By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) It’s interesting that a story about memories evokes such clear ones within myself.  When I think about The Giver, Lois Lowry’s classic 1993 novel which has been a staple of young adult literature for about two decades now, I remember being 11 years old and getting up early… Read More Review: The Giver

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Based on the bestseller by Richard C. Morais, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a total feel good film, and I liked that.  Those who buy a ticket are going to leave feeling happy, just like after an evening spent at a fine restaurant, and the fact that the film… Read More Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey

By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) “This is like one of those ’80s movies,” Sarah (Aubrey Plaza) says partway through About Alex, a modern attempt to copy the magic of Lawrence Kasdan’s definitive classic The Big Chill.  The movie opens today in limited release and video on demand, courtesy of levelFILM. But despite some… Read More Review: About Alex

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) I wasn’t expecting Guardians of the Galaxy to open that way that it does.  We focus on a young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) listening to his beloved Awesome Mix cassette tape while visiting his dying mother (Laura Haddock) in the hospital, before running out of the building in… Read More Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Among my biggest regrets of last year’s TIFF was missing the appealingly titled Can a Song Save Your Life?, which Harvey Weinstein quickly acquired for a hefty price tag.  Now that same film has arrived in theatres under the new name Begin Again, and I’m happy announce that… Read More Review: Begin Again

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) When talking about the the sheer spectacle and mayhem on display in Snowpiercer, someone describes it as “a blockbuster production with a devilishly unpredictable plot,” and late in the game this becomes the perfect description of South Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s latest epic. After months of anticipation,… Read More Review: Snowpiercer

By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A few years back in the summer of 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes practically came out of nowhere to become one of the best moviegoing surprises in recent memory, a briskly paced franchise reboot that was as exciting as it was smart. Now comes Dawn… Read More Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is lying in the grass and staring up at the blue sky, the distinctive sound of Coldplay’s “Yellow” playing on the soundtrack, as his single mother (Patricia Arquette) arrives and picks him up from school.  This is the already iconic opening scene of Boyhood, a… Read More Review: Boyhood

By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Roger Ebert is one of the main reasons why I became a writer, and like so many of us in this field, his reviews are the sole inspiration behind my choice to become a film critic.  Because of this, Life Itself is somewhat ironically hard for me to… Read More Review: Life Itself

By John Corrado *** (out of 4) With slightly grainy handheld cinematography, mostly captured at director Joe Swanberg’s own Chicago home, Happy Christmas couldn’t be farther from the summer blockbusters that are currently dominating the box office. But that’s precisely the charm of this low key and very entertaining little film.  After premiering at Sundance… Read More Review: Happy Christmas

By John Corrado *** (out of 4) It’s an unwritten rule of comedy that sequels are rarely as funny as their predecessors, with the majority of followups to comedic classics being easily forgotten over the years.  But rules were made to be broken, and that’s something directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller obviously know very… Read More Review: 22 Jump Street

By John Corrado ***1/2 (out of 4) The Double is a film that quietly grows on you and is impossible to shake afterwards, a fascinating tragicomedy filled with perfectly mannered character quirks and dark subtext about the often futile struggle for individuality. This is what the work of Wes Anderson might look like if he… Read More Review: The Double

By John Corrado ***1/2 (out of 4) Even amongst the massive landscape of books that fall into the increasingly lucrative Young Adult bracket, few novels have had the lasting impact and unlikely popularity of author John Green’s 2012 bestseller The Fault in Our Stars. This love story between two teens who fall in love through… Read More Review: The Fault in Our Stars