By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Unbranded opens at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema this weekend, tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Swayed by their love for the Old West, four friends embark on the adventure of a lifetime, adopting a dozen wild mustangs from government holding facilities, and setting out to… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Unbranded
By John Corrado Today, Disneynature is releasing their latest documentary Monkey Kingdom on Blu-ray. The film follows a troop of macaques living in the majestic ruins of an abandoned city in Sri Lanka, and the large fig tree at the centre of their social order. At the bottom of the tree is Maya, who is left to eat whatever… Read More Blu-ray Release: Monkey Kingdom
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) “What were his values as a citizen,” director Alex Gibney asks in voiceover of his widely celebrated title subject in Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. “Was he interested in power to change the world, or the right to have power without responsibility?” This compelling debate about… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) When the Indonesian military ordered the killing of anyone considered a “communist” in 1965, nearly a million people were rounded up and brutally murdered by death squad leaders, in a mass genocide that remains a blight on their country, which the government would still rather keep out of the history books.… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: The Look of Silence
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) I saw a lot of good films at Hot Docs, but few have stuck with me the same way as All the Time in the World, the engaging and unexpectedly touching story of a family making a difference by choosing to live more simply. The film opens at the… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: All the Time in the World
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Providing a fascinating introduction to one of the most unique families likely ever captured on screen, The Wolfpack is the rare documentary that works as both a compelling social study and a surprisingly moving testimony to the saving power of cinema. After screening at Hot Docs, and gaining acclaim at… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: The Wolfpack
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Through interviews with creator Lorne Michaels, as well as appearances from both former and current cast members, Live From New York! explores the storied beginnings and cultural importance of Saturday Night Live, over the past forty years. After recently premiering at Hot Docs, the film is opening today at… Read More Review: Live From New York!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After drawing quite a crowd recently at Hot Docs, (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies is opening at the Bloor Cinema this weekend, tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Built around one of his lectures and adapted from his popular book, (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies uses the work of… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Who knew that the man behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch has such an interesting life? But this is one of the biggest takeaways of the charming I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, which premiered at Hot Docs in 2014, and is finally opening at the… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Assembled from old home movies, interviews with his family and friends, and even animated segments taken right from his journal entries, the electric Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck offers the definitive portrait of this tortured artist, and a gripping exploration of drug addiction and untreated mental illness. After two… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) After moving to the United States and working as a sitcom writer, Rob Cohen returns to his native land of Canada after two decades, taking a road trip from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, and interviewing various Canadians in attempts to shine a light on what gives our country… Read More Review: Being Canadian
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest Earth Day release from Disneynature, Monkey Kingdom is arguably the best film yet in the studio’s ongoing series of impressively photographed wildlife documentaries, striking the perfect balance between adorable animals, and emotionally affective drama of the natural world. Taking place in Sri Lanka, the film follows a troop of macaques… Read More Review: Monkey Kingdom
By John Corrado Last week, the classic 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams was released for the first time on Blu-ray, through the Criterion Collection. The film follows William Gates and Arthur Agee throughout their high school careers, two inner-city kids in Chicago who dream of playing professional basketball, with the chance of elusive sports scholarships being the only hope their… Read More Criterion Release: Hoop Dreams
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) After questioning the meaning behind his own art, Ethan Hawke had a chance encounter with the elderly Seymour Bernstein, an acclaimed classical pianist in New York who gave up performing publicly decades ago to focus on being a teacher and composer. This dinner party meeting came at a… Read More Review: Seymour: An Introduction
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) After making waves with his work on The Corporation, director Harold Crooks turns his attention to the subject of technically legal offshore tax havens in The Price We Pay. After premiering at TIFF, and being chosen as one of Canada’s Top Ten of 2014, the documentary is opening… Read More Review: The Price We Pay
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Decades before whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks released classified information through secure digital networks, in 1971 a group of eight political activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole over a thousand private documents which they mailed out to newspapers. But much like the revelations… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: 1971
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) A promising young dancer relegated to the lowest level of the company, Justin Peck was given the rare opportunity in 2013 to choreograph the 422nd new piece performed by the New York City Ballet. The process is showcased in the pretty good backstage documentary Ballet 422, which opens at the Bloor Hot… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: Ballet 422
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After premiering at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival last year, the gutting and critically acclaimed documentary Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine is finally coming back to Toronto and opening at the Carlton today. Tickets and showtimes are right here. Matthew Shepard had just moved to… Read More Review: Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After winning the Audience Award at Hot Docs last year, The Backward Class is finally opening at the Bloor Cinema today, and will be playing there until February 16th. Tickets and showtimes can be found right here. This heartfelt and highly recommended documentary follows the fifteen original students at Shanti… Read More Bloor Cinema Release: The Backward Class
By John Corrado I saw numerous documentaries in 2014, and there were a lot of great ones. Because of this, it was quite a challenge to narrow down this list, and ensuing selection of honourable mentions. But the ten documentaries I have finally chosen are an eclectic selection of what I consider to be the best… Read More The Best Documentaries of 2014
The Joy of Movies 