By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The first thing we see gracing the screen in La La Land, the new throwback to old musicals that is good but not quite as good as you’ve heard, is a nicely retro logo for Summit Entertainment, presented on a black and white screen in Academy aspect ratio. The screen pulls out to announce… Read More Review: La La Land
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) “Maybe I’m a feminist,” teenage protagonist Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) tells his mother Dorothea (Annette Bening) partway through 20th Century Women, and there is perhaps no better statement to sum up what makes this film so special. This is the story of a boy essentially being raised by the woman… Read More Review: 20th Century Women
By John Corrado Dramatizing the events of the worst oil spill in United States history, Deepwater Horizon centres its narrative around engineer and family man Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), who goes to work on the rig off the Gulf of Mexico and starts to realize that things are going very wrong. Expertly crafted on a technical scale,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Deepwater Horizon
By John Corrado Recounting the events of a landmark court case in the 1990s, Denial tells the story of Jewish professor and historian Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), who was taken to court by David Irving (Timothy Spall), a Holocaust denier who has devoted his life to discrediting proof that Aushwitz was ever used as a killing machine. Built around… Read More DVD Review: Denial
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) With undertones of an Amblin production from the 1980s, A Monster Calls is the rarest of things nowadays. It’s a family film that is as much for older kids as it is for adults, and is unafraid of going dark and exploring sensitive themes involving the death of… Read More Review: A Monster Calls
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) is a rich heiress who has always dreamed of being an opera singer, with the only problem being that she is oblivious to the fact that she can’t sing. But her husband St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) is fully willing to keep her dreams alive,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Florence Foster Jenkins
By John Corrado Boasting a fine performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role, Snowden uses a narrative that jumps around in time to show Edward Snowden’s career trajectory from a patriotic army hopeful to working for the NSA, which leads him to the startling realization that compel him to steal classified documents proving to the world that the… Read More Blu-ray Review: Snowden
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following their mega hit The Secret Life of Pets this summer, Illumination has delivered another animated winner with Sing, a fun and often joyful pop musical that is enlivened by its colourful visuals and likeable characters. Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) is a theatre-loving koala who is struggling to… Read More Review: Sing
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When his grandfather (Terence Stamp) is murdered by a vicious monster, Jake (Asa Butterfield) discovers a mystery that takes him to an old children’s home in Wales. Run by shapeshifting headmistress Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), the house provides residency for children who all have their own unique special powers. But the… Read More Blu-ray Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
By John Corrado After her husband is killed by a capitalist land baron (Peter Saarsgard), Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) enlists bounty hunter Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) to help her get vengeance and protect their land. Sam rounds up a motley crew (Chris Pratt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, Byung-hun Lee, Vincent D’Onofrio, Martin Sensmeier) to help prepare… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Magnificent Seven
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Still recovering from being brutal assaulted and robbed, Brad (Ben Schnetzer) goes to college, hoping to start a new chapter of his life. But when his older brother Brett (Nick Jonas) convinces him to join his fraternity, Brad faces a whole new level of pain and humiliation as the pledging rituals become increasingly horrifying… Read More DVD Review: Goat
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) When his mother (Margo Martindale) is diagnosed with a brain tumour, John Hollar (John Krasinski) returns to the hometown where his father (Richard Jenkins) and brother (Sharlto Copley) still live. As he faces his mother’s potential mortality, John also has to help deal with various other family problems,… Read More DVD Review: The Hollars
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Recounting the events of the rebellion hinted at in the opening crawl of the original 1977 film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a prequel that actually works. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film expands upon the mythology of the series in… Read More Three Views: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Expanding upon the world she created in the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first film for which author J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay, and it serves as a welcome return to the wizarding… Read More Three Views: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) A remake of the classic 1959 biblical epic, which was itself a remake of a 1925 silent film, Ben-Hur is another version of the classic story of adoptive brothers Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) and Massala Severus (Toby Kebbell), who’s loyalty is tested when Massala joins the Roman army and betrays… Read More Blu-ray Review: Ben-Hur
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
