By Erin Corrado This past weekend (December 9th-11th) the 5th annual JAYU Human Rights Film Festival happened at The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto. It is a small festival that doesn’t get a whole ton of press, but they play some great films each year that highlight important issues. Their name ‘JAYU’ comes from… Read More JAYU Human Rights Film Festival Recap
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Based on the true story of Saroo Brierly’s journey to reconnect with his birth family after getting lost on the crowded streets of India over twenty years earlier, Lion is a moving and inspiring drama. The first half of the film follows Saroo as a young boy (Sunny Pawar), who gets… Read More Review: Lion
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Pablo Larraín in his English language debut, Jackie largely eschews the typical biopic formula to offer a complex and nuanced portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy, exploring how she meticulously managed her place in the public spotlight, both as First Lady and sudden widow. The narrative is centred… Read More Review: Jackie
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) During World War II, Japan forced thousands of young women from around Asia into sexual slavery. Referred to as “comfort women,” and now more affectionately called the grandmothers, many of the aging victims have spent years protesting and demanding the government to issue a formal apology for their abuse,… Read More Review: The Apology
By John Corrado The biggest movie of 2015, and a thoroughly entertaining blockbuster that does a fine job of continuing this classic saga, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now available in a glorious 3D Collector’s Edition to give fans the definitive version of the film. Although many fans will have already gotten the original Blu-ray release from… Read More Blu-ray Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 3D Collector’s Edition
By John Corrado Arriving a few months after the original Blu-ray release, The Jungle Book: 3D Collector’s Edition has now arrived, offering fans the definitive version of Disney’s excellent remake. For more on the film itself, which is one of the year’s best, you can read our three views right here. Although some will question the… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Jungle Book: 3D Collector’s Edition
By John Corrado Directed by Steven Spielberg, bringing Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book to the big screen, The BFG follows the budding friendship between bright but lonely young girl Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), and a towering creature who calls himself the Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance), who takes her from an orphanage in the middle of the… Read More Blu-ray Review: The BFG
By John Corrado After a devastating accident left him orphaned, Pete (Oakes Fegley) was raised in the woods by a friendly dragon named Elliot. When Pete is discovered by forest ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her boyfriend’s daughter Natalie (Oona Laurence), whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) works for a logging operation, their small town is… Read More Blu-ray Review: Pete’s Dragon
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) When a trio of young thieves, Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto), try to steal a large chunk of cash from the house of a blind war veteran (Stephen Lang) in a rundown Detroit neighbourhood, they get more than they bargained for when he starts… Read More Blu-ray Review: Don’t Breathe
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) When four couples, including Annie (Melanie Lynskey) and her fiancé Matt (Jason Ritter), Jessie (Clea DuVall) and her partner Sarah (Natasha Lyonne), and Jack (Ben Schwartz) and his much younger girlfriend Laura (Alia Shawkat), stay together at an old family estate house, things become awkward when it’s revealed that Annie intends the trip to be… Read More DVD Review: The Intervention
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Kenneth Lonergan, only his third film in sixteen years following You Can Count On Me and Margaret, Manchester By The Sea is a masterful and beautifully written look at how grief affects different people, anchored by outstanding performances and an impressive handling of tone. Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is a… Read More Review: Manchester By The Sea
Moana Review By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who helped usher in the fabled Disney Renaissance with such classics like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, Moana is a solid entry into the studio’s oeuvre that continues their current hot streak. Taking place in the South Pacific, the story… Read More Three Views: Moana
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) “If you must blink, do it now.” These are the first lines of voiceover heard during the gripping prologue of Kubo and the Two Strings, and they apply perfectly to the film. You simply don’t want to blink during this visually stunning stop motion adventure, which keeps wowing us with… Read More Blu-ray Review: Kubo and the Two Strings
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Emulating the spirit of 1980s high school classics from John Hughes and Cameron Crowe, with a screenplay by writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig that instantly cements her as a fresh new voice, The Edge of Seventeen is a modern teen film that is funny, smart and heartfelt. Nadine (Hailee… Read More Review: The Edge of Seventeen
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Based on an incredible true comeback story, Bleed for This recounts the career of boxer Vinny Pazienza (Miles Teller), a world class champion from Rhode Island who is riding high after a win, but suffers a major setback when he breaks his neck in a car crash. Vinny… Read More Review: Bleed for This
By John Corrado Arriving thirteen years after the release of the beloved Finding Nemo, Finding Dory focuses on Dory (Ellen Degeneres) as she starts having flashes of remembering her parents, Jenny (Diane Keaton) and Charlie (Eugene Levy). When she sets off to find them, Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) follow her to the Marine… Read More Blu-ray Review: Finding Dory
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) After twelve egg-shaped alien spaceships land around the world, linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is recruited by the military to try and communicate with the otherworldly visitors in Montana. Teaming up with Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Louise takes a methodical approach… Read More Review: Arrival
By John Corrado “Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” Delivered partway through Taxi Driver, these words have lingered in my mind since I first saw Martin Scorsese’s iconic 1976 classic, and they are just as haunting and relevant now, especially as the film is celebrating its fortieth… Read More Blu-ray Review: Taxi Driver: 40th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Dreamt up by writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who wanted to craft a Pixar-style computer animated film for adults, Sausage Party imagines a world where grocery store items are alive, and living under the delusion of entering “The Great Beyond” when they are taken out of the supermarket… Read More Blu-ray Review: Sausage Party
Doctor Strange Review By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Just when it was starting to feel like the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be at risk of only delivering bloated ensemble sequels like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange has arrived in the nick of time to breath some new life into the… Read More Three Views: Doctor Strange
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