By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Hawkeye, the first two episodes of which premiered today on Disney+, is Marvel’s fourth television series this year, and it’s somewhat of a departure for the studio in terms of how grounded it feels. Following on the heels of WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki,… Read More Disney+ Review: Hawkeye (First Two Episodes)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) An Indigenous community in rural Alberta that is in the process of being surveyed for a mining project is the evocative setting for Don’t Say Its Name, a Canadian supernatural horror movie from first time feature director Rueben Martell. A shadowy mining corporation called WEC has just struck… Read More VOD Review: Don’t Say Its Name
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Leave it to Jane Campion, the filmmaker behind 1993’s The Piano who hasn’t directed a feature since Bright Star in 2009, to craft one of the finest explorations of so-called toxic masculinity in her stunning Western The Power of the Dog. Masterfully directed by Campion, who understands how long… Read More Review: The Power of the Dog
By John Corrado The Haunting of Bly Manor is creator Mike Flanagan’s followup to his 2018 Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House. This second instalment in the anthology series brings back some of the same actors in different roles to tell a whole new, completely unconnected story. The series, which premiered on Netflix in 2020… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Haunting of Bly Manor
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The stress of turning thirty, and measuring yourself against other artists who found success at a young age, is one of the prevailing themes in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s very good directorial debut tick, tick…BOOM!, a musical film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical stage show of the same name. This… Read More Review: tick, tick…BOOM!
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) The inevitable downside of the Disney-Fox merger was always going to be that the Mouse House would take advantage of having even more beloved franchises in their roster to capitalize on with remakes, reboots and retreads, all the “re’s” that studios turn to in order to make a… Read More Disney+ Review: Home Sweet Home Alone
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A twisty Hollywood-set thriller involving purple envelopes and anonymous sexual encounters, The Beta Test is the latest feature from innovative DIY filmmaker/actor Jim Cummings, and it’s a darkly enjoyable and engaging showbiz satire that has something to say. Cummings stars in the film as Jordan, a slick Hollywood… Read More VOD Review: The Beta Test
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The feature narrative debut of documentary filmmaker Evan Jackson Leong, Snakehead is a gritty crime drama set in the underworld of New York City’s Chinatown. The film opens with title cards explaining that, despite the “walls of entry,” illegal migration is still thriving and Chinese human smugglers known… Read More VOD Review: Snakehead
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Truman Capote was an author whose real life persona loomed as large as the characters he wrote about in his stories. Capote’s distinctive high voice, short stature, and flamboyant personality made him stand out in his day, with his irredeemable penchant for gossip and being at the centre… Read More VOD Review: The Capote Tapes
By John Corrado ★ (out of 4) Defining Moments, which has been in the can for a little while now and is finally getting a VOD release this week, marks the final film role of Burt Reynolds, who passed away three years ago. But this is likely all it will be remembered for, if at… Read More VOD Review: Defining Moments
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The first ever Halloween special featuring the Muppets, Muppets Haunted Mansion is a pretty irresistible crossover event that serves as both a return to form for Jim Henson’s creations, and also a fine tribute to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. The special is set in a Muppet version of the… Read More Disney+ Review: Muppets Haunted Mansion
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Written and directed by German filmmaker Thor Klein, Adventures of a Mathematician is a biopic of Stanislaw Ulam (Philippe Tlokinski), a Polish-Jewish immigrant who worked on the Manhattan Project and was one of the scientists who helped develop the hydrogen bomb. Klein’s screenplay details how Ulam, who fled… Read More VOD Review: Adventures of a Mathematician
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Twenty years after the release of his breakout film Training Day, director Antoine Fuqua has crafted a different type of cop thriller in The Guilty, a Netflix film that is being given a short theatrical run before its streaming release. The film is actually a remake of director… Read More Review: The Guilty
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Billie Eilish is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet at the moment, and now she has her own concert film in the form of Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles. Premiering on Disney+ today, the film serves as a companion piece to… Read More Disney+ Review: Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) What’s the difference between “real” friends and “vacation” friends? The former stick by you through thick and thin, where as the latter you befriend for a limited amount of time, fully expecting the interactions to be transitory. But what happens if vacation friends come back into your life… Read More Review: Vacation Friends
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) “So may we start?” These are the words that the film’s cast, flanked by a chorus of backup singers, sings during the rapturous, single-take opening sequence of Annette, asking for the audience’s attention as they request to start the show. Taking us from inside a studio and out… Read More Review: Annette
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Following the wild successes of Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision on Disney+ earlier this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now delivering its first official animated series with What If…?, which takes advantage of the medium to offer a series of condensed side adventures… Read More Disney+ Review: What If…? (First Three Episodes)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Disney’s Jungle Cruise isn’t the first movie to be based on one of their theme park attractions, with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise being the most famous example, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, either. What it is, though, is a pleasingly diverting film that… Read More Review: Jungle Cruise
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) An 18-year-old kid named Michael (Ryder McLaughlin) has ambitions of becoming a pro skateboarder in skater and filmmaker Mikey Alfred’s feature directorial debut North Hollywood, which shares some common DNA with Jonah Hill’s 2018 gem Mid90s. Alfred served as a producer on that film, which also featured McLaughlin,… Read More VOD Review: North Hollywood
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest Disney+ show, Behind the Attraction, is a very good ten-part docuseries that sheds light on some of the famous attractions at Disney Parks and Resorts around the world. Five of the ten episodes in the series, which features Dwayne Johnson as one of its executive producers… Read More Disney+ Review: Behind the Attraction (First Five Episodes)
The Joy of Movies 