By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) is a retired religious ethics teacher in her fifties who hires a male escort named Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) for a series of sexual encounters in a hotel room, in the Sundance drama Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Nancy’s husband, the only man… Read More Review: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directors Jono Bergmann and Benji Bergmann deliver a glossy portrait of Canadian designer Bruce Mau in their aptly titled Mau, a stylish, slickly assembled documentary that is befitting of the man himself. The film takes us through the highlights of Mau’s career, including first getting noticed with the… Read More VOD Review: Mau
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) A confident sophomore feature from writer-director-star Cooper Raiff (who also serves as one of the producers and editors), Cha Cha Real Smooth is a delightful and touching heart-on-sleeve dramedy that delivers a pretty big emotional wallop while remaining sensitive to its characters. Raiff stars in the film (which… Read More Review: Cha Cha Real Smooth
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from June 9th to 26th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker David Hoffert’s years-in-the-making documentary The Rhapsody recounts the life story of Leo Spellman (born Leon Szpilman), a Polish-Canadian Holocaust survivor and composer who finally… Read More Toronto Jewish Film Festival Review: The Rhapsody
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 26th to June 5th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In their new documentary Pat Rocco Dared, co-directors Morris Chapdelaine and Bob Christie offer an enjoyable introduction to groundbreaking gay filmmaker Pat… Read More Inside Out 2022 Review: Pat Rocco Dared
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 26th to June 5th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Directed, written and produced by Canadian filmmaker Kevin Hegge, Tramps! is a documentary that explores the history of the New Romantics, a… Read More Inside Out 2022 Review: Tramps!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 26th to June 5th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. A gay dwarf named Peter (Matthew August Jeffers) is roped into taking his sex worker neighbour Winona (Sarah Hay) on an… Read More Inside Out 2022 Review: Unidentified Objects
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is technically the latest in Disney’s long line of live action reboots, reviving the fan favourite Disney Channel cartoon series. But in the hands of director Akiva Schaffer (from comedy troupe The Lonely Island), this one serves as a satirical sendup of the… Read More Disney+ Review: Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A well-meaning parking valet in Beverly Hills gets roped into a scheme pretending to be the boyfriend of a famous movie star to hide her affair with a married man in the new romantic comedy The Valet, which serves as a surprisingly charming remake of the 2006 French… Read More Disney+ Review: The Valet
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) Homebound, writer-director Sebastian Godwin’s feature debut, opens with Holly (Aisling Loftus) and her new husband Richard (Tom Goodman-Hill) driving to his ex-wife’s house in the English countryside so that she can meet his three kids and celebrate his youngest daughter Anna’s (Raffiella Chapman) birthday. But they arrive to… Read More VOD Review: Homebound
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Sneakerella, the latest Disney+ Original Movie, is a modern, gender-swapped take on Cinderella, that updates the setting to Queens, New York, adds a selection of upbeat hip-hop songs, and centres around sneaker subculture. This sounds like a bit of a mad gambit, but Sneakerella actually works as a… Read More Disney+ Review: Sneakerella
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2022 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 28th to May 8th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Director Tracey Arcabasso Smith digs deep into her own personal life and family history in her documentary Relative, weaving a nuanced portrait of… Read More #HotDocs22 Review: Relative
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Polar Bear is the latest Earth Day release from Disneynature, this time following a polar bear family in the Arctic, with a strong focus on how climate change is impacting their environment. Narrated by Catherine Keener, the film takes on the perspective of a young female “ice bear”… Read More Disney+ Review: Polar Bear
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Minamata, the new film starring Johnny Depp, got a publicity boost recently when fans of the actor helped make it the third place winner in the ill-conceived Oscars Fan Favourite category presented during this year’s Academy Awards. That the actor’s supporters could essentially game the online voting system… Read More VOD Review: Minamata
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Nate Foster (Rueby Wood), the title character in Disney’s surprisingly charming Better Nate Than Ever, is an honest to goodness theatre kid. You know, the sort that sings into his hairbrush, memorizes Fiddler on the Roof, and fantasizes about winning a Tony. He has big Broadway dreams, if… Read More Disney+ Review: Better Nate Than Ever
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Did Richard Linklater really go to the moon as a kid? Not likely, but his latest film, the very charming and sweetly nostalgic Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, will make you believe he might have for a little over ninety minutes. Done in a similar rotoscoped animation… Read More Netflix Review: Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Canadian Film Fest runs in two segments from March 22nd to 26th and March 29th to April 2nd, exclusively on Super Channel. Director Marie-Geneviève Chabot’s documentary Beneath the Surface follows three adult brothers who reunite with their father for a fishing trip in Quebec, in hopes… Read More Canadian Film Fest Review: Beneath the Surface
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Canadian Film Fest runs in two segments from March 22nd to 26th and March 29th to April 2nd, exclusively on Super Channel. In horseback riding terms, a “long rider” is someone who has done over a thousand miles in a single equestrian trip. Director Sean Cisterna’s… Read More Canadian Film Fest Review: The Long Rider
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Lost Daughter is nominated for Best Actress (Olivia Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Jessie Buckley) and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 94th Academy Awards. What does it mean to be a bad mother? And is the feeling that you aren’t doing a good enough job something that all… Read More Review: The Lost Daughter
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2022 Canadian Film Fest runs in two segments from March 22nd to 26th and March 29th to April 2nd, exclusively on Super Channel. A few years back, Canadian filmmaker Jeremy LaLonde and actor Jonas Chernick collaborated together on the Canadian time travel comedy James vs. His Future… Read More Canadian Film Fest Review: Ashgrove
The Joy of Movies 