By John Corrado The latest film from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Bones and All), Challengers is a smart, stylish tennis drama built around a trio of captivating performances from Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Zendaya stars in the film as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis rising star who is… Read More Blu-ray Review: Challengers
By John Corrado The title of director Hannah Pearl Utt’s (Before You Know It) sophomore feature Cora Bora refers to the affectionate nickname given to Cora (Megan Stalter), a millennial musician struggling to make it in Los Angeles. Following the breakdown of her moderately successful band, Cora is now trying to strike a solo record… Read More Movie Review: Cora Bora
By John Corrado The latest film from writer-director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel and Hansel), Longlegs is a deeply unsettling mix of horror movie and police procedural, unfolding with a suffocating atmosphere that keeps us invested right from the chilling opening flashback. Maika Monroe (The Guest, It Follows) stars in the film as Lee… Read More Movie Review: Longlegs
By John Corrado Directed by the Radio Silence duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who are on hiatus from the last two entries in the Scream franchise, Abigail is a very bloody and slightly tongue-in-cheek riff on vampire movies. The film follows a group of criminals who end up in way over their heads… Read More Blu-ray Review: Abigail (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Eddie Murphy returns to one of his most iconic characters in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. The Netflix-backed legacy sequel finds the comic actor reprising his role as Axel Foley, the Detroit cop with his own way of doing things who ends up transplanted to Beverly Hills. Arriving forty years after the… Read More Movie Review: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Netflix)
By John Corrado A Quiet Place: Day One is a very solid prequel to director John Krasinski’s first two thrillers, which were built around the gimmick of people needing to stay silent lest they get eaten by monsters with super-hearing. This film is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (taking over from Krasinski, who helped… Read More Movie Review: A Quiet Place: Day One
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 This week, Paramount is releasing the R-rated 1999 animated musical comedy South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, in honour of the film’s 25th anniversary. Directed by Trey Parker and co-written by Matt Stone, the film finds the South Park boys getting corrupted after going… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
By John Corrado The directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, whose breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire was sixteen years ago, Monkey Man is a revenge thriller set in India that shows promise for him as an action filmmaker. Patel stars in the film as Kid, a young man who makes cash getting beaten up in… Read More Blu-ray Review: Monkey Man (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Directed, co-written by and starring French actress Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry (which was the opening night film of Cannes last year) is a period biopic of Madame du Barry, the final mistress of King Louis XV. The film charts how “commoner” Jeanne Vaubernier (played by Maïwenn) rose through the ranks of French… Read More Movie Review: Jeanne du Barry
By John Corrado Writer-director Josh Margolin’s Thelma is being pitched as a senior citizen’s action comedy. But the indie character dramedy really functions as a wonderful leading showcase for elderly actress June Squibb, whose star has really risen over the past decade as a scene-stealing supporting player. Squibb stars as the titular Thelma, a feisty… Read More Movie Review: Thelma
By John Corrado Death comes in the form of a talking macaw that can change sizes in Tuesday, an ambitious but uneven fantasy melodrama that marks the feature directorial debut of Croatian filmmaker Daina Oniunas-Pusić. The film is named for Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), a teen girl with terminal cancer, whose mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is… Read More Movie Review: Tuesday
By John Corrado Making a sequel to Inside Out was always going to be a difficult task. The 2015 film is widely considered to be one of Pixar’s finest achievements, and is a late-stage masterpiece from the California animation studio. This leads us to Inside Out 2, a sequel that somehow manages to build upon… Read More Movie Review: Inside Out 2
By John Corrado The sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire finds the two Titans teaming up after duking it out, and the results are mixed. Directed by Adam Wingard, returning to the series following GvK, GxK is a monster-smash movie that offers little else besides massive creatures pulverizing each… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
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 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Noam Stein (Charlie Korman) is a closeted teenager keeping his sexuality a secret from his Orthodox family and community. After his grandfather dies, he discovers a love… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Unspoken
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. The title of director Amnon Carmi’s indie comedy Yaniv refers to an old Jewish card game originating from Israel, that two teachers in New York see… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Yaniv (Centrepiece Film)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Dune: Part Two. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is still one of the best movies of the year so far (and also… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Dune: Part Two
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Kung Fu Panda 4. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. The fourth film in the DreamWorks Animation franchise that began in 2008, Kung Fu Panda 4 is one… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Kung Fu Panda 4 (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Director Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead is a slow-burn Norwegian zombie movie that takes place in the aftermath of an event that allows the dead to return to life. Based on a book by Let the Right One In scribe John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Hvistendahl), the film… Read More Movie Review: Handling the Undead
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