By John Corrado Beatles ‘64, the new Disney Plus documentary from director David Tedeschi and producer Martin Scorsese about the Fab Four’s first visit to America, opens with footage of President John F. Kennedy. These scenes set the film up as a sort of broader time capsule of this specific era, but it also ties… Read More Movie Review: Beatles ’64 (Disney+)
By John Corrado The third entry in Pablo Larraín’s unofficial trilogy depicting the interior lives of famous women (following the one-two punch of Jackie and Spencer), Maria is the Chilean filmmaker’s portrait of the Italian opera singer Maria Callas. Larraín aims to do for Callas what he did for Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana in his previous films, which boasted… Read More Movie Review: Maria
By John Corrado Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is the latest Springsteen documentary from director Thom Zimny, and it’s an electrifying mix of concert doc and intimate snapshot of The Boss on tour. Where as Zimny’s recent portraits Western Stars and Letter to You focused on those specific albums, Road Diary expands its scope to his current world… Read More Movie Review: Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Disney+)
By John Corrado Netflix has released the full trailer for Emilia Pérez, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s mix of cartel thriller, Mexican melodrama, and flashy musical, starring the “power trio” of Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez (who collectively won the Best Actress prize at Cannes). I saw this film when it played at… Read More Trailer Released for Emilia Pérez
By John Corrado Apple TV+ has released the first trailer for writer-director Steve McQueen’s Blitz, one of the year’s remaining awards contenders. This latest from the filmmaker behind Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave, is a World War II drama set in London. Saoirse Ronan stars as Rita, a young mother trying to find her lost… Read More Trailer Released for Steve McQueen’s Blitz
By John Corrado Netflix has released the first trailer for The Piano Lesson, one of their big awards contenders that will be screening at TIFF next month. The film is produced by Denzel Washington, and is the latest in his series of film adaptations of August Wilson plays, following the Oscar-winning films Ma Rainey’s Black… Read More Trailer Released for Netflix’s The Piano Lesson
By John Corrado Netflix has released the first trailer (and poster) for His Three Daughters, which actually premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where the streamer picked it up. This happened to be the last movie I saw at TIFF last year, and it’s a solid, dialogue-driven chamber piece centred around the death… Read More Trailer Released for Netflix’s His Three Daughters
By John Corrado The latest inspirational sports movie from Disney, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Young Woman and the Sea is based on the true story of pioneering female swimmer Trudy Ederle, who became the first woman to swim across the 21 mile English Channel in 1926. Daisy Ridley (who most notably played Rey in the Disney… Read More Movie Review: Young Woman and the Sea (Disney+)
By John Corrado The title of director Hannah Pearl Utt’s (Before You Know It) sophomore feature Cora Bora refers to the affectionate nickname given to Cora (Megan Stalter), a millennial musician struggling to make it in Los Angeles. Following the breakdown of her moderately successful band, Cora is now trying to strike a solo record… Read More Movie Review: Cora Bora
By John Corrado Eddie Murphy returns to one of his most iconic characters in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. The Netflix-backed legacy sequel finds the comic actor reprising his role as Axel Foley, the Detroit cop with his own way of doing things who ends up transplanted to Beverly Hills. Arriving forty years after the… Read More Movie Review: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Netflix)
By John Corrado Andrew McCarthy, the star of 1980s classics like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire, reflects on his time as part of the so-called “Brat Pack” in his enjoyable, cathartic documentary Brats. Serving as a companion piece to his 2021 book Brat: An ’80s Story, McCarthy directs the film, which follows him… Read More Movie Review: Brats (Disney+)
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 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 Released in 1970 amidst the band’s public breakup, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s infamous music documentary Let It Be offered a candid portrait of The Beatles recording their album of the same name in 1969. Behind the scenes footage from these sessions provided the basis for director Peter Jackson’s in-depth docuseries The Beatles: Get… Read More Movie Review: The Beatles: Let It Be (Disney+)
By John Corrado The latest Earth Day release from Disneynature, Tiger takes us deep into the mythical forests of India to follow Ambar, a mama tiger trying to protect her four cubs. Narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jones, the film follows Ambar and her litter of adorable cubs from birth, as their mother takes them to… Read More Movie Review: Disneynature’s Tiger (Disney+)
By John Corrado Irish Wish, the new Lindsay Lohan romantic comedy that is being released on Netflix for St. Patrick’s Day, is an example of a film that offers exactly what you want; the chance to watch Lohan in a predictable but cute rom-com set against the beautiful backdrop of Ireland. Lohan stars as Maddie… Read More Movie Review: Irish Wish (Netflix)
By John Corrado The name of Peter Farrelly, and his brother Bobby, used to be synonymous with a certain brand of raunchy comedies like Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary and Shallow Hal. When Peter went solo in 2018, it led to him making the awards bait crowdpleaser Green Book, which inexplicably won the… Read More Movie Review: Ricky Stanicky (Prime Video)
By John Corrado Napoleon is Nominated for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards Throughout his long career as a director, Ridley Scott has been no stranger to big budget filmmaking and risk-taking, and his latest film Napoleon – the result of a complicated, months-long production –… Read More Movie Review: Napoleon (Apple TV+)
John Corrado Inspired by Pixar’s 1998 second feature A Bug’s Life, the Disney Plus series A Real Bug’s Life puts us on the ground to document the lives of real insects around the world across five half-hour episodes narrated by Awkwafina. Produced by National Geographic, A Real Bug’s Life begins on the streets of New… Read More Review: A Real Bug’s Life (Disney+)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following his 2018 directorial debut A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper now turns his attention to the life of New York composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in the biopic Maestro, casting himself in the leading role. The film spans decades in the life of Bernstein from the 1940s… Read More Review: Maestro