By John Corrado There’s little denying that 1976’s underdog boxing movie Rocky is one of the most beloved and enduring American films of all time. It was the Italian-American success story, and now director Peter Farrelly’s rip-roaring crowdpleaser I Play Rocky cleverly turns the making of the movie – and screenwriter Sylvester Stallone’s dogged persistence… Read More #TIFF26 Review: I Play Rocky (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado The latest movie from Cartoon Saloon, the Irish animation studio behind beloved modern films like Wolfwalkers, The Breadwinner, Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells, Julián is very sweet and charming story about a little boy who dreams of being a mermaid. The film centres around the titular Julián (voiced… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Julián (Centrepiece)
By John Corrado A century after it was first published, Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway gets a contemporary adaptation from filmmaker brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri, who find a fresh angle by setting their version in modern day Lagos, Nigeria. Sophie Okonedo stars in the film as the titular Clarissa Dalloway, who is preparing… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Clarissa (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado Director, writer and star Jordan Firstman delivers an accomplished debut feature with Club Kid, a major crowdpleaser which plays like the gay, indie, A24-backed answer to Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy. And it’s something special. Firstman stars in the film as Peter, a club promoter in New York City who is living a… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Club Kid (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado In Fjord, his second Palme d’Or-winner following 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu crafts a complex film that masterfully balances being a family drama, coming-of-age story, and courtroom procedural. This is a film that exists purely in shades of grey, even literally with the washed out… Read More #TIFF26 Review: Fjord (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado The latest from Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, All of a Sudden is primarily a film about the different ways we care for each other, weaving themes about the bureaucratic power structure of a nursing home into a character drama. It’s an ambitious undertaking, even more so when you account for the fact… Read More #TIFF26 Review: All of a Sudden (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado Director Andrew Patterson’s The Rivals of Amziah King, the long awaited follow up to his 2019 breakout film The Vast of Night, is finally arriving in theatres after premiering at SXSW in 2025, nearly a year-and-a-half ago. This delay isn’t because the movie isn’t good (because it is good), but likely due… Read More Movie Review: The Rivals of Amziah King
By John Corrado Eli Roth’s latest bad-taste splatter flick Ice Cream Man is a passion project that the horror filmmaker has been trying to get made for years, and finally had to self-produce under the banner of his new production company The Horror Section. The result is an idiotic horror comedy (?) that is never… Read More Movie Review: Ice Cream Man
By John Corrado Sheep in the Box, named for a passage in The Little Prince, is the latest work from Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, who has proven himself a master of quietly observed character studies that raise thorny emotional questions. On paper, at least, this makes Kore-eda, serving as both writer and director, a natural fit… Read More Movie Review: Sheep in the Box
By John Corrado Her Private Hell is the latest film from Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, whose 2011 thriller Drive starring Ryan Gosling is the closest thing he’s had to a mainstream hit, and a far better movie than anything he’s made since. This is Refn’s first film in a decade since 2016’s The Neon… Read More Movie Review: Her Private Hell
By John Corrado The horror movie Leviticus, which serves as the feature directorial debut of Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella, plays almost like an explicitly queer take on It Follows, David Robert Mitchell’s STD-themed indie horror flick from 2014. This slow-burn film follows Naim (Joe Bird) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen), two closeted teen boys in rural… Read More Movie Review: Leviticus
By John Corrado A lot has already been made about the fact that Kane Parsons, the director of Backrooms, is only 20-years-old, and for good reason. It’s impressive because this is such an assured feature debut from him, with Parsons showing a clear vision throughout this liminal spaces horror movie. Expanded from the series of… Read More Movie Review: Backrooms
By John Corrado I Love Boosters, musician turned writer-director Boots Riley’s followup to his 2018 film Sorry to Bother You, is another “surrealist critique of capitalism” that only cost $20 million to produce, and has all the subtlety or nuance of a sledgehammer. We are left with a film that is candy-coloured and, well, kind… Read More Movie Review: I Love Boosters
By John Corrado In Mile End Kicks, the very enjoyable sophomore feature from former Toronto film critic Chandler Levack following her excellent directorial debut I Like Movies, we follow a young music critic trying to figure things out in her early twenties. In many ways, Mike End Kicks plays like a companion piece to I… Read More Movie Review: Mile End Kicks
By John Corrado Alpha is the third feature from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, whose previous films Raw and Titane both shocked and repulsed audiences while drawing critical acclaim. For Ducournau to follow up a film as thrilling and visionary as her sophomore feature Titane was always going to be a nearly impossible task, especially after… Read More Movie Review: Alpha
By John Corrado In Cold Light, the English-language debut of Quebec filmmaker Maxime Giroux, is a mix of crime drama and thriller that stars Maika Monroe as a young ex-convict in Alberta trying to get her life back on track, but being dragged right back into the criminal underworld. The film opens with Ava (Monroe)… Read More Movie Review: In Cold Light
By John Corrado The Oscar-nominated French animated film Arco, which serves as the feature directorial debut of artist Ugo Bienvenu, imagines a future world where time travel is not only possible, but involves colourful jumpsuits that use rainbows and refracted light. The film opens in the distant future, with a boy named Arco (voiced by… Read More Movie Review: Arco
By John Corrado The official trailer has just been released for Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson’s wildly entertaining time travel comedy. This one premiered at SXSW last year, and also got a hometown welcome as the opening night film of TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, where it very easily won… Read More Official Trailer for Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie!
By John Corrado There you have it, folks. We have reached the end of 2025. Another year has officially come and gone, which means that it’s time for my countdown of the best movies of 2025. Or, perhaps more correctly, my favourite movies released this year. This includes, in no short order, a trio of… Read More The Best Movies of 2025
By John Corrado In his acceptance speech at the SAG Awards earlier year, when he won the Best Actor trophy for his uncanny portrayal of Bob Dylan in music biopic A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet unabashedly spoke about wanting to be one of the greats. The young actor took some heat for it online. Surely… Read More Movie Review: Marty Supreme
The Joy of Movies 