By John Corrado It’s been a long time coming, but after finally arriving in theatres earlier this year over forty years after it was originally shot, the Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace is now available on DVD. The film documents the production of Franklin’s classic 1972 gospel album of the same name, which was… Read More DVD Review: Amazing Grace
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Following the outbreak of a mysterious illness that wiped out all of the grown ups, leaving just the teenagers behind, the town of Potter’s Bluff has divided into two halves. The East Siders are scrappy survivalist punks who get by on their own, and the West Siders have… Read More Review: Riot Girls
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Phyllis Ellis, who takes an investigative approach to the material, the documentary Toxic Beauty explores how harmful ingredients like phthalates, parabens and even formaldihyde are lurking in a lot of the soaps, deodorants, creams and shampoos that many women use on their bodies every single day.… Read More Review: Toxic Beauty
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Toronto’s own Daniel Roher, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is an engaging and emotional look at Robertson’s own life and career as lead guitarist and main songwriter for The Band, as well as the rise and fall of the group itself. The film… Read More Review: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, following up his radical English-language biopic Jackie, Ema opens with an image of a street light on fire, and this provides an oddly fitting start to the film. Ema (Mariana di Girolamo) is a professional dancer who adopted a young son from… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Ema (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Set in a sleepy Irish town that offers little in the way of economic opportunity, Calm With Horses follows Douglas “Arm” Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis), a physically imposing former boxer who struggles with anger management issues. Desperate for cash, he is hired to be an enforcer for the Devers, a… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Calm With Horses (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The winner of the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award, The Platform is a grisly and nasty Spanish thriller that boasts a really interesting premise. The film is set in a vertical prison called The Pit that has hundreds of floor, and two people trapped on each. At the start… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Platform (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Shot on a shoestring budget in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, Crazy World is the latest action movie from Wakaliwood filmmaker IGG Nabwana. Starring Nabwana’s own kids and other locals, the loose plot involves the Waka Stars, a group of kids who are trained in kung-fu. When they get… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Crazy World (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Taking place over a single night, and often unfolding in long takes, The Vast of Night is one heck of a filmmaking debut for first time director Andrew Patterson. The film is set in the 1950s, with the Space Race still in its infancy. While a basketball game goes… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Vast of Night (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A rare horror movie rooted in Judaism, The Vigil uses Jewish traditions and beliefs as the basis for its haunted house story, rather than the Christian beliefs that usually inform these sorts of narratives. The film opens with Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis) meeting with other young adults who have… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Vigil (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Ling (Yeo Yann Yann) is a Mandarin teacher at a high school in Singapore, whose home life is increasingly depressing. She has been trying unsuccessfully for years to conceive a child, and is tasked with looking after her father-in-law (Yang Shi Bin), who is in the advanced stages… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Wet Season (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The second film directed by celebrated Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, following his 2007 directorial debut Déficit, Chicuarotes follows teenaged friends Cagalera (Benny Emmanuel) and Moloteco (Gabriel Carbajal), who live in the impoverished neighbourhood of San Gregorio Atlapulco in Mexico City. The film opens with them on a… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Chicuarotes (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Started as an eco-friendly alternative to the fuel-burning of Formula 1, Formula E is a racing series that has been going strong since 2014, in which the drivers compete against each other in battery operated cars, offering a carbon neutral alternative to the high emissions of traditional motorsports.… Read More #TIFF19 Review: And We Go Green (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★ (out of 4) Following a bad breakup, Daphne (Shailene Woodley), a typical twenty-something millennial, decides to take a six month sabbatical from both alcohol and dating as she tries to find her footing and get her life back on track. But it doesn’t last long, because shortly after announcing her hiatus… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Endings, Beginnings (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) was a self-described entrepreneur and fledgling musician who worked in a record shop in the 1970s, when he decided to branch out into doing comedy records. Creating a flamboyant alter-ego named Dolemite, a foul-mouthed pimp who speaks in verse, Moore ended up becoming… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Dolemite Is My Name (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is a jeweler in New York City, who is always looking for his next big score. When he imports a chunk of rock from a mine in Ethiopa that is studded with rare opals, he intends to sell it at an auction, but ends… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Uncut Gems (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Charlie (Adam Driver) is a theatre director who lives with his wife Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), an actress who performs in his plays, and their young son Henry (Azhy Robertson) in New York. When they start to drift apart, Charlie and Nicole decide to split up their marriage, with… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Marriage Story (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Director Bong Joon-ho’s first film in Korean following his two English-language movies Snowpiercer and Okja, Parasite made history earlier this year when it took home the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes, becoming the first film from South Korea to win the award. And now that I’ve seen the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Parasite (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, Western Stars, is an introspective, often bittersweet concept album of sorts that tells the story of a fading Western movie star, and finds the iconic American rocker branching out to country music and performing with a thirty piece orchestra. Not intending to go on… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Western Stars (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest social realist drama from veteran filmmaker Ken Loach, Sorry We Missed You explores many of the same themes of systemic poverty and the struggles faced by those who aren’t at the top of the economic ladder as his Palme d’Or-winning previous film I, Daniel Blake. This… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Sorry We Missed You (Masters)
The Joy of Movies 