By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The fourth and final chapter in the blockbuster series, adapted from the bestselling trilogy of impressively staged young adult novels, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 sadly closes this dystopic cinematic franchise with more of a whimper than a bang. Although this is a serviceable last act that mostly ties… Read More Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) At the beginning of James White, the title character (Christopher Abbot) is in a throbbing New York nightclub.  We see his face in extreme closeups, lit by the purplish glow of the lights, the music seeping out of his white earbuds differing from what we hear blaring around him… Read More Review: James White

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A moving period romance that captures something profoundly universal about the immigrant experience, Brooklyn is one of those films that grabs us by the heart early on and never lets go, and feels completely sincere while doing so. Beautifully conveying feelings of loneliness, hope and the promise of… Read More Review: Brooklyn

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) When allegations of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston first started to leak out, many parishioners had trouble believing the news.  But this denial was made far too easy by the institution’s willingness to silence the scared victims, keeping the reports and court documents out… Read More Review: Spotlight

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) A fascinating character study that betrays the usual biopic formula to offer something much deeper and more rewarding in its portrayal of a widely celebrated but extremely complex real life subject, Steve Jobs is a thrilling look at the Apple figurehead during some of the most crucial moments… Read More Review: Steve Jobs

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Adapting a series of classic books can have its challenges, but Goosebumps is a big exception to this rule, making great use of an almost ingeniously clever premise to bring R.L. Stine’s chilling children’s novels to life in extremely entertaining fashion. Destined to become a future Halloween favourite, this is a… Read More Review: Goosebumps

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) It would be impossible to discuss Victoria without talking about the general conceit behind the film, which is that it was all filmed in one continuous single take, with director Sebastian Schipper never stopping the camera once throughout the overnight shoot. The film opens in a throbbing nightclub,… Read More Review: Victoria

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Jack (Jacob Tremblay) has just turned five, but has lived his entire life locked inside a small square room with his beloved Ma (Brie Larson).  The only glimpse he has ever gotten of the world is through a small skylight, believing that outside is space and everything else only… Read More Review: Room

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The latest triumph from visionary director Robert Zemeckis, arriving thirty years after his iconic Back to the Future trilogy, The Walk continues his winning streak of pushing to the cutting edge of what’s possible through visual effects, to craft a thrilling big screen spectacle built around an incredibly… Read More Review: The Walk

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Equal parts compelling and heartbreaking, 99 Homes builds a gripping dramatic thriller around the recent housing crash and economic crisis, wrought with vivid moral dilemmas that are made all the more powerful because of how current they feel. When Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is forcefully evicted from his family… Read More Review: 99 Homes

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Canadian politics have rarely been as much fun as they are in My Internship in Canada, a whip smart and hugely entertaining political satire, that especially hits home with the election just around the corner. Steve Guibard (Patrick Huard) is an independent Member of Parliament in Quebec, who ends… Read More Review: My Internship in Canada

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After taking us to the battlefields of World War II in his 2008 epic Passchendaele, writer-director Paul Gross returns to the combat zone in his modern war film Hyena Road.  Taking place during the War in Afghanistan, this pretty good action drama focuses on a group of Canadian soldiers stationed… Read More Review: Hyena Road

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Named after the Mexican word for “hitman,” Sicario is a tense and thought provoking condemnation of the war on drugs, that provides a timely examination of the murky border policies and abuses of police force that have come in its wake. After members of her team are killed during a… Read More Review: Sicario

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this,” Mark Watney (Matt Damon) deadpans at one point during The Martian, and watching the resourceful astronaut do just that provides one of the greatest moviegoing experiences of the year, in a rare blockbuster that manages to be smart,… Read More Review: The Martian

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) For a progressively minded and refreshingly character driven dramedy, that offsets the laughs with some genuinely moving twinges of bittersweetness, Grandma is surprisingly balanced and often quietly remarkable in its approach to the potentially tricky subject matter of its central story. Elle Reid (Lily Tomlin) is an aging feminist… Read More Review: Grandma

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) An engaging character study that affectively explores the fine line between genius and madness, Pawn Sacrifice is simply a solidly crafted biopic and historical drama. Back in 1972, Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) was on top of the world, a young prodigy from Brooklyn who rose to fame to become one… Read More Review: Pawn Sacrifice

By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Perhaps the most interesting thing that could be said about Before We Go, the directorial debut of Chris Evans, is that nobody would have expected the actor behind Captain America to make such a corny and predictable romance. After Brooke (Alice Eve) misses the last train of the… Read More Review: Before We Go