By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Pat Collins, Henry Glassie: Field Work is a documentary portrait of the renowned scholar and American folklorist Henry Glassie, who has spent over fifty years travelling around the world to study the work that other artists create, from religious statues to clay pots. For much of the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Henry Glassie: Field Work (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest work from filmmaker Thomas Heise, who was born in East Berlin, Heimat is a Space in Time is a mix of documentary and cinematic essay that is comprised mostly of excerpts from old diaries and letters belonging to his family in Germany, spanning four generations and almost the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Heimat is a Space in Time (Wavelengths)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In this era of fake news, independent journalist Robert Fisk stands tall as a champion of finding the truth and standing up for those who are oppressed, even if it means going against the official narratives and holding those who hold power to account. With a long, storied… Read More #TIFF19 Review: This is Not a Movie (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 53rd film from Alanis Obomsawin, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger continues the Canadian filmmaker’s long history of documenting the injustices faced by Indigenous people in Canada and the fight for equal treatment under the law. This film focuses on the case of Jordan River Anderson, a baby… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger (Masters)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 1969, after local religious authorities ordered that all of the totem poles be cut down as part of Canada’s widespread erasure of Indigenous culture, the celebrated Haida artist Robert Davidson became responsible for carving the first new totem pole to be put up in nearly a century in his village… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Now is the Time (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Sandra Ignagni, Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile is a mix of visual essay and short documentary that takes us inside the twenty five faith-based spaces that exist along the old No. 5 road in Richmond, British Columbia, including a variety of Christian churches,… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Narrated by Rossif Sutherland, The Physics of Sorrow is an animated short film that finds an unnamed immigrant reflecting upon his memories of first falling in love as a boy with a girl from the circus, his abusive father, his time in the army in communist Bulgaria, and… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Physics of Sorrow (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Inspired by an article that was published in the Globe and Mail’s First Person series, and produced as part of a six episode digital anthology bringing these stories to the screen, Life Support is a short film that really captures the feeling of a brief, unexpected moment shared… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Life Support (Short Cuts)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Brittany (Jillian Bell) is a pretty typical millennial in her late-twenties. She drinks too much and doesn’t follow the best diet, decisions that are partially fuelled by deep insecurity, feeling like everyone around her is moving forward in terms of relationships and having kids as she remains stuck… Read More Review: Brittany Runs a Marathon
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The third film in Legendary Entertainment’s Monsterverse, following their 2014 reboot of Godzilla and the 2017 King Kong reimagining Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters is dense with mythology and offers plenty of kaiju action, but lacks depth when it comes to human characters. The film takes place five… Read More Blu-ray Review: Godzilla: King of the Monsters
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A sequel to Illumination’s 2016 animated hit The Secret Life of Pets, The Secret Life of Pets 2 pretty much offers more of the same in terms of animated pet antics, and if you enjoyed the first film like I did, then that’s a good thing. The first film… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Secret Life of Pets 2
By John Corrado Following a successful run in theatres earlier this summer, the Elton John biopic Rocketman is coming to Blu-ray this week. The film reinvigorates the usual biopic formula by turning the singer’s life into a full blown jukebox musical built around many of his classic songs, and it features one of the best performances… Read More Blu-ray Review: Rocketman
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest film from Quebec’s Xavier Dolan, and his first one in English, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is in some ways a departure for the young filmmaker, but it still feels like a work that is distinctly his. This is his attempt at making something… Read More Review: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) There has been a lot of talk in the movie industry lately about increased representation for minority groups, and that’s a good thing. It’s long overdue. But the one group that all too often gets left out of this conversation is people with disabilities. The problem isn’t really… Read More Review: The Peanut Butter Falcon
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) After closing their doors during the recession and leaving thousands of workers without a job, a former General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio got taken over by a Chinese company and was able to reopen in 2014 as Fuyao Glass America. What happened next is documented in American… Read More Review: American Factory
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Named for the first single off of Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., Blinded by the Light tells the story of an unlikely Springsteen fan who uses the music of The Boss to help him find his own place in the world. Based on… Read More Review: Blinded by the Light
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Back in 1961, the United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who was openly fighting for the decolonization of Africa at the time, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodsia, and the common belief was that it was a simple engine failure. But for years an alternate… Read More Review: Cold Case Hammarskjöld
By John Corrado It’s already the biggest movie of the year – not to mention the highest grossing film of all time worldwide, finally surpassing the record previously set by James Cameron’s Avatar a decade ago – and now Avengers: Endgame is arriving on Blu-ray this week. Bringing about the end of the first stretch… Read More Blu-ray Review: Avengers: Endgame
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz is frequently included on lists of the most banned and challenged books due to its disturbing subject matter and creepy black and white illustrations by Stephen Gammell. The three books, which were originally published between 1981 and 1991… Read More Review: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) After a mysterious illness wiped out the female half of the human population a decade ago, a father (Casey Affleck) must keep his 11-year-old daughter Rag (Anna Pniowsky) hidden in the woods from the remnants of society and disguised as a boy, with other men threatening to do her… Read More Review: Light of My Life
