By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 1969, after local religious authorities ordered that all of the totem poles be cut down as part of Canada’s widespread erasure of Indigenous culture, the celebrated Haida artist Robert Davidson became responsible for carving the first new totem pole to be put up in nearly a century in his village… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Now is the Time (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Sandra Ignagni, Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile is a mix of visual essay and short documentary that takes us inside the twenty five faith-based spaces that exist along the old No. 5 road in Richmond, British Columbia, including a variety of Christian churches,… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Narrated by Rossif Sutherland, The Physics of Sorrow is an animated short film that finds an unnamed immigrant reflecting upon his memories of first falling in love as a boy with a girl from the circus, his abusive father, his time in the army in communist Bulgaria, and… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Physics of Sorrow (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Inspired by an article that was published in the Globe and Mail’s First Person series, and produced as part of a six episode digital anthology bringing these stories to the screen, Life Support is a short film that really captures the feeling of a brief, unexpected moment shared… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Life Support (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival ran from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto. Below are my reviews of the films that I saw over the final weekend of the festival. My Dads, My Moms and Me – ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 2007, two years after same sex marriage and… Read More #HotDocs19: Final Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The Magic Life of V – ★★½ (out of 4) Live action role playing (LARP) provides a way for Veera, a young woman in Finland, to transform… Read More #HotDocs19: Seventh Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Seahorse – ★★★½ (out of 4) Freddy is a young gay trans man in England who wants to start a family, and decides to embark on… Read More #HotDocs19: Sixth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Scheme Birds – ★★★ (out of 4) Early on in the documentary Scheme Birds, our teenaged subject Gemma describes her hometown of Motherwell, Scotland, where she was… Read More #HotDocs19: Fifth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up – ★★★½ (out of 4) Filmmaker Tasha Hubbard uses the tragic case of Colton Boushie, a young man from the Red Pheasent… Read More #HotDocs19: Fourth Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Midnight Family – ★★★½ (out of 4) High stakes and high speed ambulance chases abound in Midnight Family, a compelling and beautifully shot vérité portrait of a… Read More #HotDocs19: Third Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado The 2019 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 26th to May 6th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In My Blood It Runs – ★★★½ (out of 4) Dujuan is a 10-year-old Aboriginal Australian boy of Arrernte descent who lives in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), and… Read More #HotDocs19: First Set of Capsule Reviews
By John Corrado I have been covering the Canadian Film Fest for several years now. The annual festival – the 13th edition of which starts tonight – always offers an interesting and entertaining showcase of homegrown cinema, and this year is no different, screening nine features and twenty eight shorts over the next several days.… Read More Previewing the 2019 Canadian Film Fest
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A black and white homage to the Mexico of his youth and the women who raised him, Alfonso Caurón’s Roma is a beautiful and haunting work of art that unfolds through the eyes of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a young housekeeper and nanny working for a family in Mexico… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Roma
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When her husband Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) is killed during a heist gone wrong, Veronica (Viola Davis) enlists the help of the widows of the other men involved in the job – Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) – to finish the job and… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Widows
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Lara (Victor Polster) is a teen girl in Belgium who is working hard to realize her dreams of becoming a ballerina, having been accepted into a prestigious ballet academy. She also happens to be transgender, having been born in a male body, and is in the process of chemically… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Girl
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The directorial debut of actor Max Minghella, Teen Spirit follows Violet (Elle Fanning), a 17-year-old in a small town in the Isle of Wight who dreams of becoming a pop star. Despite her mother’s (Agnieszka Grochowska) best wishes, who would rather that her daughter just remain singing in the… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Teen Spirit
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from director Jason Reitman, The Front Runner is a polished and expertly acted dramatization of Gary Hart’s failed 1988 presidential bid, working as a cautionary tale that is particularly relevant in this current political climate. The film unfolds over three weeks, and opens with Colorado Senator… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Front Runner
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) With its silver body and gull-wing doors, the DeLorean sports car has become an iconic part of pop culture history through its usage as a time machine in the Back to the Future films. But what’s lesser known is the wild true story involving the creator of the… Read More #TIFF18 Review: Driven
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from Quebec’s Xavier Dolan, and his first in English, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is still a work that is distinctly his, featuring the same soaring cinematography, musical interludes set to pop songs, and underlying themes of mother-son love as his other films. The… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest from writer-director-star Emilio Estevez, The Public centres around Stuart Goodson (Estevez), a local librarian who ends up in the middle of a standoff with Detective Bill Ramstead (Alec Baldwin) when a group of homeless men led by Jackson (Michael K. Williams) occupy the Cincinnati Public Library… Read More #TIFF18 Review: The Public
The Joy of Movies 