By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar returns with Dear Jassi (which was awarded the Platform prize at TIFF), a stylistically mature romantic heartbreaker rooted in tragic fact that is both the Indian-born director’s first film set in India, and his most… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Dear Jassi (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. The debut feature from writer-director Weston Razooli, Riddle of Fire is a delightful childhood fantasy shot on 16mm, that really feels like watching a piece of lost media from the 1970s. Razooli has described his film… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Riddle or Fire (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th. The latest film from New Zealand director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), Next Goals Wins is a simple crowdpleaser that tells the story of the American Samoa football team, trying to rebound following a historic loss when… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Next Goal Wins (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film from Danish director Lone Scherfig (An Education), The Movie Teller is a solid, old fashioned drama about the magic of movies. Based on… Read More #TIFF23 Review: The Movie Teller (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film from Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, following his Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist is a very interesting cinematic experience that mixes elements… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Evil Does Not Exist (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Aggro Dr1ft, the latest cinematic provocation from director Harmony Korine, is less a movie and more an experimental (and experiential) film that defies convention or easy… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Aggro Dr1ft (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Many actors have made the leap to directing over the years, with the results sometimes being better than others. And then there’s Chris Pine’s directorial debut… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Poolman (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Nearly twenty years after Sideways, director Alexander Payne reunites with star Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, a wonderful coming of age Christmas movie that deftly balances… Read More #TIFF23 Review: The Holdovers (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame makes the jump to filmmaking with Hell of a Summer, a pretty fun 1980s throwback slasher movie that he co-directed… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Hell of a Summer (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Inspired by Cheryl Della Pietra’s autobiographical book of the same name, which was drawn from the author’s time working as Hunter S. Thompson’s personal assistant in… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Gonzo Girl (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. For his second directorial effort, following his underrated 2020 debut Falling, actor Viggo Mortensen sets his sights on making a classical Western. The result is The… Read More #TIFF23 Review: The Dead Don’t Hurt (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest film from director George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Rustin is a solid Netflix biopic of gay civil right’s leader Bayard Rustin, that… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Rustin (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Directed with an intimate, improvisational style by British filmmaker Dominic Savage, Close to You is a remarkably tender family drama that stars Elliot Page as Sam,… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Close to You (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The latest from Richard Linklater, Hit Man finds the Texas filmmaker re-teaming with his Everybody Wants Some!! star Glen Powell to make their own variation on… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Hit Man (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In his genre-bending surrealist comedy Dream Scenario, Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself) teams up with acting legend Nicolas Cage to explore what happens when… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Dream Scenario (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Flora and Son is another incredibly enjoyable music film from Irish writer-director John Carney, building out his oeuvre from the power trio of Once, Begin Again… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Flora and Son (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. An elderly women sits on a couch in a furniture store and refuses to leave. This is the curiosity-piquing premise behind Swedish director Niclas Larsson’s feature… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Mother, Couch (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour (which just sold to Netflix for a cool $11 million), a based-on-a-true-story serial killer thriller… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Woman of the Hour (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. A dialogue-free animated film about the friendship between a dog and his robot set in 1980s New York, director Pablo Berger’s delightful new feature Robot Dreams… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Robot Dreams (Centrepiece)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In his twentieth feature Fallen Leaves, Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki crafts a gently humorous and very heartfelt film that has the feel of a classic screen… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Fallen Leaves (Centrepiece)
The Joy of Movies 