By John Corrado Elton John: Never Too Late, the new music documentary that premiered at TIFF and is now being released on Disney Plus, follows the British rockstar on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Co-directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, the film counts down to his final concert in North America at Dodger… Read More Movie Review: Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+)
By John Corrado Beatles ‘64, the new Disney Plus documentary from director David Tedeschi and producer Martin Scorsese about the Fab Four’s first visit to America, opens with footage of President John F. Kennedy. These scenes set the film up as a sort of broader time capsule of this specific era, but it also ties… Read More Movie Review: Beatles ’64 (Disney+)
By John Corrado Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is the latest Springsteen documentary from director Thom Zimny, and it’s an electrifying mix of concert doc and intimate snapshot of The Boss on tour. Where as Zimny’s recent portraits Western Stars and Letter to You focused on those specific albums, Road Diary expands its scope to his current world… Read More Movie Review: Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Disney+)
By John Corrado In her debut feature documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon, director Jazmin Jones tries to find the elusive model that became the face of the ubiquitous computer program Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. If you are of a certain age, the educational game is likely responsible for teaching you computer skills. Though Mavis Beacon herself… Read More Movie Review: Seeking Mavis Bacon
By John Corrado Andrew McCarthy, the star of 1980s classics like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire, reflects on his time as part of the so-called “Brat Pack” in his enjoyable, cathartic documentary Brats. Serving as a companion piece to his 2021 book Brat: An ’80s Story, McCarthy directs the film, which follows him… Read More Movie Review: Brats (Disney+)
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker Dan Shadur’s documentary Silver’s Uprising tells the thriller-like story of Amos Dov Silver, an Israeli marijuana activist who was arrested in 2019 for running Telegrass, a… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Silver’s Uprising (Closing Night Film)
By John Corrado The 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 24th to June 1st at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The documentary A Mother Apart (which was one of the finalists for the Hot Docs Audience Award) offers a candid portrait of Staceyann… Read More #InsideOut2024 Review: A Mother Apart
By John Corrado In his new documentary Jim Henson Idea Man, filmmaker Ron Howard crafts an enjoyable biographical portrait of the creator of The Muppets, Jim Henson. It was the genius and creativity of Henson, who hand-stitched Kermit the Frog out of his mother’s coat, that gave birth to these iconic characters. A fledgling filmmaker… Read More Movie Review: Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
By John Corrado In their documentary The Beach Boys, co-directors Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Thom Zimney (Western Stars, Springsteen on Broadway) team up to offer a polished look at the history of the California surf rock band The Beach Boys. Made up of brothers Brian, Dennis… Read More Movie Review: The Beach Boys (Disney+)
By John Corrado Released in 1970 amidst the band’s public breakup, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s infamous music documentary Let It Be offered a candid portrait of The Beatles recording their album of the same name in 1969. Behind the scenes footage from these sessions provided the basis for director Peter Jackson’s in-depth docuseries The Beatles: Get… Read More Movie Review: The Beatles: Let It Be (Disney+)
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto In 2019, Ina Steiner and her husband David, the bloggers behind the website EcommerceBytes who specialized in providing advice to eBay sellers, began receiving a series of threatening and intimidating messages. These messages gave way to a… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Whatever It Takes
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto This is Going to Be Big is a very heartwarming and inspiring documentary that follows a group of neurodiverse high schoolers in Australia preparing for a school play, and is refreshingly told from the perspectives of the… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: This is Going to Be Big
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto In 2003, a collective of eight artists in Rhode Island stealthily moved into a hidden space within the Providence Place Mall, and lived there undetected for four years. The story of their elaborate ruse is told in… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Secret Mall Apartment
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto The documentary Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is a very sweet and beautifully filmed portrait of a childless couple and the wild otter they adopt into their lives. Billy and his wife Susan live in… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto In their documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, co-directors Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson take us into the world of Swamp Dogg, an aging musician with a storied, unconventional career. Born Jerry Williams, he adopted the… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto In his latest documentary, Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein offers a wide-ranging exploration of the enduring legacy of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a piece that has remained recognizable over the past two hundred years with its fourth movement Ode… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Beethoven’s Nine: Ode to Humanity
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto Maria Gros Vatne and her husband Nik Payne were homeschooling their four kids on a farm in Norway, giving their children a free-range upbringing that included growing their own food and subsisting off the land as much… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: A New Kind of Wilderness
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto Barry Avrich’s Born Hungry is a wonderful portrait of Sash Simpson, and his journey from homeless street kid in India to top chef in Toronto. Sash’s earliest memories are of getting lost in India and being unable… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Born Hungry
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto In their documentary Daughters, co-directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton offer a moving, tender look at a daddy-daughter dance for girls whose fathers are in prison. Patton is the creator of Date with Dad, a program run… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Daughters
By John Corrado The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto Standing on the edge of a cliff or tall building and taking the leap with only a parachute or wingsuit to catch you might not be everyone’s idea of a good time. But it’s the regular pursuit… Read More #HotDocs24 Review: Fly
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