By John Corrado The directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, whose breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire was sixteen years ago, Monkey Man is a revenge thriller set in India that shows promise for him as an action filmmaker. Patel stars in the film as Kid, a young man who makes cash getting beaten up in… Read More Blu-ray Review: Monkey Man (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Directed, co-written by and starring French actress Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry (which was the opening night film of Cannes last year) is a period biopic of Madame du Barry, the final mistress of King Louis XV. The film charts how “commoner” Jeanne Vaubernier (played by Maïwenn) rose through the ranks of French… Read More Movie Review: Jeanne du Barry
By John Corrado Writer-director Josh Margolin’s Thelma is being pitched as a senior citizen’s action comedy. But the indie character dramedy really functions as a wonderful leading showcase for elderly actress June Squibb, whose star has really risen over the past decade as a scene-stealing supporting player. Squibb stars as the titular Thelma, a feisty… Read More Movie Review: Thelma
By John Corrado Death comes in the form of a talking macaw that can change sizes in Tuesday, an ambitious but uneven fantasy melodrama that marks the feature directorial debut of Croatian filmmaker Daina Oniunas-Pusić. The film is named for Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), a teen girl with terminal cancer, whose mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is… Read More Movie Review: Tuesday
By John Corrado Making a sequel to Inside Out was always going to be a difficult task. The 2015 film is widely considered to be one of Pixar’s finest achievements, and is a late-stage masterpiece from the California animation studio. This leads us to Inside Out 2, a sequel that somehow manages to build upon… Read More Movie Review: Inside Out 2
By John Corrado The sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire finds the two Titans teaming up after duking it out, and the results are mixed. Directed by Adam Wingard, returning to the series following GvK, GxK is a monster-smash movie that offers little else besides massive creatures pulverizing each… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Filmmaker Dan Shadur’s documentary Silver’s Uprising tells the thriller-like story of Amos Dov Silver, an Israeli marijuana activist who was arrested in 2019 for running Telegrass, a… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Silver’s Uprising (Closing Night Film)
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Noam Stein (Charlie Korman) is a closeted teenager keeping his sexuality a secret from his Orthodox family and community. After his grandfather dies, he discovers a love… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Unspoken
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto Jewish Film Festival runs from May 30th to June 9th in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The title of director Amnon Carmi’s indie comedy Yaniv refers to an old Jewish card game originating from Israel, that two teachers in New York see… Read More #TJFF2024 Review: Yaniv (Centrepiece Film)
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Dune: Part Two. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is still one of the best movies of the year so far (and also… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Dune: Part Two
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the 4K Ultra HD release of Kung Fu Panda 4. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. The fourth film in the DreamWorks Animation franchise that began in 2008, Kung Fu Panda 4 is one… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Kung Fu Panda 4 (Collector’s Edition)
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 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 24th to June 1st at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. The documentary A Mother Apart (which was one of the finalists for the Hot Docs Audience Award) offers a candid portrait of Staceyann… Read More #InsideOut2024 Review: A Mother Apart
By John Corrado Ezra is the name of the 11-year-old son that standup comedian Max Brandel (Bobby Cannavale) shares with his ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne), with disagreements around how to parent him driving a wedge between them. Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald) is autistic; he’s a bright kid who often “movie talks” (using dialogue from movies… Read More Movie Review: Ezra
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 Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard), Bob Marley: One Love is a biopic of iconic reggae artist Bob Marley that features a dedicated performance by Kingsley Ben-Adir, but is otherwise a mixed bag. Ben-Adir, who masterfully portrayed civil rights leader Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, now takes on the… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Bob Marley: One Love
By John Corrado The 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival runs from May 24th to June 1st at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. In honour of her 18th birthday, Elliot (Maisy Stella) decides to do shrooms in the woods with her best friends Ruthie (Maddie… Read More #InsideOut2024 Review: My Old Ass
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 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 Garfield, that lazy, lasagna-loving orange cat from the Jim Davis comic strips, returns to the big screen in Sony’s aptly titled The Garfield Movie. Arriving two decades after the live action Garfield, which had Bill Murray voicing the sarcastic feline, this first fully animated theatrical feature works as an enjoyable caper, that… Read More Movie Review: The Garfield Movie
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