By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In his latest documentary Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella, Canadian director Barry Avrich offers an endearing biography of Rosalie Abella,… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The observational documentary Revir – Everything You Hold Dear offers a quiet portrait of Susie and Sune, two adult siblings who share a… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Revir – Everything You Hold Dear
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Ivan and Marvin are a married couple living in Sweden with their two young kids, whose relationship is evolving as Marvin undergoes gender… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: A Happy Man
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. When Reyhaneh Jabbari was nineteen years old, she was sentenced to death in Iran for stabbing Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, to stop him from… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Seven Winters in Tehran
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Simon Chambers was in India trying to finish a documentary about car culture in the country when he got a call from his… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Much Ado About Dying
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Augusto Góngora is a celebrated former journalist in Chile, who protested against dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Paulina Urrutia is an actress and former… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: The Eternal Memory
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In her investigative documentary Cynara, director Sherien Barsoum reexamines the case of Cindy Ali, a Trinidadian immigrant in Toronto who was convicted of… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Cynara
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. When Ken Meyer was diagnosed with systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that is slowly stretching out his skin and making him appear doll-like,… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Angel Applicant
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Where does music come from and how is it able to connect us across cultures? Following a profound experience around a campfire that… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Echo of Everything
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. At Rowdy Girl Sanctuary deep in the heart of Texas, reformed cattle rancher turned staunch vegan Renee King-Sonnen has created a safe haven… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Rowdy Girl
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo digs into her adolescent memories of first crushes and awkward school dances in You Were My First Boyfriend, which unfolds… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: You Were My First Boyfriend
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In their new documentary Satan Wants You, co-directors Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor offer a fascinating look at how the best-selling Canadian… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Satan Wants You
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. There has been somewhat of a modern resurgence in witchcraft and Wicca from women who see reclaiming these ancient spiritual practises as part… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Coven
By John Corrado New releases for the week of April 28th, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Wide Releases): Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen) finally brings Judy Blume’s iconic 1970 middle school novel to the screen with this tender and genuinely delightful adaptation, which captures the humour, heartache,… Read More New This Week (04/28/2023): Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., Sisu, The End of Sex, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. During the pandemic, Khaleel Sievwright decided to put his skills as a carpenter to good use and started building tiny shelters for homeless… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Someone Lives Here
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 27th to May 7th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Danish filmmaker Christian Einshøj digs into his family history in his symbolic, deeply personal documentary The Mountains. Einshøj draws upon a vast… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: The Mountains
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. This is the deceptively simple question being asked by the 11-year-old protagonist of Judy Blume’s classic 1970 novel of the same name, a book for middle school readers that was groundbreaking for its frank discussions of taboo topics ranging from religion… Read More Review: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Here comes M3GAN, the latest killer doll movie that follows in the footsteps of previous films about murderous toys like Chucky and Annabelle. The difference is that M3GAN (which was produced by James Wan, the driving force behind the Annabelle movies) aims to be more campy than scary.… Read More Blu-ray Review: M3GAN (Unrated Edition)
New releases for the week of April 21st, 2023. Theatrical Releases: Beau Is Afraid (Wide Release): This wildly ambitious, three-hour third film from writer-director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) stars Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role of the perpetually nervous Beau, who embarks on an increasingly bizarre, surrealist odyssey to reconnect with his mother (Patti… Read More New This Week (04/21/2023): Beau Is Afraid, Ghosted, & More!
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Beau Is Afraid, the wildly ambitious, three-hour-long third film from writer-director Ari Aster, has been described as a “nightmare comedy,” and that’s a pretty apt description for what the filmmaker has cooked up this time around. I also saw the film last week and am still not entirely… Read More Review: Beau Is Afraid
The Joy of Movies 