Dorian TV Awards
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 14th, 2026. Theatrical Releases: Tony (Limited Release): Fresh off the breakout success of his Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson directs this Anthony Bourdain biopic for A24, which unfolds over one summer in the young chef’s life. Dominic Sessa is… Read More New This Week (08/14/2026): Tony, The End of Oak Street, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, & More!
The Joy of Movies 