By John Corrado The Jonas Brothers are back in A Very Jonas Christmas Movie, the Disney Plus Original that finds the boyband brothers trying to get back home for Christmas. The film opens with brothers Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas finishing up their tour in London just days before Christmas, and looking forward to getting… Read More Movie Review: A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (Disney+)
By John Corrado Swiped is director Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s glossy biopic of Whitney Wolfe (played by Lily James), a co-founder of ubiquitous dating app Tinder and the creator of Bumble. We first meet Wolfe at a Los Angeles meet-up for tech investors, trying to get financial backers for an app that connects orphanages in other… Read More Movie Review: Swiped (Disney+)
By John Corrado 20th Century Studios has just put out the first trailer and poster for Swiped. Rachel Lee Goldenberg (Unpregnant) directs this based-on-a-true-story film, which stars Lily James in the role of Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of online dating apps Tinder and Bumble. Lofty comparisons to The Social Network might be unavoidable. Otherwise, this… Read More First Trailer for Swiped, premiering at TIFF
By John Corrado Disneynature’s Earth Day releases have been an annual tradition since 2009, when the studio released Earth. The films have since shifted away from being theatrical releases and migrated to being released direct to streaming on Disney Plus, but the tradition remains largely the same. In Sea Lions of the Galapagos, the latest… Read More Movie Review: Sea Lions of the Galapagos (Disney+)
By John Corrado In their thirty years of feature films, Pixar Animation Studios has been known for their innovative and imaginative storytelling. Now they’ve adapted that to a serialized format in Win or Lose, the new Disney Plus streaming series from co-creators, co-directors and co-writers Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates. It’s an ambitious gambit from… Read More Review: Win or Lose – Episodes 1-4 (Disney+)
By John Corrado Elton John: Never Too Late, the new music documentary that premiered at TIFF and is now being released on Disney Plus, follows the British rockstar on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Co-directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, the film counts down to his final concert in North America at Dodger… Read More Movie Review: Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+)
By John Corrado Dream Productions, the new Disney Plus limited series “from the world of Inside Out,” presents somewhat of a departure for Pixar. It’s not only their first stab at episodic storytelling, but also done in the style of a mockumentary. The four-part series is presented as a “behind the scenes” look at Dream Productions,… Read More Review: Dream Productions (Disney+)
By John Corrado Beatles ‘64, the new Disney Plus documentary from director David Tedeschi and producer Martin Scorsese about the Fab Four’s first visit to America, opens with footage of President John F. Kennedy. These scenes set the film up as a sort of broader time capsule of this specific era, but it also ties… Read More Movie Review: Beatles ’64 (Disney+)
By John Corrado Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is the latest Springsteen documentary from director Thom Zimny, and it’s an electrifying mix of concert doc and intimate snapshot of The Boss on tour. Where as Zimny’s recent portraits Western Stars and Letter to You focused on those specific albums, Road Diary expands its scope to his current world… Read More Movie Review: Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Disney+)
By John Corrado The latest inspirational sports movie from Disney, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Young Woman and the Sea is based on the true story of pioneering female swimmer Trudy Ederle, who became the first woman to swim across the 21 mile English Channel in 1926. Daisy Ridley (who most notably played Rey in the Disney… Read More Movie Review: Young Woman and the Sea (Disney+)
By John Corrado Andrew McCarthy, the star of 1980s classics like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire, reflects on his time as part of the so-called “Brat Pack” in his enjoyable, cathartic documentary Brats. Serving as a companion piece to his 2021 book Brat: An ’80s Story, McCarthy directs the film, which follows him… Read More Movie Review: Brats (Disney+)
By John Corrado In his new documentary Jim Henson Idea Man, filmmaker Ron Howard crafts an enjoyable biographical portrait of the creator of The Muppets, Jim Henson. It was the genius and creativity of Henson, who hand-stitched Kermit the Frog out of his mother’s coat, that gave birth to these iconic characters. A fledgling filmmaker… Read More Movie Review: Jim Henson Idea Man (Disney+)
By John Corrado In their documentary The Beach Boys, co-directors Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Thom Zimney (Western Stars, Springsteen on Broadway) team up to offer a polished look at the history of the California surf rock band The Beach Boys. Made up of brothers Brian, Dennis… Read More Movie Review: The Beach Boys (Disney+)
By John Corrado Released in 1970 amidst the band’s public breakup, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s infamous music documentary Let It Be offered a candid portrait of The Beatles recording their album of the same name in 1969. Behind the scenes footage from these sessions provided the basis for director Peter Jackson’s in-depth docuseries The Beatles: Get… Read More Movie Review: The Beatles: Let It Be (Disney+)
By John Corrado The latest Earth Day release from Disneynature, Tiger takes us deep into the mythical forests of India to follow Ambar, a mama tiger trying to protect her four cubs. Narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jones, the film follows Ambar and her litter of adorable cubs from birth, as their mother takes them to… Read More Movie Review: Disneynature’s Tiger (Disney+)
John Corrado Inspired by Pixar’s 1998 second feature A Bug’s Life, the Disney Plus series A Real Bug’s Life puts us on the ground to document the lives of real insects around the world across five half-hour episodes narrated by Awkwafina. Produced by National Geographic, A Real Bug’s Life begins on the streets of New… Read More Review: A Real Bug’s Life (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) ‘Tis the season for direct-to-streaming Christmas movies. The latest offering from Disney+ is Dashing Through the Snow, a mildly watchable if overly familiar comedy from director Tim Story (Barbershop, The Blackening) that imagines Santa as a wise-cracking fellow played by comedian Lil Rel Howery. The film stars Chris… Read More Review: Dashing Through the Snow (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Awkwafina and Sandra Oh star in the female-led comedy Quiz Lady as mismatched sisters who end up on a road trip together to compete on a popular quiz show, and it’s an example of a film that is elevated by its leads. Anne (Awkwafina) has always been obsessed… Read More Review: Quiz Lady (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A mix of home invasion thriller and alien invasion movie, No One Will Save You is a pretty good little sci-fi flick from writer-director Brian Duffield (Spontaneous), that does some stylistically interesting things with its premise. This includes unfolding with minimal dialogue to focus on the more visceral… Read More Review: No One Will Save You (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Prem Patel (Manny Magnus), the protagonist of the Disney Plus movie World’s Best, is a 12-year-old kid who is so good at math that he takes classes with the high school kids and is a shoo-in for a spot at the Mathlympics. This knack for numbers doesn’t exactly… Read More Review: World’s Best (Disney+)
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