Reel Encounters

A recurring criticism that’s been levelled against the new film “Joker” is the perceived emptiness of its ideals.

“Ad Astra” and “Abominable” are not easily recognisable as thematically complementary works but there’s something to be said about the dual journeys of the two protagonists – both of them buoyed by a relationship hinging on an absent father – that made me think of them in relation to each other.

“Downton Abbey” premiered as a self-contained miniseries in 2010. At the time, it comprised seven episodes exploring the lives of the Crawley family in Yorkshire England for two years between 1912 and 1914.

At the North American premiere of “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão” at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz explained his aesthetic desire for the film.

In John Crowley’s new film, The Goldfinch of the title is a Carel Fabritius painting from 1654 that has changed hands and owners for centuries, always surviving tragedy.

Silence is used as a weapon in Chinonye Chukwu’s sobering death row drama “Clemency”.

Throughout its run-time, the Italian film “Martin Eden” centres on a paradox.

Before the North American premiere of “Wasp Network” at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last week, director Olivier Assayas appeared to introduce the film to the audience.

Steven Soderbergh’s new film, “The Laundromat” sprawls across numerous countries, covering varying languages and locales.

There’s a running sequence in the Chilean film “Lina from Lima,” where Lina, our protagonist, searches for eligible men on Tinder.

Wall Street businessmen have been exploiting the working class and the economic system for years.

“I have been here before.” It’s a line from a Dante Gabriel Rossetti poem that is repeated multiple times throughout the William Nicholson film “Hope Gap” and you’ll be thinking about it as the film ends.

About midway through “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” three women sit in the living room of a house.

“The personal is political.” That sentence has taken on a life of its own since the sixties, going from a slogan of second-wave feminism to a socio-cultural observation of the relationship between the public and the private in an ever-changing world.

Early in “Atlantics,” our heroine, Ada, receives some bad news. Director Mati Diop zeroes in on her face as she sits, wordlessly taking in the news.

After its Palme d’Or winning debut at Cannes earlier this year, Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” had its Canadian premiere this past week at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” arrived in local theatres at the tail-end of last week for a very brief theatrical run after being released worldwide in July and August.

The new horror-comedy “Ready or Not” manages to offer an inexplicably pleasant experience considering its plot and genre.

In “Blinded by the Light,” hopeful teenaged writer Javed Khan, a British-Pakistani, writes an essay about his idol Bruce Springsteen titled ‘My American Dream in Luton’.

It’s a bit telling the way that the recently released “The Kitchen” immediately draws comparisons to last year’s Steve McQueen crime film “Widows” and the upcoming Lorene Scafaria film “Hustlers”.