By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A chance encounter between two Indigenous women in Vancouver leads to an emotional study of abuse and trauma in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, a drama that unfolds almost entirely in real time and explores how hard it can be to help someone who is reluctant… Read More Review: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
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 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 ★★½ (out of 4) Set in Newfoundland in the 1980s, Black Conflux follows both a teenaged girl named Jackie (Ella Ballentine), who is navigating the world of high school, and a mentally unstable young man named Dennis (Ryan McDonald), who works in a brewery and has trouble with women. Jackie has started… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Black Conflux (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Set in the tacky, tourist trap area of Niagara Falls that the film is named after, Clifton Hill follows a woman named Abby (Tuppence Middleton), who returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls after her mother dies to help facilitate the sale of their family motel, and becomes… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Clifton Hill (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The third feature from Toronto filmmaker Kazik Radwanski, Anne at 13,000 ft is shot in his usual minimalistic style, offering a gritty and stripped down portrait of its title character, who is in the throes of a mental breakdown. Anne (Deragh Campbell) is in her late twenties and… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Anne at 13,000 ft (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A bloody, gory and socially conscious Indigenous zombie movie, Blood Quantum explores what happens when a plague that turns people into flesh-eating zombies ravages the outside world, and everyone on a First Nations reserve somehow has immunity to the virus. The film takes place on the Red Crow… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Blood Quantum (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Toronto’s own Daniel Roher, and carrying the distinction of being the first ever Canadian documentary to open the festival, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is an engaging and emotional look at Robertson’s own life and career as the lead guitarist and main songwriter… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Jenny (Hong Chau) is a young political activist in the 1970s who is laying low after bombing a draft office to protest the Vietnam War, when she forms a bond with a young heiress named Pauline (Sarah Gadon), who has gotten involved with a violent cult run by… Read More #TIFF19 Review: American Woman (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When his estranged father Al (Christian Aldo) dies, struggling actor Wayne (Nathanael Chadwick) inherits his dad’s business, a rundown porno theatre. Wayne initially plans to sell the property, which has an apartment above it where tenants still live. But the more time he spends in the building, the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Last Porno Show (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest and best film from young Canadian filmmakers Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis, White Lie opens with its main character, a young woman named Katie Arneson (Kacey Rohl), shaving her head with a razor. Katie doesn’t have cancer, but she wants everyone, including her girlfriend Jennifer (Amber… Read More #TIFF19 Review: White Lie (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The latest from Alan Zweig, Coppers finds the Canadian documentary filmmaker interviewing former police officers in Ontario, who have either left the force due to retirement or for other reasons. Speaking directly to the camera, the officers open up about experiencing PTSD, tough decisions they had to make… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Coppers (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In this era of fake news, independent journalist Robert Fisk stands tall as a champion of finding the truth and standing up for those who are oppressed, even if it means going against the official narratives and holding those who hold power to account. With a long, storied… Read More #TIFF19 Review: This is Not a Movie (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 53rd film from Alanis Obomsawin, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger continues the Canadian filmmaker’s long history of documenting the injustices faced by Indigenous people in Canada and the fight for equal treatment under the law. This film focuses on the case of Jordan River Anderson, a baby… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger (Masters)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 1969, after local religious authorities ordered that all of the totem poles be cut down as part of Canada’s widespread erasure of Indigenous culture, the celebrated Haida artist Robert Davidson became responsible for carving the first new totem pole to be put up in nearly a century in his village… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Now is the Time (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Sandra Ignagni, Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile is a mix of visual essay and short documentary that takes us inside the twenty five faith-based spaces that exist along the old No. 5 road in Richmond, British Columbia, including a variety of Christian churches,… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Narrated by Rossif Sutherland, The Physics of Sorrow is an animated short film that finds an unnamed immigrant reflecting upon his memories of first falling in love as a boy with a girl from the circus, his abusive father, his time in the army in communist Bulgaria, and… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Physics of Sorrow (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Inspired by an article that was published in the Globe and Mail’s First Person series, and produced as part of a six episode digital anthology bringing these stories to the screen, Life Support is a short film that really captures the feeling of a brief, unexpected moment shared… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Life Support (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from Quebec’s Xavier Dolan, and his first one in English, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is in some ways a departure for the young filmmaker, but it still feels like a work that is distinctly his. This is his attempt at making something… Read More Review: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The general idea behind Mouthpiece, the latest film from Canadian director Patricia Rozema, is to show the many different sides of a character by having them literally be portrayed by two separate actors. Listed in the credits as Tall Cassandra (Amy Nostbakken) and Short Cassandra (Norah Sadava), Mouthpiece… Read More Review: Mouthpiece
The Joy of Movies 