By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The Mauritanian, a new legal thriller directed by Kevin Macdonald and featuring a starry cast, dramatizes the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi and the years he spent awaiting a trial at Guantanamo Bay, where he was kept imprisoned with no formal charges laid against him. Slahi is… Read More VOD Review: The Mauritanian
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) There are some films that leave me scratching my head as to why they have been so acclaimed. And Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a belated sequel to the 2006 film which finds actor Sacha Baron Cohen reprising his role as fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, is one of them.… Read More Review: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A Korean-American family in the 1980s moves to Arkansas in search of a better life in filmmaker Lee Issac Chung’s deeply personal yet universally relatable Minari. The father, Jacob (Steven Yeun), moves his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and their two kids Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan Kim)… Read More VOD Review: Minari
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Palm Springs, the new time loop romantic comedy from the Lonely Island guys, is a film that takes many of its cues from the 1993 classic Groundhog Day, a work so iconic that it’s title has become shorthand for every other story of this type. Andy Samberg, who… Read More Review: Palm Springs
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of Disney’s hottest and most profitable properties. The simple fact is that superheroes are hugely popular with audiences, and this is exactly what Disney is hoping to capitalize on with their new film Flora & Ulysses, which premieres on Disney+ today. The… Read More Disney+ Review: Flora & Ulysses
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In 2019, for the fiftieth anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, director and editor Todd Douglas Miller delivered Apollo 11, a documentary that brilliantly assembled never before seen archival footage of the event into a compelling narrative feature. Now Miller has returned to this historic event, or, rather,… Read More Review: Apollo 11: Quarantine (Digital Release)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The lines between faith, fundamentalism, and religious extremism get increasingly blurred in Saint Maud, an unsettling mix of slow-burn horror and psychological drama that serves as a promising feature directorial debut for British writer-director Rose Glass. The film, which premiered at TIFF in 2019 as part of the… Read More VOD Review: Saint Maud
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Malcolm & Marie, writer-director Sam Levinson’s new Netflix film that you’ve probably seen people arguing about on social media, is, at the very least, somewhat of an interesting experiment. It’s a black and white, dialogue-driven drama that centres around only two people, unfolds entirely in one house, and… Read More Netflix Review: Malcolm & Marie
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) An Australian remake of director Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 Icelandic film of the same name, which was a hit on the festival circuit, Rams follows two estranged brothers known for their prize-winning sheep. Colin (Sam Neil) and Les (Michael Caton) live in separate houses on the same farm in… Read More VOD Review: Rams
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Climb, Michael Angelo Covino’s bittersweet comedy about male friendship, opens with the camera following two friends cycling up a hill in France. It’s an incredible long take that goes on for nearly nine whole minutes, moving seamlessly between wide shots and medium closeups, only getting more impressive… Read More VOD Review: The Climb
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Cassie (Carey Mulligan) is the titular “promising young woman” in director Emerald Fennell’s ultra stylish and unforgettable feature debut of the same name. Cassie used to be in med school and was on her way to becoming a doctor, until a shocking and traumatic incident forced her to… Read More VOD Review: Promising Young Woman
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A Filipino girl, who is living in Texas as an undocumented immigrant, dreams of being a country music star. This simple logline, which could have easily been the premise behind an exploitive movie of the week, instead provides the basis for the often touching Yellow Rose. Directed, produced… Read More VOD Review: Yellow Rose
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) I will never forget the first time that I watched the original film version of The Boys in the Band. Directed by William Friedkin, and adapted from the late Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking play of the same name, the 1970 film details the lives of a group of gay… Read More Netflix Review: The Boys in the Band (2020)
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Ryan Murphy’s flashy gay rights musical The Prom, which is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, is a prime example of a film that has some enjoyable moments, but feels like an uneven mishmash overall. It tells the story of Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman),… Read More Netflix Review: The Prom
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) It’s hard to write about Hillbilly Elegy, director Ron Howard’s adaptation of J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir about growing up poor in rural Appalachia, without getting into the discourse around it. Take, for example, the awards season hopeful’s duelling scores on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has a “rotten” critics… Read More Netflix Review: Hillbilly Elegy
By John Corrado How do you even begin to summarize 2020, a year that is ending today but probably won’t be fondly remembered by pretty much anyone? It was, as we all know, a year that began with news of a novel Coronavirus emerging in Wuhan, China, which would quickly spread around the world to… Read More The Best Movies of 2020
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Pixar’s latest film Soul, which is premiering on Disney Plus on Christmas Day after having its theatrical release cancelled due to ongoing theatre closures, shares a lot of common DNA with the studio’s 2015 film Inside Out. Now in case you think I’m saying that Soul feels like… Read More Disney+ Review: Soul
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer at the far too young age of 43 in August of this year, it was one of those celebrity deaths that took everyone by surprise and hit really hard. Boseman’s compelling portrayal of the superhero Black Panther made him not… Read More Netflix Review: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Disney’s latest sports drama Safety, which premieres on Disney+ today, is based on the true story of Clemson University football safety Ray McElrathbey, who put his promising athletic career on the line to care for his little brother Fahmarr and keep him out of foster care. At the… Read More Disney+ Review: Safety
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Alice (Natalia Dyer), the main character in the cheekily titled coming of age film Yes, God, Yes, is a good Catholic girl in the early 2000s. She goes to church on Sunday, and attends Catholic school, where she is taught by Father Murphy (Timothy Simons) that sex is… Read More VOD Review: Yes, God, Yes
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