By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 16th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Avatar: The Way of Water (Wide Release): It’s understandable that this is the only big theatrical release this week, with other studios making way for James Cameron’s surefire blockbuster. Arriving a full thirteen years after the first Avatar in 2009, Cameron’s… Read More New This Week (12/16/2022): Avatar: The Way of Water, Bardo, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) It’s been thirteen years since director James Cameron first took us to Pandora in his 2009 sci-fi blockbuster Avatar, a film that some have erroneously claimed had no cultural impact, but won a trio of Oscars, lit the box office on fire, and ushered in a new 3D… Read More Review: Avatar: The Way of Water
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The surprise box office hit Smile is an original horror movie from writer-director Parker Finn, that mixes the paranoia of It Follows, with the ticking time bomb once-you-see-it-you-die conceit of The Ring, and the dysfunctional family drama mixed with supernatural horror of Hereditary. Despite these obvious influences, Finn’s… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Smile
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Based on the classic 1960s picture books by Bernard Waber, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is a modestly enjoyable live action musical featuring original songs by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul that follows the adventures of a singing crocodile in New York City. The title character, Lyle (voiced by Shawn… Read More Blu-ray Review: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) A group of rich young adults in their twenties gather for a weekend getaway during a hurricane in the A24-backed Bodies Bodies Bodies, a vapid mix of indie party comedy and murder mystery that often feels more like a spoof of an A24 movie. At the start of… Read More Blu-ray Review: Bodies Bodies Bodies
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) In Emancipation, a runaway slave drama that is somewhat okay as an action movie but feels heavy-handed as awards bait, Antoine Fuqua directs the story of Peter (Will Smith), a slave who escapes to find freedom following Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1861. In the opening scenes, Peter… Read More Review: Emancipation (Apple TV+)
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 9th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Spoiler Alert (Wide Release): Jim Parsons stars as TV writer Micheal Ausiello in this Christmas dramedy from director Michael Showalter (The Big Sick). Based on Ausiello’s memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, the film tracks the months he spent caring for… Read More New This Week (12/09/2022): Spoiler Alert, Empire of Light, The Eternal Daughter, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (official title) is a passion project for the Mexican filmmaker, who crafts an emotional stop-motion retelling of author Carlo Collodi’s classic book. The story of the wooden boy brought to life has been adapted for the screen countless times, perhaps most famously in Disney’s… Read More Review: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 2nd, 2022. Theatrical Releases: White Noise (TIFF Bell Lightbox): Noah Baumbach’s latest is an apocalyptic dark comedy starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig as a 1980s suburban couple grappling with their existential fear of death while trying to survive a “toxic airborne event.” I was… Read More New This Week (12/02/2022): White Noise, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Inspection, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Leave it to Noah Baumbach to follow up his stunning 2019 drama Marriage Story with White Noise, an apocalyptic dark comedy about the existential fear of dying that still feels distinctly like a part of his filmography. Baumbach’s latest finds the writer-director tackling Don DeLillo’s “unfilmable” 1985 post-modernist… Read More Review: White Noise
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Don’t Worry Darling. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original theatrical review right here. After releasing in theatres in September, Olivia Wilde’s much buzzed about second directorial effort Don’t Worry Darling is… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Don’t Worry Darling
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Based on Michael Ausiello’s autobiographical book Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, the point of the movie Spoiler Alert (and the book that preceded it) is to tell a sweeping love story where we already know the tragic outcome. The film succeeds at this with mostly satisfying but somewhat… Read More Review: Spoiler Alert
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All is a love story between Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet), two lonely young cannibals who are both on the run from family problems and their own desires, when they meet on a road trip through the Midwest in the 1980s. After… Read More Review: Bones and All
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 23rd and November 25th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: The Fabelmans (Wide Release): My favourite of this week’s new releases is Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, the legendary filmmaker’s semi-autobiographical film that had its world premiere at TIFF in September, where it picked up the People’s Choice Award.… Read More New This Week (11/25/2022): The Fabelmans, Glass Onion, Strange World, Bones and All, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following in the footsteps of the Halloween special Werewolf by Night, Marvel Studios now switches their focus to Christmas with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Written and directed by James Gunn, the special is designed as a loving homage to the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special,… Read More Disney+ Review: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Strange World, the latest feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios, is a throwback to old school adventure movies from the 1930s to 1950s that works as a somewhat slight but mostly entertaining animated film. The film centres around the Clades, who are a legendary family of explorers. The… Read More Review: Strange World
By John Corrado In honour of its 35th anniversary this year, the 1987 John Hughes classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles is making its 4K Ultra HD debut this week from Paramount, just in time for American Thanksgiving. The film, of course, stars Steve Martin as Neal Page and John Candy as Del Griffith, two men… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
By John Corrado Following a SteelBook Blu-ray release back in February, Paramount Home Entertainment is now releasing the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World for the first time on 4K Ultra HD in honour of the film’s 30th anniversary. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey star as Wayne and Garth, slacker hosts of the public-access TV show Wayne’s… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Wayne’s World: 30th Anniversary Edition
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 18th, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Holy Spider (TIFF Bell Lightbox): Director Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider was one of the best movies I saw at TIFF this year. The Iranian serial killer thriller follows a journalist (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) chasing a killer (Mehdi Bajestani) through the streets of… Read More New This Week (11/18/2022): Bardo, Holy Spider, Disenchanted, Spirited, & More!
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Arriving fifteen years after Enchanted, Disney’s self-aware 2007 fairy tale that found an animated princess stumbling into our live action world, Disenchanted is a direct-to-streaming sequel that unfortunately struggles to recapture the same magic. Amy Adams reprises her role as Giselle, who left her home in the animated… Read More Disney+ Review: Disenchanted
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