By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The Carlyle has seen its share of famous guests over the years, ranging from actors and rock stars to politicians and royalty, and now the famous New York City hotel is the centre of attention in Matthew Miele’s glossy new documentary Always at the Carlyle. Situated in the… Read More Review: Always at the Carlyle
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) An ambitious mix of documentary and narrative storytelling, American Animals recounts the true story of four average young guys from middle class suburbia who plotted to steal original editions of books by John Audubon and Charles Darwin from a college library in Lexington, Kentuckey. It’s bored college student… Read More Review: American Animals
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) While social media sites like Facebook and Twitter sell themselves as being open for anyone to post anything, they in reality all have strict guidelines that are heavily enforced by anonymous content moderators. The majority of the work these “cleaners” do is outsourced to other countries like the… Read More Review: The Cleaners
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Morgan Neville, following his Oscar-winning 20 Feet from Stardom and the excellent Best of Enemies, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? looks at the life and career of Fred Rogers, the unlikely star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. With his soft voice and gentle way of speaking, Fred Rogers had a true knack for… Read More Review: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Focusing on the 2015 trial of Oskar Gröning, a former SS guard who served as a bookkeeper at Auschwitz and was put on trial in Germany at 94 years old for his involvement in the Holocaust, The Accountant of Auschwitz is a fascinating and multilayered documentary. Facing charges for the murder of… Read More Review: The Accountant of Auschwitz
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The latest from Toronto filmmaker Maya Gallus, The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution focuses on a selection of female chefs in Toronto, New York, London and France who are fighting for equal representation in the restaurant business. The chefs talk about their experiences as women in what is still largely seen as a… Read More Review: The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival came to a close yesterday, with Transformer taking home both the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, and the general Audience Award as well. Below are my final reviews from the festival. Enjoy! The Reckoning: Hollywood’s Worst Kept Secret – ★★★ (out of… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: The Reckoning, Andy Irons: Kissed By God, Inventing Tomorrow, Roll Red Roll, MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A., Wind of Swabia
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! The Feeling of Being Watched – ★★★ (out of 4) The close-knit and predominantly Muslim community of Bridgeview, Illinois has been… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: The Feeling of Being Watched, Letter From Masanjia, Believer, More Human Than Human, Pick of the Litter
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! United We Fan – ★★½ (out of 4) The dedicated fans who have put together letter writing campaigns and started… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: United We Fan, Behind the Curve, 306 Hollywood, Bathtubs Over Broadway, Minding the Gap, Bachman
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! The Devil We Know – ★★★ (out of 4) When DuPont brought Teflon onto the market in the 1940s, it… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: The Devil We Know, The White World According to Daliborek, The Cleaners, The Bill Murray Stories, Recovery Boys
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Exit Music –★★★ (out of 4) Formerly titled How Do You Feel About Dying, Exit Music follows Ethan Rice, a… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: Exit Music, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Love, Gilda, Gurrumul, The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Three Identical Strangers – ★★★½ (out of 4) When the 19-year-old Bobby arrived at college in 1980, he was treated… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: Three Identical Strangers, I Used to Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, Bisbee ’17, The Game Changers, Shirkers
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival is on until May 6th in Toronto. More information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Transformer – ★★★ (out of 4) Gaining fame as a champion weightlifter and bodybuilder, and also serving in the US Marines,… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: Transformer, The Night of All Nights, Bernie Langille Wants to Know Who Killed Bernie Langille, Golden Dawn Girls, Playing Hard
By John Corrado The 25th edition of the Hot Docs Film Festival kicks off tonight and will be running until May 6th in Toronto. This is the first set of many reviews that I will be posting throughout the festival, and more information on tickets and showtimes can be found through the links in the… Read More Hot Docs Reviews: The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution, Take Light, The Artist and the Pervert, The Accountant of Auschwitz, Chef Flynn, Anote’s Ark
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The title of Poop Talk provides the most apt description of what this documentary is about. Directed by Aaron N. Feldman, who closely collaborated with brothers Randy and Jason Sklar on the project, the film features a bunch of stand up comics talking about, you guessed it, poop.… Read More Review: Poop Talk
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 ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Ai Weiwei, Human Flow is a mix of documentary and art project that offers an on the ground look at the migrant crisis in Europe, filmed over 23 different countries. The film offers a sprawling look at the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from war… Read More iTunes Review: Human Flow
By John Corrado Every year, I end up seeing a lot of really good documentaries, and 2017 was no different. Between Hot Docs and TIFF, there were a lot of non-fiction films that I really liked, and that’s what I want to highlight here. There were a few buzzed about films that I didn’t get… Read More The Best Documentaries of 2017
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) A long-belated follow up to his Oscar-winning 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power follows former Vice President Al Gore as he continues to travel around the world, raising awareness of climate change and advocating for renewable energy sources like solar and wind, both here… Read More Blu-ray Review: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
The Joy of Movies 