By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 13th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The End (Limited Release): This ambitious musical set at the end of the world serves as the narrative debut of documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing). It follows a young man (George MacKay) who has spent his life in… Read More New This Week (12/13/2024): The End, Queer, September 5, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of December 6th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Girl with the Needle (Limited Release): This period piece has been gaining buzz since premiering at Cannes. Set in Copenhagen after WWI, it follows a poor factory worker (Vic Carmen Sonne) who becomes pregnant and gets entangled with a woman… Read More New This Week (12/06/2024): The Girl with the Needle, That Christmas, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 29th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Moana 2 (Wide Release): Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) return for another ocean adventure in this sequel to Disney’s 2016 hit. It’s a perfectly adequate and at times fairly enjoyable sequel, but it also lacks much of the first… Read More New This Week (11/29/2024): Moana 2, Maria, Our Little Secret, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 22nd, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Gladiator II (Wide Release): Ridley Scott’s perhaps bigger if not necessarily better follow up to his Oscar-winning Roman epic Gladiator is a solidly crafted and entertaining legacy sequel. The story this time around focuses on a now-grown Lucius (Paul Mescal), who… Read More New This Week (11/22/2024): Gladiator II, Wicked, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 15th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Red One (Wide Release): J.K. Simmons stars as a fit Santa Claus who gets kidnapped, and Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are the two guys tasked with bringing him back, in this big budget Christmas action comedy from director Jake Kasdan… Read More New This Week (11/15/2024): Red One, Memoir of a Snail, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 8th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Wide Release): Directed by Dallas Jenkins (creator of The Chosen), this adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s 1972 children’s book is a wonderful and meaningful family movie about the true meaning of Christmas. The story follows a group… Read More New This Week (11/08/2024): The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, A Real Pain, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of November 1st, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Here (Wide Release): This latest from director Robert Zemeckis serves as a Forrest Gump reunion with stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and screenwriter Eric Roth. Adapted from a graphic novel, Here is an ambitious drama that all unfolds in the… Read More New This Week (11/01/2024): Here, Emilia Pérez, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 25th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Anora (Limited Release): This latest from Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) follows Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper from Brooklyn who falls for Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian billionaire. Baker was awarded the Palme d’Or for… Read More New This Week (10/25/2024): Anora, Conclave, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 18th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Smile 2 (Wide Release): This follow up to the 2022 box office hit Smile is a classically “bigger” horror sequel that finds writer-director Parker Finn building on the first one to deliver a piece of satisfying pop entertainment. This one branches… Read More New This Week (10/18/2024): Smile 2, We Live in Time, The Shadow Strays, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 11th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Saturday Night (Wide Release): Jason Reitman’s latest unfolds in the 90 minutes leading up to the first taping of Saturday Night Live at 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975. Gabriel LaBelle leads the excellent cast as a young Lorne Michaels, who tries… Read More New This Week (10/11/2024): Saturday Night, The Apprentice, Woman of the Hour, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of October 4th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Joker: Folie à Deux (Wide Release): This is the big budget sequel to 2019’s Joker – a comic book villain origin story which grossed a billion dollars and won two Oscars, including for Joaquin Phoenix – and it’s not really what… Read More New This Week (10/04/2024): Joker: Folie à Deux, The Outrun, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 27th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Wild Robot (Wide Release): This latest film from DreamWorks Animation, which is opening today after premiering at TIFF a few weeks ago, is truly something special. The film follows Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), a robot who crash lands on… Read More New This Week (09/27/2024): The Wild Robot, Megalopolis, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 20th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Substance (Wide Release): Director Coralie Fargeat’s brilliant body horror The Substance opens today, fresh off of winning the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at TIFF. I’ve seen it twice now with different audiences (first at a press screening, and again… Read More New This Week (09/20/2024): The Substance, My Old Ass, Transformers One, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of September 6th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Wide Release): This long-awaited legacy sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 fan favourite Beetlejuice finds Michael Keaton reprising his role as “the ghost with the most.” Winona Ryder also reprises her role from the original, with Jenna Ortega joining the… Read More New This Week (09/06/2024): Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 30th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Reagan (Wide Release): Dennis Quaid stars in this new biopic of Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. Director Sean McNamara’s film mainly concerns (and is at its best when focusing on) Reagan’s steadfast fight against communism, to win… Read More New This Week (08/30/2024): Reagan, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 23rd, 2024. Theatrical Releases: The Crow (Wide Release): This remake of the 1994 supernatural thriller with the late Brandon Lee (who infamously died in a tragic on-set accident), stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs. I didn’t attend the screening so can’t offer a review, but… Read More New This Week (08/23/2024): The Crow, Between the Temples, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 16th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Alien: Romulus (Wide Release): The biggest of this week’s many new releases is Alien: Romulus, director Fede Alvarez’s new addition to the Alien franchise. As I wrote in my review, the film “works because it is trying to be an old… Read More New This Week (08/16/2024): Alien: Romulus, Good One, Close to You, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 9th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Borderlands (Wide Release): Eli Roth takes a stab at trying to bring the video game Borderlands to the big screen, and the result is kind of a mess. This is an uninspired sci-fi adventure, that feels slapped together from a variety… Read More New This Week (08/09/2024): Borderlands, Cuckoo, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of August 2nd, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Trap (Wide Release): M. Night Shyamalan returns with this serial killer thriller set a pop concert, starring Josh Hartnett (and the director’s own daughter Saleka Shyamalan as the pop singer). It wasn’t screened for critics, but I’ll be seeing it next… Read More New This Week (08/02/2024): Trap, Sing Sing, & More!
By John Corrado New releases for the week of July 26th, 2024. Theatrical Releases: Deadpool & Wolverine (Wide Release): Marvel’s highly anticipated team-up between Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has finally arrived. I saw it at a press screening earlier in the week, and it’s a lot of fun. As I wrote, it… Read More New This Week (07/26/2024): Deadpool & Wolverine, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, & More!
The Joy of Movies 