By John Corrado Paramount is releasing a new edition of the 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls on Blu-ray today. Dubbed the “So Fetch! Limited Edition,” this new release features SteelBook packaging tied to the film. With a screenplay by Tina Fey, the film itself is a wicked sharp satire of high school politics that unfolds around… Read More Blu-ray Review: Mean Girls (SteelBook Edition)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A housecleaner dreams of owning a Christian Dior gown in the delightful Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which has to be one of the nicest cinematic surprises of the year. Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) is a war widow who is just making ends meet as a cleaner and… Read More Blu-ray Review: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Neither good nor bad enough to fully justify its widely publicized behind the scenes drama, Olivia Wilde’s overly ambitious second feature Don’t Worry Darling is instead a thoroughly mediocre and undercooked effort that tries to be a lot of things, but doesn’t really do any of them particularly… Read More Review: Don’t Worry Darling
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 23rd, 2022. Theatrical Releases: Avatar (Theatrical Re-Release): Disney is re-releasing James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster Avatar back into theatres today, in 3D and IMAX, leading up to the release of the long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water in December. Don’t Worry Darling (Wide Release): After… Read More New This Week (09/23/2022): Don’t Worry Darling, Eternal Spring, Blonde, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Black Phone is a Blumhouse-produced thriller that finds director Scott Derrickson reuniting with Ethan Hawke, the star of his 2012 film Sinister (which is still one of the most genuinely disturbing modern horror movies). This time around, Hawke takes on the villainous role of The Grabber, a… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Black Phone (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Elvis. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original theatrical review right here. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis became one of the biggest box office success stories of the summer when it was released earlier… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Elvis
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. In Moonage Daydream, documentary filmmaker Brett Morgan weaves an exciting and highly cinematic portrait of late music and queer icon David Bowie. The film blends concert footage with old interviews to offer a compelling window into… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Moonage Daydream (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. The directorial debut of Korean actor Lee Jung-jae (the Emmy-winning star of Squid Game), Hunt is a political thriller set at the height of tensions between North and South Korea in the 1980s. Lee stars in… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Hunt (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. British writer-director Joanna Hogg follows up her one-two punch of The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II with The Eternal Daughter, a simmering, haunting mother-daughter story that is infused with elements of Gothic Horror. The film… Read More #TIFF22 Review: The Eternal Daughter (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq makes his feature debut with Joyland, firmly establishing himself as a very exciting new voice in international cinema. Adapted from his 2019 short film Darling, Sadiq’s film, which was awarded the Un… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Joyland (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. The latest film from the currently imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi, No Bears is a work of meta filmmaking that weaves together two narratives. Panahi casts himself as a filmmaker who is directing his latest work… Read More #TIFF22 Reviews: No Bears (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. Nan Goldin is an artist and photographer who has set her sights on holding Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family to account for creating and pushing the drug OxyContin, and fuelling the opioid crisis ravaging America.… Read More #TIFF22 Review: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. The Banshees of Inisherin, the latest brilliantly written character study from writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), tells the story of two friends; farmer Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and fiddler Colm… Read More #TIFF22 Review: The Banshees of Inisherin (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. Director Peter Farrelly made the switch to making “serious” films in 2018 with Green Book, a career pivot that (controversially) won him the People’s Choice Award at TIFF and subsequently the Oscar for Best Picture. Farrelly… Read More #TIFF22 Review: The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. With Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson returns with a big budget follow up to his 2019 surprise hit Knives Out, and I wouldn’t think of spoiling what transpires, but I’m also not going… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. Sarah Polley, whose previous trio of films Away from Her, Take This Waltz and Stories We Tell are all in the established canon of celebrated Canadian cinema, makes her long awaited return to directing with Women Talking. An adaptation of the… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Women Talking (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. Empire of Light, the latest film from writer-director Sam Mendes, is a solid period piece that also serves as a very personal work from the British filmmaker. It’s set in a seaside town in the 1980s,… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Empire of Light (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. Starring, co-written and executive produced by Billy Eichner, Bros is the first big romantic comedy from a major studio to focus on a gay couple, starring a cast of queer actors, and you know what? This… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Bros (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. Paul Mescal, the breakout star of the Irish miniseries Normal People, delivers a poignant performance in the film Aftersun as a young father on vacation in Turkey. Calum (Mescal) is on holiday with his 11-year-old daughter… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Aftersun (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8th to 18th. The People’s Joker, which had its already infamous premiere at Midnight Madness the other night, is an ambitious art project that finds its creator Vera Drew messing around in the DC Comics universe to tell the… Read More #TIFF22 Review: The People’s Joker (Midnight Madness)
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