By John Corrado The Canadian drama White Lie, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year, is being released digitally and on demand this week on a variety of platforms. The film, which is the best one yet from young Toronto directors Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis, follows a young woman named Katie Arneson… Read More VOD Release: White Lie
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Acclaimed independent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, one of cinema’s finest surveyors of Americana, delivers one of her finest works yet with First Cow, a film that works as both a bracing frontier drama exploring themes of greed and early capitalism, and as a compelling, understated character study. The film,… Read More VOD Review: First Cow
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The latest from Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Guest of Honour unfortunately follows in the footsteps of several of his other disappointing late career works; it’s a dramatic thriller that takes topical themes and buries them in an overly complicated and melodramatic package. The film tells the story of… Read More VOD Review: Guest of Honour
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Based on the true story of the singing group The Fisherman’s Friends, a group of locals from Port Isaac, Cornwall who became unlikely musical stars with their traditional renditions of old sea shanties, Fisherman’s Friends is a British feel-good film in the vein of The Full Monty and… Read More VOD Review: Fisherman’s Friends
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) James Odin (Adrian Glynn McMorran), a man with the ability to see glimpses of the future, ends up embroiled in a diamond smuggling ring while trying to stay one step ahead of the visions that he keeps having of his own own murder, in the ambitious indie sci-fi… Read More VOD Review: Volition
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway show Hamilton, a wildly ambitious rap musical based on the life of America’s “ten dollar founding father” Alexander Hamilton, is indisputably one of the biggest pop culture sensations of the past decade. Now those of us who weren’t lucky enough to see the show… Read More Disney+ Review: Hamilton
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The feature directorial debut of Canadian film producer Aisling Chin-Yee, The Rest of Us is a very solid little film that finds both drama and gentle humour in the interactions between its unique cast of female characters. The film centres around Cami (Heather Graham), the author and illustrator… Read More VOD Review: The Rest of Us
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who had previously crafted Hollywood hits out of pulpy material with RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct, released Showgirls in 1995, it was universally derided and became a massive critical and commercial flop. It’s not a surprise, since Verhoeven’s NC-17 stripper melodrama is… Read More VOD Review: You Don’t Nomi
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) I first discovered the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears last summer when I came across an episode entitled Shush Ninjas in which the show’s three protagonists, a trio of adoptive bear brothers named Grizz (Eric Edelstein), Panda (Bobby Moynihan) and Ice Bear (Demetri Martin), go to a movie… Read More Review: We Bare Bears: The Movie
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Written and directed by Jon Stewart, who left late night television to become a filmmaker, Irresistible is a political satire that is set in the current moment but feels curiously out of step. The film opens with audio of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton going at each other… Read More VOD Review: Irresistible
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Nisha Ganatra, fresh off of helming the superior Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson vehicle Late Night which just came out last year, The Hight Note is a music-themed romantic comedy that follows a mostly predictable path but still features some enjoyable elements. The film centres around… Read More VOD Review: The High Note
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The Painter and the Thief, director Benjamin Ree’s excellent documentary about friendship and the healing power of art, documents a coming together of two people that is so remarkable and interesting that if it had been fiction, it likely would have been accused of being contrived. The painter… Read More VOD Review: The Painter and the Thief
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are back at it again in The Trip to Greece, the fourth instalment in this series that finds the two comic actors playing versions of themselves enjoying good food, having great conversations, and arguing over who does the better celebrity impressions. It all… Read More VOD Review: The Trip to Greece
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The poster for Military Wives boasts that the film comes to us “from the director of The Full Monty,” and this really is a case of there being truth in advertising. The director is Peter Cattaneo, and like his surprise Oscar nominee from 1997, this film also functions… Read More VOD Review: Military Wives
By John Corrado One of the five films nominated for Best International Film at this year’s Oscars, Les Misérables is a stirring modern day fable from director Ladj Ly that explores timely themes about racial tensions and police brutality in contemporary France. As of yesterday, the film is now available for rent and purchase on… Read More VOD Release: Les Misérables
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Damon (Kristian Bruun), the main character in the enjoyable Canadian dramedy Red Rover which opened the Canadian Film Festival last year and is being released on VOD today, is a lonely geologist in Toronto, who feels like he doesn’t have much left for him on earth. He lives… Read More VOD Review: Red Rover
By John Corrado Annette Bening and Bill Nighy star in Hope Gap, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year, as an old married couple who are going through a divorce. The film is being released for rent and purchase on a variety of VOD platforms today, including iTunes. When Edward (Nighy) announces that… Read More VOD Release: Hope Gap
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) One of the first clues we get that something is very off in The Assistant comes within the opening few minutes of the film when Jane (Julia Garner) puts on rubber gloves and gets down on her knees to scrub a stubborn stain off the couch in her… Read More VOD Review: The Assistant
By John Corrado The Irish ghost comedy Extra Ordinary, which screened as the opening night film at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival last October, is being released for rent and purchase this week on a variety of VOD platforms, including iTunes. The film had the misfortune of being released theatrically on March 13th for… Read More VOD Release: Extra Ordinary
By John Corrado Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville deliver a pair of moving performances in Ordinary Love, a quiet, emotionally raw drama that charts the ups and downs of a husband and wife in Ireland dealing with her breast cancer diagnosis. The film, which had its world premiere at TIFF last year and enjoyed a… Read More VOD Release: Ordinary Love
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