By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) 2021 Academy Award nominee for Best Visual Effects As it turns out, the plainly descriptive title of Love and Monsters is a very fitting one. The film has monsters. Lots of ‘em, in fact, and very imaginative ones, too. Enough to get the film a surprise Oscar nomination… Read More Netflix Review: Love and Monsters
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) 2021 Academy Award nominee for Best Visual Effects Based on the book Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, The Midnight Sky is George Clooney’s latest effort as a director and his first in the science fiction genre. It’s a decent if somewhat uneven sci-fi thriller that is ambitious… Read More Netflix Review: The Midnight Sky
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 ★★★ (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 ★★★ (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 ★★★½ (out of 4) David Fincher’s Mank, which is adapted from a screenplay that the director’s father Jack wrote back in the 1990s before he passed away, is an ambitious black and white drama about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the writing of Citizen Kane. But despite how it might sound on… Read More Netflix Review: Mank
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) First published in 1960, Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham is one of the most beloved and enduring learn to read books of all time, with its irresistible rhyming scheme made up of just fifty words making it ideal for beginners, not to mention a delight to read… Read More DVD Review: Green Eggs and Ham: The Complete First Season
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Aaron Sorkin has a way with words and a real knack for writing film dialogue, as we already saw, or rather heard, in his scripts for David Fincher’s brilliant Facebook drama The Social Network and Danny Boyle’s structurally inventive biopic Steve Jobs. Sorkin’s gift for writing memorable, rapid… Read More Netflix Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world in 2013 when he stepped down as head of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to resign since the 1400s. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the successor to Pope John Paul II in 2005, and was chosen by the church… Read More Review: The Two Popes
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, a return to the mob movies that have defined his career, opens with a steadicam tracking shot that calls to mind the one from his 1990 classic Goodfellas. Only his camera here moves at a slower pace, taking us through the halls of a… Read More Review: The Irishman
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, crafting a companion piece of sorts to his acclaimed 2005 breakout film The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story is an incredibly powerful, brilliantly written and extremely well acted film that is both believable and incisive in its wrenching portrait of a… Read More Review: Marriage Story
By John Corrado It was a hit on Netflix, and now director Mike Flanagan’s ten-part dramatic horror series The Haunting of Hill House is available to own on Blu-ray in a 3-disc set that includes extended versions of several episodes. The series follows the Crain family, jumping back and forth between past and present to… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Haunting of Hill House
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Rudy Ray Moore was a self-described entrepreneur and fledgling musician who worked in a record shop in the 1970s, when he decided to branch out into doing comedy records. Creating a flamboyant alter-ego named Dolemite, a foul-mouthed pimp who speaks in verse, Moore ended up becoming a massively… Read More Review: Dolemite Is My Name
The Joy of Movies 