By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The gutsy feature debut of young director Stephen Dunn, Closet Monster is a Canadian film that takes its inspiration from both Xavier Dolan and David Cronenberg. These fellow homegrown filmmakers couldn’t be further apart in their own work, but their influences are both felt in this self-assured and often ambitious… Read More Review: Closet Monster
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) Although Equals has a mildly intriguing premise, it leaves much of it unexplored in favour of crafting a clichéd emo love story that will have little resonance beyond heartsick teenagers. The film takes place in a dystopic future society where people are made to be completely devoid of emotions,… Read More Review: Equals
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) An animal-focused adventure from Illumination Entertainment, the same studio behind the Despicable Me franchise, The Secret Life of Pets is an enjoyable caper that injects cute characters into a familiar formula to offer a fast-paced and easily likeable diversion. The prologue introduces us to Max (Louis C.K.), an adorable… Read More Review: The Secret Life of Pets
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Rex (Michael Caton) is a lonely old cab driver in central Australia, who is diagnosed with stomach cancer and given three months to live. This is the setup for Last Cab to Darwin, an evocative and quietly affecting drama that sensitively explores the timely subject of terminally ill patients… Read More Review: Last Cab to Darwin
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) I have never been to the New Beverly Cinema, a repertory theatre in Los Angeles that thrives on showing double bills of classic films on 35mm prints. But I would love to go there after seeing Out of Print, an enjoyable documentary that provides a sweet ode to the importance of the… Read More Review: Out of Print
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) From his impassioned hubris to his pun-ready name, you would be hard pressed to find a fictional political figure as fascinating and conflicted as Anthony Weiner, the popular and married Democratic congressman who was forced to resign amidst a sexting scandal, and saw his chance for a comeback… Read More Review: Weiner
The BFG Review By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Adapting Roald Dahl’s beloved 1982 children’s book to the big screen, Steven Spielberg brings his good old fashioned magic to The BFG, which also happens to be the director’s first production at Disney. The result is an incredibly charming and emotionally resonant all ages fantasy film, that harkens… Read More Three Views: The BFG
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) “I have a great deal of trouble imagining myself as an old lady,” Leslie Caron says at the start of Larry Weinstein’s documentary portrait Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star, and at 85 years old, the veteran actress appears as alive as ever. Being interviewed at her home and at some… Read More Review: Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a “bad egg,” at least that’s what we are told by deranged child services officer Paula (Rachel House) at the beginning of Hunt for the Wilderpeople. But as the film goes on, we discover that this rambunctious gangsta-wannabe kid is actually pretty sweet and just… Read More Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) When New Zealand pop culture reporter David Ferrier found bizarre videos online of a sport called Competitive Endurance Tickling, where half-naked young guys are paid to be tied up and tickled by other men, he reached out for an interview with the company behind it. But he never could… Read More Review: Tickled
Finding Dory Review By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Arriving thirteen years after the huge success of Finding Nemo, Finding Dory joins the ranks of rare sequels that we didn’t think we needed, but turn out to be emotionally resonant continuations of the stories set in motion by their predecessors. Pixar has a long history… Read More Three Views: Finding Dory
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Brian De Palma sits in front of a fireplace in a medium closeup, discussing his filmmaking career, as clips from his films and other influences are interspersed between. This is the simple visual conceit behind De Palma, an extremely engaging documentary portrait that allows the director to talk candidly… Read More Review: De Palma
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Watching Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made gave me the same feeling I had seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time as a kid. And that’s no small praise of this genuine crowdpleaser that is finally being released after playing at last year’s Hot Docs, and… Read More Review: Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is perpetually single, but wants to have a baby and considers herself ready to be a mother. Determined to raise the raise the child on her own, she is all set to go through with artificial insemination with her friend (Travis Fimmel), when she meets the… Read More Review: Maggie’s Plan
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Adapting Jean Hegland’s novel for the screen, director Patricia Rozema brings Into the Forest to screen with intimate and quietly intense style. The Canadian filmmaker displays a sensitive and compassionate touch in her handling of even the film’s most graphic elements, crafting a stark apocalyptic drama that functions as a resonant… Read More Review: Into the Forest
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) An immigrant from pre-war Yugoslavia, Jasmin (Jasmin Geljo) is a struggling actor in Toronto, who finds himself typecast to read for criminals in his auditions, and works as a construction worker to support his wife (Ma-Anne Dionisio) and son (Filip Geljo). There are a lot of static shots and long… Read More Review: The Waiting Room
By John Corrado ★ (out of 4) Although Lolo, the worst movie I saw at TIFF last year, sets itself up as a romantic comedy, this disappointing latest from writer-director-star Julie Delpy is too broad in its comedy, and further letdown by a misjudged undercurrent of creepiness. When divorced single mother and socialite Violette (Julie Delpy) has a… Read More Review: Lolo
Alice Through the Looking Glass Review By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) Here’s a conundrum for you. Alice Through the Looking Glass is a film that expects us to care about things, without giving us any real reasons to actually care about them. This is a film that is often so bafflingly undercooked in terms of… Read More Three Views: Alice Through the Looking Glass
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) It’s only fitting that Shane Black, who breathed new life into the buddy cop genre with his screenplay for Lethal Weapon in 1987, a film that mixed action and dark humour to launch a successful franchise, is now reviving this same genre with The Nice Guys. Following his underrated directorial… Read More Review: The Nice Guys
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Cassie Cranston (Jewel Staite) returns to the prudish small town of Beaver’s Ridge for her mother’s funeral, years after an embarrassing incident as a teenager had her labelled the “town slut” and led to a career as a sex columnist, the eccentric locals convince her to plan an orgy.… Read More Review: How to Plan An Orgy in a Small Town
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