By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Filmed over five years at four different donkey sanctuaries in the UK, Ireland, New York State and Guelph, Ontario, Do Donkeys Act? is an experimental art documentary that offers a quiet yet often profound exploration of animal sentience, guided along by Willem Dafoe’s poetic narration. These sanctuaries provide… Read More Review: Do Donkeys Act?
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 ★★★ (out of 4) Abacus: Small Enough to Jail opens with its main subject Robert Sung, the founder of the independent Abacus Federal Savings Bank in New York’s Chinatown, watching It’s a Wonderful Life on TV with his wife, and relating himself to the character of selfless do-gooder George Bailey. Regardless of whether… Read More Review: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
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 ★★★ (out of 4) With radio host Joe Cristiano telling stories on air about his own mother and asking other men to call in as the narrative through line, Mom & Me offers an exploration of the bonds between tough guys and their mothers in Oklahoma, which is said to be the “manliest state.”… Read More Review: Mom & Me
By John Corrado The 24th edition of Hot Docs has come to a close, and below are my thoughts on the final few films that I saw at the festival, including Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, which took home the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary before an encore screening on Sunday, and was announced as… Read More #HotDocs17: Final Batch of Reviews
By John Corrado We have reached the last day of Hot Docs, and below are my thoughts on five films that I saw over the last few days of the festival. Please come back tomorrow for my final set of reviews, and you can find more information through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Let There… Read More #HotDocs17: Fourth Batch of Reviews
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The door of Salam Kahil’s Vancouver delicatessen warns customers about coarse language and nudity, both of which are on full display in his shop, and in director Lewis Bennett’s documentary about him, The Sandwich Nazi. Salam is a former male escort from Lebanon who opened the deli when he moved… Read More Review: The Sandwich Nazi
By John Corrado The 24th edition of Hot Docs is running until May 7th, and below are my thoughts on the six films I have seen over the last few days of the festival. You can find more information on tickets and showtimes through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Libera Nos – ★★★ (out of 4)… Read More #HotDocs17: Third Batch of Reviews
By John Corrado The 24th edition of Hot Docs is running until May 7th, and below are my thoughts on ten films I had the chance to see over the first weekend of the festival. You can find more information on tickets and showtimes through the links in the film titles. Enjoy! Rat Film – ★★½ (out of… Read More #HotDocs17: Second Batch of Reviews
By John Corrado The 24th edition of Hot Docs kicks off tonight with the premiere of Bee Nation, and will be running until May 7th. Below are my thoughts on a dozen films I had the chance to screen in advance, and you can find more information on tickets and showtimes through the links in… Read More #HotDocs17: First Batch of Reviews
Born in China Review By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest Earth Day release from Disneynature, after taking a break last year, Born in China is another beautifully filmed and often lovely entry into the studio’s growing roster of modern day True Life Adventures. This time around, we are given a rare glimpse into… Read More Three Views: Born in China
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Taking a very meta approach to exploring its material, My Scientology Movie becomes just as much about the intense blowbacks that come with trying to make a documentary about Scientology, as it is about the infamous organization and its cultish ideology. The film follows the BBC’s Louis Theroux as he tries to investigate… Read More Review: My Scientology Movie
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Aishoplan Nurgaiv is a thirteen year old girl in Mongolia who dreams of being an eagle hunter, a tradition in their nomadic community that is usually passed down from fathers to sons. But with the help of her father, who believes that girls can do anything boys can do, Aishoplan… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Eagle Huntress
By John Corrado With my list of the best movies of 2016 having gone up over the weekend, it’s time for my rundown of the best documentaries of last year. This list took me a while to put together, with a lot of deliberation between order of the films, but I’m happy with the way things have finally… Read More The Best Documentaries of 2016
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) During World War II, Japan forced thousands of young women from around Asia into sexual slavery. Referred to as “comfort women,” and now more affectionately called the grandmothers, many of the aging victims have spent years protesting and demanding the government to issue a formal apology for their abuse,… Read More Review: The Apology
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Beginning and ending with scenes of Inuit people hunting seals, Angry Inuk packs a compelling argument between these bookending sequences that gracefully challenges those who protest the seal hunt. The winner of the Audience Award at Hot Docs, this is documentary filmmaking at its most important and provocative. Directed by Alethea… Read More Review: Angry Inuk
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A visually stunning mix of animation and archival footage, the unique documentary Tower recreates the events of August 1st, 1966 when a lone gunmen with a sniper rifle positioned himself atop the clock tower at the University of Texas, and for over ninety minutes unleashed a reign of terror… Read More Review: Tower
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Darius McCollum has spent over thirty years impersonating transit officials and commandeering buses and subway trains for joy rides, and has ended up stuck in the revolving doors of the prison system because of it. These so called “crimes” have made him a New York legend, and his unique story… Read More Review: Off the Rails
The Joy of Movies 