By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The title of Backspot refers to the position Riley (Devery Jacobs) holds on her high school cheerleading team. She treats cheerleading like an extreme sport,… Read More #TIFF23 Review: Backspot (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7th to 17th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The debut feature from Toronto-born director M. H. Murray, I Don’t Know Who You Are is an anxiety-inducing drama that primarily takes place in the… Read More #TIFF23 Review: I Don’t Know Who You Are (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The Canadian drama North of Normal is an adaptation of Cea Sunrise Person’s 2014 memoir of the same name, following her coming of age in the city after an unconventional upbringing in the Yukon wilderness with her free-loving teen mother (played in the film by Sarah Gadon). The… Read More Review: North of Normal
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The directorial debut of Tamil Canadian filmmaker V.T. Nayani, This Place (which premiered at last year’s TIFF) is a queer love story between two young women from different backgrounds that finds its strengths in being so culturally specific to Toronto. Kawenniióhstha (Devery Jacobs, who also co-wrote the screenplay… Read More Review: This Place
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In the summer of 2020, after having to cancel their tour due to COVID, the Canadian indie rock band July Talk decided to do a concert at the Stardust Drive-In in Sharon, Ontario. But this came with its own unique set of challenges, including figuring out the logistics… Read More Review: July Talk: Love Lives Here
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) The 2023 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 25th to June 4th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Set in 1987, Before I Change My Mind follows Robin (Vaughan Murrae) a gender non-conforming kid who has moved to Alberta from… Read More #InsideOut2023 Review: Before I Change My Mind
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 25th to June 4th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The Canadian coming-of-age drama Golden Delicious centres around Jake (Cardi Wong), a Chinese-Canadian teenager in his last year of high school in… Read More #InsideOut2023 Review: Golden Delicious
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Written and directed by Marie Clements, Bones of Crows is an ambitious Canadian drama that follows the life of a residential school survivor over many years, and the scars that remain from the trauma that she has experienced. The film spans multiple decades in the life of Aline… Read More Review: Bones of Crows
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 25th to June 4th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In the documentary Supporting Our Selves, director Lulu Wei looks at the history of Community One, a Toronto organization that was founded… Read More #InsideOut2023 Review: Supporting Our Selves
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The rise and fall of Waterloo, Ontario tech company Research in Motion, and their once-mighty BlackBerry, is charted in Canadian director Matt Johnson’s energetic and fast-paced film BlackBerry. This latest feature from Johnson, who previously showed what he is capable of with his DIY indies Operation Avalanche and… Read More Review: BlackBerry
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 Lebanese Burger Mafia is an enjoyable look at the history of Burger Baron, an Alberta fast food franchise that is not really… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: The Lebanese Burger Mafia
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 documentary I Lost My Mom, Quebec filmmaker Denys Desjardins captures the end of his mother Madeleine’s life, offering a devastating portrait… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: I Lost My Mom
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. Directed by Megan Wennberg (Drag Kids), the documentary Unsyncable follows a group of seniors, ranging from their sixties to their eighties, who have… Read More #HotDocs23 Review: Unsyncable
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. 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 ★★★ (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 feature directorial debut of Toronto filmmaker Joseph Amenta, Soft is a gritty and atmospheric coming-of-age film. It follows Julien (Matteus Lunot), Otis (Harlow Joy) and Tony (Zion Matheson), three adolescent kids in the city who are hanging out together over summer break. The kids, who are all… Read More Review: Soft
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Canadian Film Fest runs from March 28th to April 1st, with films screening in-person at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto and virtually on Super Channel Fuse. Set in a vague, post-apocalyptic world that has turned much of the population into depressive zombies, Wintertide follows Beth (Niamh Carolan),… Read More Canadian Film Fest Review: Wintertide
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 2023 Canadian Film Fest runs from March 28th to April 1st, with films screening in-person at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto and virtually on Super Channel Fuse. A routine traffic stop leads to an increasingly obsessive quest to get the ticket thrown out in court in writer-director Adrian… Read More Canadian Film Fest Review: Retrograde
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