By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Making his feature directorial debut, actor David Oyelowo crafts a wonderful and nostalgic throwback to the classic kids adventure films of the 1980s with The Water Man, which I’m pleased to say is one of the nicest surprises of this year’s festival. The film’s protagonist is Gunner Boon… Read More #TIFF20 Review: The Water Man (Special Events)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Based on the true story of a father who started walking across America to raise awareness of bullying in honour of his son, Good Joe Bell is a well-intentioned drama that includes some moving moments, but makes an equal number of questionable and frustrating storytelling choices. Joe Bell… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Good Joe Bell (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Alba truffle, which grows in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, is considered to be one of the world’s rarest and most exclusive food items, and directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw take us into the unique world of the men who forage for them in their… Read More #TIFF20 Review: The Truffle Hunters (Special Events)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The directorial debut of Viggo Mortensen, who also stars in the film in addition to serving as the writer, producer and composer on the project, Falling explores the relationship between a middle aged son and his ailing, elderly father. And it’s the sort of rugged, powerful drama that… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Falling (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Credited to directors Hao Wu and Weixi Chen, as well as another filmmaker who remains anonymous, 76 Days is a ripped from the headlines documentary made up entirely of candid footage that was shot in Wuhan, China earlier this year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The… Read More #TIFF20 Review: 76 Days (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The English-language debut of Hungarian director Kornél Mundruzcó, Pieces of a Woman is a very emotional drama that is built around a striking performance by Vanessa Kirby as a woman forging her own path through grief, which just won her the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Pieces of a Woman (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Welcome to New Order, the latest film from Mexican director Michel Franco that brutally shows a dystopic nightmare unfolding in Mexico City. The action starts at the wedding of Marianne (Naian Gonzaléz Norvind), an upperclass woman in a rich neighbourhood who is trying to get married as the… Read More #TIFF20 Review: New Order (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Sam Pollard, the extensively researched documentary MLK/FBI sheds light on FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s obsessive quest to take down Martin Luther King Jr., viewing the non-violent civil rights leader as a threat to the national order. Using the powers afforded to him at the Federal… Read More #TIFF20 Review: MLK/FBI (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A swooning, tragic romance that unfolds on the coast of Normandy and is set against the perfect backdrop of the 1980s, director François Ozon’s queer melodrama Summer of 85 is a film that won’t work for everyone, but it really worked for me. When we first meet teenaged… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Summer of 85 (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) A Mohawk girl comes of age against the backdrop of the Oka Crisis in Beans, a drama that reimagines the 1990 showdown between several levels of police and Indigenous land protectors from two Quebec Mohawk communities, who were trying to stop the town of Oka’s planned expansion of… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Beans (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Inspired by Thomas King’s autobiographical 2012 book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, the documentary Inconvenient Indian takes a very unconventional approach to adapting the source material. Using King’s book as the jumping off point, director Michelle Latimer has instead crafted a… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Inconvenient Indian (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest collaboration between Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg and actor Mads Mikkelsen, following their Oscar-nominated 2012 drama The Hunt, Another Round is a well acted film about drinking and the impact, both good and bad, that alcohol can have on people’s lives. Martin (Mikkelsen) is a high school… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Another Round (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Built around a vital and exciting conversation between four Black icons, One Night in Miami is one of the best movies of the year. The majority of the the film is set on the night of February 25th, 1964, in the hours after young boxer Cassius Clay (Eli… Read More #TIFF20 Review: One Night in Miami (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) As a portrait of poverty in post-recession America, and the people who were left behind by the 2008 economic crash, the film Nomadland, which was just awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is something special. It’s a work of incredible empathy that lets us see… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Nomadland (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest feature from Cartoon Saloon and co-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, the same creative team behind The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers is another engaging and beautifully stylized animated film from the Irish studio. The film, which draws upon Irish folklore, is… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Wolfwalkers (Special Events)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The lead character in the pitch black crime comedy I Care a Lot is Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), a sociopathic caregiver who makes her money off the backs of seniors who have legally become wards of the state. Marla works as a court-appointed guardian, and she has found… Read More #TIFF20 Review: I Care a Lot (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The title character in The Father is Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), an elderly man with dementia who is reluctant to leave the London flat where he lives, despite no longer being to take care of himself. When his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) comes over to visit in the opening… Read More #TIFF20 Review: The Father (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A breakout film for both first time feature director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott, Shiva Baby is an engaging comedy set at a Jewish funeral that finds humour in this unlikely setting. The film’s main character is Danielle (Sennott), a perpetual college student who gets dragged by… Read More #TIFF20 Review: Shiva Baby (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Pete Souza, the former White House photographer for both Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan, shares his story in the documentary The Way I See It. A behind the scenes figure who previously kept quiet about his own political leanings, Souza became more vocal in the wake of Donald… Read More #TIFF20 Review: The Way I See It (Special Events)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Billy Tipton was an American jazz musician whose career as a pianist and bandleader spanned from the 1930s to the 1970s. At the time of his death in 1989, it was revealed that Tipton was transgender, having been assigned female at birth but living and publicly presenting as… Read More #TIFF20 Review: No Ordinary Man (TIFF Docs)
The Joy of Movies 