Reel Encounters

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”.

About one hour into “Wild Rose”, our heroine Rose Lynn gets up on stage to sing a cover of Emmylou Harris’ ‘Born to Run’.

In a mid-film sequence in “Hobbs and Shaw,” the new “Fast & Furious” spinoff, one of the heroes tries to talk the villain out of his plan to destroy the world.

At this point, it feels almost futile to belabour the creative laziness of Disney’s penchant of turning their animated hits into “live-action” remakes.

In a mid-year movie season that feels built on familiar tropes (the current slate of films in cinemas affirms this), the recent digital-release “Teen Spirit” probably seems too apt.

Before we see anything, “Spider-Man: Far from Home” begins with a sound cue of a famous pop song.

Most of the newly released “Midsommar” takes place on a Swedish commune where four unwitting American university students have travelled, with a Swedish friend, to take part in a summer festival that moves from idyllic to horrifying as the days go by.

If there’s one thing that remains true about the box-office, year after year, it’s that horror films are a sure bet.

The opening credits of “Birds of Passage” are written in blood-red.

Of the nine films currently showing in local cinemas, six of them are either giant studio-remakes or sequels.

Throughout “Rocketman,” the new Elton John biopic with the stylised title of one of his most famous songs, I kept trying to think of a better name for the film.

In recent weeks, the newest Disney remake “Aladdin” and the third instalment of the “John Wick” action franchise have been dominating the sales at local cinemas.

Growing up is hard to do, whether your world is real or a fantasy.

The new romantic comedy “Long Shot” depends on a number of well-worn romantic tropes.

By either some coincidence or the predominance of nostalgia, we currently have two films in theatres heavily inspired by two comedies from the 1980s.