By John Corrado Director Alex Parkinson dramatizes his own 2019 documentary of the same name in Last Breath, a decent survival thriller following a group of deep sea divers rescuing a trapped crew mate. The first act is all about introducing the characters, a group of saturation divers repairing a stretch of pipeline deep below… Read More Movie Review: Last Breath
By John Corrado Fresh off the surprise success of serial killer thriller Longlegs, director Osgood Perkins now returns with a different kind of horror movie in The Monkey. This time it’s a horror comedy, adapted from a Stephen King short story of the same name. Re-teaming with Longlegs distributor NEON, Perkins’ latest finds him playing… Read More Movie Review: The Monkey
By John Corrado Distributor NEON has just released the new full-length redband trailer for director Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey. This trailer follows the new poster that was released yesterday, which cheekily highlighted all of the gory deaths that will be depicted in the film. The marketing for this one so far has been on point.… Read More New Trailer for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey
By John Corrado It’s the final day of 2024, which means that another year has come to an end. The preambles to these lists are always hard to write, so I’m going to keep this one short. I saw a lot of movies in 2024, and liked quite a few of them. It’s been assessed… Read More The Best Movies of 2024
By John Corrado Writer-director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl is a compelling modern twist on the erotic thriller, that centres around a woman with power who gets turned on by giving it up, as she embarks on an inappropriate workplace relationship with a male intern. These fascinating power dynamics are portrayed by Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson,… Read More Movie Review: Babygirl
By John Corrado Distributor NEON has just released the first trailer for The End, aka the narrative feature debut of documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence). The film is an ambitious apocalyptic character drama set in an underground bunker at the end of the world, that also happens to… Read More Trailer for Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End
By John Corrado A24 has released the first trailer for The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour post-war epic shot on VistaVision that first drew raves at Venice. I saw the film at TIFF, presented in 70mm, and it’s a staggering achievement. This is a great first trailer that gives viewers a glimpse at Lol Crowley’s… Read More First Trailer for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist
By John Corrado The film Goodrich opens with protagonist Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) being awoken by a phone call from his younger wife Naomi (Laura Benanti), who tells him that she has just checked herself into a rehab facility for the next ninety days. Unbeknownst to Andy, Naomi was dealing with a prescription pill addiction,… Read More Movie Review: Goodrich
By John Corrado The horror film Longlegs, directed by Osgood Perkins, is one of the biggest success stories of the year, with distributor Neon turning the indie movie into a box office hit. Neon is now re-teaming with Perkins for The Monkey, an adaptation of an old Stephen King short story, and they have just… Read More Teaser Trailer for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey
By John Corrado A24 has released the first trailer for the movie Babygirl starring Nicole Kidman, who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice for the role. She is also getting Best Actress Oscar buzz for the film. Written and directed by Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Kidman stars in the film as… Read More Trailer Released for Babygirl
By John Corrado The movie Lee is a biopic of photojournalist Elizabeth “Lee” Miller (played by Kate Winslet), who worked as a photographer for Vogue magazine during World War II. The film serves as the feature directorial debut of cinematographer Ellen Kuras (who first worked with Winslet on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and… Read More Movie Review: Lee
By John Corrado In her debut feature documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon, director Jazmin Jones tries to find the elusive model that became the face of the ubiquitous computer program Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. If you are of a certain age, the educational game is likely responsible for teaching you computer skills. Though Mavis Beacon herself… Read More Movie Review: Seeking Mavis Bacon
By John Corrado The sophomore effort from German writer-director Tilman Singer, Cuckoo is an intentionally bizarre horror movie that draws upon the metaphorical symbolism of the titular cuckoo bird to reimagine genre tropes through Singer’s more unique vision. Our heroine is Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), a 17-year-old girl who travels to Germany with her father (Marton… Read More Movie Review: Cuckoo
By John Corrado The title of Sing Sing refers to the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, located on the Hudson River. But the film’s title, with its evocation of music and singing, also serves as a jubilant nod to the spirited performances being staged by the men within the maximum security prison. It’s… Read More Movie Review: Sing Sing
By John Corrado The first trailer has been released for Edward Berger’s Conclave, the German filmmaker’s highly anticipated follow up to this Oscar-winning remake All Quiet on the Western Front. The film is adapted from a Robert Harris novel. Berger’s latest, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini and has been… Read More Trailer Released for Edward Berger’s Conclave
By John Corrado The latest film from writer-director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel and Hansel), Longlegs is a deeply unsettling mix of horror movie and police procedural, unfolding with a suffocating atmosphere that keeps us invested right from the chilling opening flashback. Maika Monroe (The Guest, It Follows) stars in the film as Lee… Read More Movie Review: Longlegs
By John Corrado Director Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead is a slow-burn Norwegian zombie movie that takes place in the aftermath of an event that allows the dead to return to life. Based on a book by Let the Right One In scribe John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Hvistendahl), the film… Read More Movie Review: Handling the Undead
By John Corrado The feature directorial debut of actress Pamela Adlon, Babes is a comedy about motherhood and adult friendship, that explores the bond between Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), and how it changes when the former becomes pregnant with her first child after the latter has just had her second. Eden and… Read More Movie Review: Babes
By John Corrado Irena’s Vow dramatizes the inspiring true story of Irena Gut Opdyke (Sophie Nélisse), a Polish nurse who helped shelter a group of Jewish workers during World War II. At a factory in occupied Poland, Irena is put in charge of supervising a group of Jewish workers in the laundry, who wash and… Read More Movie Review: Irena’s Vow
By John Corrado Alex Garland’s Civil War, the filmmaker’s visceral near-future portrait of an America on the brink, doesn’t divide things into Red States and Blue States. In fact, the story’s imagined alliance between California and Texas doesn’t even make much sense along current political lines. But this neutral stance is also what makes the… Read More Movie Review: Civil War
The Joy of Movies 