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
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) I have always been fascinated by time travel, both the way it is used in movies and other stories, as well as the actual possibilities of being able to move along the space-time continuum. I have also always loved building models and collecting movie memorabilia, to remind me of… Read More Review: How to Build a Time Machine
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The gutsy feature debut of young director Stephen Dunn, Closet Monster is a Canadian film that takes its inspiration from both Xavier Dolan and David Cronenberg. These fellow homegrown filmmakers couldn’t be further apart in their own work, but their influences are both felt in this self-assured and often ambitious… Read More Review: Closet Monster
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A haunting and visually stunning cinematic tone poem, and winner of the Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature award, Konelīne: Our Land Beautiful is a gorgeously captured documentary that offers a powerful and moving hymn to living in harmony with the land. Director Nettie Wild doesn’t confine the film to a single narrative arc,… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Konelīne: Our Land Beautiful
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Adapting Jean Hegland’s novel for the screen, director Patricia Rozema brings Into the Forest to screen with intimate and quietly intense style. The Canadian filmmaker displays a sensitive and compassionate touch in her handling of even the film’s most graphic elements, crafting a stark apocalyptic drama that functions as a resonant… Read More Review: Into the Forest
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) An immigrant from pre-war Yugoslavia, Jasmin (Jasmin Geljo) is a struggling actor in Toronto, who finds himself typecast to read for criminals in his auditions, and works as a construction worker to support his wife (Ma-Anne Dionisio) and son (Filip Geljo). There are a lot of static shots and long… Read More Review: The Waiting Room
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Following a group of aging burlesque performers, who still retain their sex-positive attitudes even as seniors, League of Exotique Dancers, the recent opening night film at Hot Docs, provides a fun alternative history of the women’s rights movement. Although using their bodies and mostly performing for men, these dancers all… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: League of Exotique Dancers
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Cassie Cranston (Jewel Staite) returns to the prudish small town of Beaver’s Ridge for her mother’s funeral, years after an embarrassing incident as a teenager had her labelled the “town slut” and led to a career as a sex columnist, the eccentric locals convince her to plan an orgy.… Read More Review: How to Plan An Orgy in a Small Town
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Still reeling from his sister’s suicide, Shane (Andrew Martin) dreams of finally getting away from his small Native community in Northern Ontario, and going to university in Toronto with his secret boyfriend David (Harley Legarde-Beacham). But his depressed mother (Jennifer Podemski), dwindling money and being forced to hide his… Read More Review: Fire Song
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Eugene (Dylan Harman) is a young man with Down Syndrome, who still believes in the power of rainbows to deliver gold. Living in Toronto and riddled by extreme poverty, he practically has to take care of himself alongside his terminally ill mother. Eugene sets out to find the proverbial… Read More Review: The Rainbow Kid
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Martine Stonehouse is a celebrated transgender activist living on the autism spectrum in Toronto, who is struggling to complete her gender confirmation surgery before marrying her longtime partner John Gelman, a straight man who is also on the autism spectrum, and wants to have a partner with female genitalia. Because of… Read More Review: Transfixed
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Wiebke Von Carolsfeld, The Saver is a gritty and emotionally affective Canadian drama that captures the all too common realities of living in poverty, especially for Native youth who are often ignored within the system. The film follows Fern (Imajyn Cardinal), a 16-year-old who is left desperate and alone after the… Read More Review: The Saver
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The feature debut of Director X, who is perhaps better known for music videos like Hotline Bling, Across the Line is a well made and often stylish examination of poverty and racism at a small town high school. Partially inspired by real racial tensions in North Preston, Nova Scotia… Read More Review: Across the Line
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A Canadian coming of age drama shot in and around Thunder Bay, Sleeping Giant is a small film that leaves a big impact in its searing exploration of the long buried feelings that are awoken in the throes of youth. Already landing a spot on my top ten list… Read More Review: Sleeping Giant
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) It always feels good to find a Canadian film that takes some of the most recognizable tropes of homegrown cinema, including a dark sense of humour and scenic shots of our country’s many beautiful landscapes, and uses them in service of telling a story that still feels unique… Read More Review: Borealis
By John Corrado Although Toronto has too many film festivals to reasonably count, one of the quickest rising of them is the Canadian Film Fest, a celebration of independent homegrown cinema that I’ve started looking forward to every March. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the festival kicks off tonight with How to Plan An Orgy in… Read More Previewing the 2016 Canadian Film Fest
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Life Off Grid opens at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema today, tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Life Off Grid looks at different people across Canada who have all found ways to live completely or almost entirely off… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Life Off Grid
The Joy of Movies 