By John Corrado Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska is and was not like other Springsteen albums. Stripped down, acoustic, recorded in a bedroom on a 4-track tape recorder, it was a collection of ten deeply personal songs that had him baring his soul in a poetic, sometimes cryptic way. It’s fitting, then, that director Scott… Read More Movie Review: Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
By John Corrado Kiss of the Spider Woman, the new musical film from Dreamgirls director Bill Condon, is a big screen reimagining of the 1992 stage musical from John Kander and Fred Ebb, that was in turn based on a 1976 novel that had a 1985 film adaptation. Set during Argentina’s military dictatorship in 1983, the… Read More Movie Review: Kiss of the Spider Woman
By John Corrado The opening shot of writer-director Mary Bronstein’s intense and suffocating but occasionally darkly funny If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a tight closeup on lead actress Rose Byrne’s face. She is in a doctor’s appointment for her sick daughter (Delaney Quinn), with some disagreement about her treatment plan. The doctor… Read More Movie Review: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
By John Corrado The main appeal of Good Fortune, the long-awaited feature directorial debut of comic actor Aziz Ansari, is getting to see Keanu Reeves play an angel. This is not to in any way diminish the performances of Ansari himself as a down-on-his-luck gig economy worker, or his co-star Seth Rogen as a rich… Read More Movie Review: Good Fortune
By John Corrado Director Zach Cregger’s Weapons became one of the biggest breakout hits of the year when it was released over the summer, and the film is now available on physical media including 4K Ultra HD. The film centres around a young teacher (played by Julia Garner) who has all but one of the… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Weapons
By John Corrado One of the summer’s best blockbusters, F1: The Movie is now available on physical media, including 4K Ultra HD. Brad Pitt stars in the film as Sonny Hayes, an aging race car driver brought on to mentor young hotshot Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris). I had a great time with this one when… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: F1: The Movie
By John Corrado Nobody 2, the sequel to the 2021 Bob Odenkirk action movie, is now available on physical media following its end of summer run in theatres this past August. This sequel transplants the action to an old school water park, where Odenkirk’s Hutch is taking his family on vacation, but ends up in… Read More Blu-ray Review: Nobody 2 (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado The titular “Bad Guys” are back in The Bad Guys 2, only now they are trying to be the Good Guys after doing time and swearing off a life of crime. This sequel to the 2022 DreamWorks Animation film finds the ragtag animal crew being pulled back in to do one last… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Bad Guys 2 (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado It’s been fifteen years since the release of director Joseph Kosinki’s Tron: Legacy, a belated follow up to Disney’s 1982 film Tron. This stretch of time between Kosinski’s 2010 film and the new third instalment, Tron: Ares, means that Ares itself feels like a legacy sequel meant to resurrect older IP, in… Read More Movie Review: Tron: Ares
By John Corrado Good Boy, director Ben Leonberg’s new supernatural horror movie, has been gaining buzz for the uniqueness of its premise; it’s a haunted house movie shown from the perspective of a pet dog. The canine in question is Indy, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Indy’s loyal owner is Todd (Shane Jensen), who… Read More Movie Review: Good Boy
By John Corrado Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars in The Smashing Machine, a very good biopic of early UFC fighter Mark Kerr, that finds the wrestler-turned-actor giving it his all in his first big, meaty dramatic role. The film, which also serves as the first solo outing of director Benny Safdie, after splitting from his… Read More Movie Review: The Smashing Machine
By John Corrado Anemone, the feature directorial debut of Ronan Day-Lewis, is notable for bringing the filmmaker’s father, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, out of retirement. This is his first acting role since starring in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, a film that has only grown in stature in the near-decade since it was released. This already… Read More Movie Review: Anemone
By John Corrado The runtime for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is 162 minutes. The length of the movie is surely one of the least pertinent things about it, but it’s worth mentioning because of how kinetic the film feels. Nearly two hours in, I was surprised there was less than an hour… Read More Movie Review: One Battle After Another
By John Corrado In the Finland-shot survival thriller Dead of Winter, which takes place during a Minnesota snowstorm, Emma Thompson is doing her best impression of Frances McDormand in Fargo, and her out-of-character performance is what makes the film worth seeing. Thompson stars as Barb Sorenson, an older lady who is going ice fishing alone… Read More Movie Review: Dead of Winter
By John Corrado A struggling improv comic in Baltimore needs an emergency dentist appointment on Christmas Eve. It sounds like the setup for a joke (and maybe it is), but it’s also the inciting incident of The Baltimorons, a tender and funny chance encounter romance from director Jay Duplass. Duplass crafts the film as a… Read More Movie Review: The Baltimorons
By John Corrado James Gunn’s Superman is the former Marvel filmmaker’s attempt to reboot the DC Cinematic Universe. In doing so, Gunn is going back to the beginning by introducing a new Superman, with David Corenswet taking over the iconic role from Henry Cavill. Gunn and Corenswet’s new version (and vision) of the character couldn’t… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Superman
By John Corrado The first M3GAN was a campy killer robot movie that mainly became known for the memes generated by the dancing robot girl, which helped turn the Blumhouse film into a box office hit in 2023. This sequel, M3GAN 2.0, somewhat fittingly takes the Terminator 2 approach; the creative team of original director… Read More Blu-ray Review: M3GAN 2.0
By John Corrado Swiped is director Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s glossy biopic of Whitney Wolfe (played by Lily James), a co-founder of ubiquitous dating app Tinder and the creator of Bumble. We first meet Wolfe at a Los Angeles meet-up for tech investors, trying to get financial backers for an app that connects orphanages in other… Read More Movie Review: Swiped (Disney+)
By John Corrado The seventh film in the franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth was one of the biggest box office hits of the summer, and is now available on physical media. You can read my full review of the film right here. This one is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story),… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Jurassic World Rebirth (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado In his coming-of-age film Olmo, Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke finds the right balance between enjoyable portrait of bratty adolescence, and heavier, more dramatic scenes, telling a small but nuanced father-son story. There’s also some star power behind the film, having been produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment. The titular Olmo (Aivan… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Olmo (Centrepiece)
The Joy of Movies 