By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo digs into her adolescent memories of first crushes and awkward school dances in You Were My First Boyfriend, which unfolds… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: You Were My First Boyfriend
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In their new documentary Satan Wants You, co-directors Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor offer a fascinating look at how the best-selling Canadian… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Satan Wants You
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. There has been somewhat of a modern resurgence in witchcraft and Wicca from women who see reclaiming these ancient spiritual practises as part… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Coven
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Danish filmmaker Christian Einshøj digs into his family history in his symbolic, deeply personal documentary The Mountains. Einshøj draws upon a vast… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: The Mountains
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Directed by documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman is a very enjoyable mix of music documentary, concert film, and docu-special that finds Letterman interviewing U2’s lead singer Bono and guitarist… Read More Review: Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, with Dave Letterman (Disney+)
By John Corrado At the beginning of January, I shared my picks for the best movies of 2022, fully intending to follow it up with my picks for the best non-fiction films of last year soon after. But time kept getting away from me, and I had several docs that I wanted to catch up… Read More The Best Documentaries of 2022
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Director Mye Hoang’s Cat Daddies is a charming documentary that focuses on the bonds between a variety of men and their cats, and if you are in any way a cat person, it’s pretty irresistible. Like any good collection of cat videos, the scenes range from lighthearted and… Read More Review: Cat Daddies
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter is a documentary portrait of the brilliant but troubled celebrity chef, whose self-named Chicago restaurant Charlie Trotter’s became known as one of the best restaurants in the world during its heyday. Directed by Rebecca Halpern, Love, Charlie mainly… Read More Review: Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubiy, Iron Butterflies is a documentary that sets itself up as an investigation into the downing of Malaysian airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, which was accidentally shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2014, killing all 298 people on board. But… Read More #Sundance2023 Review: Iron Butterflies
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) How did Mickey Mouse go from lovable cartoon character to ubiquitous corporate symbol? That’s the question asked in the enjoyable Disney+ documentary Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, which explores the history of how Mickey’s visage – made out of three simple circles – has become one of… Read More Disney+ Review: Mickey: The Story of a Mouse
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The documentary And Still I Sing follows three female singers in Afghanistan; the controversial pop star Aryana Sayeed who has courted a backlash in her country for speaking out in support of women’s rights, and Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madagar, who are both contestants on the American Idol-esque… Read More Review: And Still I Sing
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The documentary Blind Ambition follows Joseph Dhafana, Marlvin Gwese, Tinashe Nyamudoka and Pardon Taguzu, four men from Zimbabwe living in South Africa, who form the first Zimbabwean team to compete in the annual World Blind Wine Tasting Championships in France. The men had gone most of their lives… Read More Review: Blind Ambition
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. In Moonage Daydream, documentary filmmaker Brett Morgan weaves an exciting and highly cinematic portrait of late music and queer icon David Bowie. The film blends concert footage with old interviews to offer a compelling window into… Read More #TIFF22 Review: Moonage Daydream (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8th to 18th. Nan Goldin is an artist and photographer who has set her sights on holding Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family to account for creating and pushing the drug OxyContin, and fuelling the opioid crisis ravaging America.… Read More #TIFF22 Review: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directors Jono Bergmann and Benji Bergmann deliver a glossy portrait of Canadian designer Bruce Mau in their aptly titled Mau, a stylish, slickly assembled documentary that is befitting of the man himself. The film takes us through the highlights of Mau’s career, including first getting noticed with the… Read More VOD Review: Mau
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from June 9th to 26th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker David Hoffert’s years-in-the-making documentary The Rhapsody recounts the life story of Leo Spellman (born Leon Szpilman), a Polish-Canadian Holocaust survivor and composer who finally… Read More Toronto Jewish Film Festival Review: The Rhapsody
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 26th to June 5th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In their new documentary Pat Rocco Dared, co-directors Morris Chapdelaine and Bob Christie offer an enjoyable introduction to groundbreaking gay filmmaker Pat… Read More Inside Out 2022 Review: Pat Rocco Dared
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The latest documentary from Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company examines the massive coverup that agrochemical giant Monsanto engaged in to hide the fact that glyphosate, the key ingredient in their weed-killer Roundup, was carcinogenic to humans. The film, which recently… Read More Review: Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 28th to May 8th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Canadian director Daniel Roher’s thriller-like documentary Navalny follows Russian opposition leader Alexai Navalny in the aftermath of him being poisoned with the nerve… Read More #HotDocs22 Review: Navalny
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 28th to May 8th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In 2002, following the Chinese communist government’s violent crackdown on practitioners of Falun Gong, a group of activists in Changchun hijacked a state-run… Read More #HotDocs22 Review: Eternal Spring
The Joy of Movies 