By John Corrado The Promised Land is a historical drama set in Denmark in the mid-1700s, with director Nikolaj Arcel spinning a near-epic tale out of a humble man trying to carve out his own piece of the land while going up against an arrogant nobleman. The protagonist is Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen), who… Read More Review: The Promised Land
By John Corrado British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How to Have Sex, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at last year’s Cannes, is an often vibrant mix of party movie and subtle social commentary on the post-#MeToo generation. Walker’s film centres around Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis) and Skye (Lara Peake), three… Read More Review: How to Have Sex
By John Corrado Fran (Daisy Ridley) is an office worker in Oregon who thinks a lot about dying. She sits in a daze at her cubicle, imagining her dead body decaying in the woods or being hung from the crane outside her window. Fran’s morbid daydreams provide the basis for the title of director Rachel… Read More Review: Sometimes I Think About Dying
By John Corrado The Teachers’ Lounge is Nominated for Best International Feature at the 96th Academy Awards Stolen cash leads to accusations of racial profiling and a growing culture of distrust between faculty and students in director Ilker Çatak’s Oscar-nominated film The Teachers’ Lounge, a tautly executed middle school drama that often moves like a… Read More Review: The Teachers’ Lounge
By John Corrado The latest work from Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (the Oscar-nominated The Man Who Sold His Skin), the Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters is a chilling and fascinating study of how radicalization takes hold. The film is formally audacious in its mix of documentary and dramatic reenactments, blending subjects and actors to tell… Read More Review: Four Daughters
By John Corrado Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints’ artful, unconventional documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood follows a group of women in Southern Estonia, who are gathered together in a traditional smoke sauna hidden deep in the woods. Shot over several years, Hints follows a variety of subjects over the backdrop of changing seasons. As they sit naked… Read More Review: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
By John Corrado Director Thomas von Steinaecker’s documentary Radical Dreamer: Werner Herzog offers an enjoyable overview of the iconic German filmmaker’s career, known both for his accent and bold, inquisitive filmmaking style. The documentary chronologically explores Herzog’s early films as part of the New German Cinema movement, which gave way to his reputation as a… Read More Review: Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
By John Corrado The title of Memory, the latest film from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco, takes on a few different meanings throughout the course of this tender, stripped down character drama. It refers to repressed memories and the lingering impacts of childhood trauma that Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) carries with her every day, as well as… Read More Review: Memory
By John Corrado Ava DuVernay’s Origin is an ambitious film that aims to adapt Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling non-fiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents for the screen. It serves as both an exploration of the ideas within Wilkerson’s book, and a dramatization of Isabel’s experiences while writing it. DuVernay’s film finds… Read More Review: Origin
By John Corrado The third film in DreamWorks Animation’s popular Trolls franchise, Trolls Band Together explores more of this vibrant animated world, while adding a slew of boyband jokes into the mix. The story revolves around Poppy (Anna Kendrick) discovering that her boyfriend Branch (Justin Timberlake) used to be a member of the boyband BroZone,… Read More Blu-ray Review: Trolls Band Together (Sing-Along Edition)
By John Corrado The 1999 coming-of-age sports movie Varsity Blues is now available for the first time on 4K Ultra HD, in honour of the film’s 25th anniversary this month. The film is set in West Canaan, Texas, a fictional all-American small town that revolves around their high school football team, the Coyotes. James Van… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Varsity Blues
By John Corrado It’s been twenty years since Tina Fey released her high school satire Mean Girls in 2004, and now we have a new version of the modern teen classic being released in theatres. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. (taking over for Mark Waters who directed the 2004 film), the 2024… Read More Review: Mean Girls
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest work from writer-director Andrew Haigh, whose 2011 breakout film Weekend remains an essential piece of queer cinema, All of Us Strangers is a tender, dreamlike meditation on grief and loneliness. Working from the 1987 Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, Haigh’s film is a ghost story… Read More Review: All of Us Strangers
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When Paul King stepped away from directing the third Paddington movie to direct a Willy Wonka origin story, after helming the critically acclaimed first two movies about the bear from Peru, it seemed like a curious move. But the moral of Wonka is that we never should have… Read More Review: Wonka
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Watching Killers of the Flower Moon, the absorbing latest work from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, it’s impossible not to think about legacy, and the types of stories that he is choosing to tell in the twilight of his career. It’s obviously hard to confront the feeling that each… Read More Review: Killers of the Flower Moon
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Director Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple is a big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical that serves as a glitzy reimagining of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel and Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film of the same. Produced by Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (who was Oscar-nominated for her breakout role as… Read More Review: The Color Purple
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Director Michael Mann returns with Ferrari, a biopic of Italian automaker Enzo Ferrari, that focuses more on his relationships and personal life. The film is set in 1957, a decade after Enzo (a silver-haired Adam Driver) opened the factory with his wife Laura Ferrari (Penelope Cruz) in post-War… Read More Review: Ferrari
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) George Clooney’s latest film as a director, The Boys in the Boat is a familiar but mostly enjoyable underdog sports movie that serves as another they don’t make ’em like they used to effort from the actor turned filmmaker, following his coming-of-age drama The Tender Bar. Adapted from… Read More Review: The Boys in the Boat
By John Corrado ★½ (out of 4) Positioned as a prequel to the 2019 adaptation of the Stephen King novel Pet Sematary, the Paramount+ original movie Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is an example of a needless franchise expansion that doesn’t do enough with the source material to really justify itself. Set in 1969, the story expands… Read More Blu-ray Review: Pet Sematary: Bloodlines
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of The Exorcist: Believer. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. David Gordon Green’s legacy sequel The Exorcist: Believer is being released on physical media this week, following a run in theatres… Read More Blu-ray Review: The Exorcist: Believer (Collector’s Edition)
The Joy of Movies 