By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Rob Grant and Mike Kovac are a pair of friends and independent filmmakers from Vancouver, and at the beginning of their documentary project Fake Blood, Rob tells us in voiceover that they are no longer on speaking terms. The film then goes back to tell us what happened… Read More Review: Fake Blood
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Ben Layton (Thomas Middleditch) is in the throes of depression, finding himself unable to cope after his wife left him for another man. But he finds a new purpose in life when he finds out that his parents nearly adopted a baby girl, who they had to give… Read More Review: Entanglement
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Wink (Ian McLaren) is a member of the Badsville Kings, a greaser gang that tries to rule over the depressed title town in Badsville, a gritty crime drama that takes place just outside of Los Angeles and explores themes of loyalty and rivalry between gang members. When Wink falls… Read More Review: Badsville
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Betty (Reid Asseltine) is a lonely young woman who has just started working as a security guard in a parking lot at a rundown Scarborough strip mall. But when she makes a pass at bartender Danny (Darrel Gamotin) while he is drunk, both of their lives start to… Read More Review: Wexford Plaza
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Ronnie (Grace Glowicki) has turned to alcohol as a way to cope after the death of her brother Garrett two months earlier, who her best friend Faye (Erin Carter) had briefly dated the year before, but broke up with when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. When Faye… Read More Review: Suck It Up
By John Corrado Here’s a release that has been a long time coming. After premiering at Hot Docs in 2015, and then getting held back for two years due to some behind the scenes disagreements, The Sandwich Nazi is finally being released on a variety of VOD platforms today, including Vimeo on Demand, iTunes, Amazon… Read More VOD Release: The Sandwich Nazi
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Francine is a young black girl living in North York’s Villaways neighbourhood. But the affordable housing units where she lives with her father, grandmother and two autistic brothers are facing a forced revitalization project set forth by the city, meaning that the residents will have to leave their homes… Read More Review: Unarmed Verses
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) I watched The Tragically Hip’s final concert in a movie theatre that was showing it live last summer. I couldn’t be in Kingston that night but, like a third of all Canadians, I was glued to that screen for every single song. I was thankful for the chance… Read More Review: Long Time Running
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Named for Link Wray’s highly influential guitar piece “Rumble,” the only instrumental song to be banned for radio play in the United States for fear that the driving chord progressions and percussion might start a riot, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World offers an extensive history of Native… Read More Review: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) When we first meet our protagonist William Bowman (Jake Croker) in #AnAmericanDream, he is a high school football star living in farmland America, who gets overwhelmed whenever his parents try to talk about his future. Then he suffers a concussion on the football field, and suddenly the narrative shifts… Read More Review: #AnAmericanDream
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Vancouver housing market has gotten so out of reach that the majority of young people aren’t able to afford properties in the city, and many older retirees can no longer afford to live there. Coupled with a boom in expensive condo developments that are exploiting the city… Read More Review: Vancouver: No Fixed Address
By John Corrado The Canadian Film Fest is back again and, dare I say, bigger than ever. For starters this year, the festival has moved from The Royal Cinema to Scotiabank, and will be running for a full five days, up from the previous four. The festival is also boasting its largest ever lineup of ten… Read More Previewing the 2017 Canadian Film Fest
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest from veteran Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald, Weirdos is an endlessly charming and surprisingly touching coming of age story, that finds the director in top form delivering one of his best and most heartfelt films. The year is 1976, and Kit (Dylan Authors) and his best friend Alice… Read More Review: Weirdos
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The most revealing character moment in Hello Destroyer comes when star hockey player Tyson Burr (Jared Abrahmson) lies in a dimly lit hotel room, icing his knuckles after a fight during the game, and tells one of his teammates about how he could never stand silence as a child.… Read More Review: Hello Destroyer
By Erin Corrado As part of Canada’s Top 10, the Student Shorts Programme plays today at 1pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. Filmmakers will be in attendance, and the Student Short Film Prizes will be announced following the screening. Each film was made as part of a university program by students, and while there… Read More Review: Canada’s Top Ten Student Shorts Programme
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Jonas Ford (Josh Wiggins) lives on a struggling rural farm property, with a severely depressed mother (Vickie Papavs) and a father (Joe Cobden) who keeps him out of school and expects him to work in the fields. When Casey Caraway (Sophie Nélisse) moves into a nearby farmhouse with… Read More Review: Mean Dreams
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Kim Nguyen, and featuring breathtaking images shot on location in Nunavut, Two Lovers and a Bear is a hypnotic and transportive psychological drama, that balances its elements of magical realism with genuine human emotion. The two lovers of the title are Lucy (Tatiana Maslaney) and Roman (Dane DeHaan), a young couple… Read More Review: Two Lovers and a Bear
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following his found footage high school shooting knockout The Dirties, Operation Avalanche is a space age conspiracy caper that finds low budget Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson playing around on an even larger canvas. This time around, Matt Johnson and his previous co-star Owen Williams portray a pair of young CIA agents who pose as a… Read More Review: Operation Avalanche
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Blending animation and live action across a mix of genres and styles, Zoom weaves together the interconnecting stories of three different artists, to offer a film that’s both entertaining and totally unique. The live action scenes focus on an aspiring comic book artist (Allison Pill) who works in… Read More Review: Zoom
By John Corrado A critical darling from the 2015 festival circuit, and one of the best movies of last year, Sleeping Giant follows restless teens Nate (Nick Serino), Riley (Reece Moffett) and Adam (Jackson Martin), who are spending the summer hanging out in a small Northern Ontario community. But the weight of jealousy and various family problems lead to tested… Read More DVD Review: Sleeping Giant
The Joy of Movies 