Rachel Weisz

Scarlett Johansson is a sight for sore eyes. Marvel’s Black Widow is out in Canada on Disney+ Premier Access now, and the film finally brings Natasha Romanoff back to us for some big screen revenge, and it’s a helluva ride.

Caustically witty and masterfully performed, the costume satire The Favourite elevates the art of backstabbing and social climbing into a twisted artform.

Disobedience, the English language debut for Oscar winning Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio, is a restrained, exceptionally acted, and nuanced character study, but also a slight step back for him in terms of difficulty and effectiveness.

Joshua Marston’s Complete Unknown (starring Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon) is almost purposefully lacking in depth since it’s meant to be taken as an exploration into how some people will stop at anything to escape the banality of white, upper middle class existence. It’s as exciting as that sounds.

Capsule reviews from the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival: Denial starring Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall; American Honey with Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf; Below Her Mouth featuring Natalie Krill and Erika Linder; and Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, American Pastoral.

The Light Between Oceans hearkens back to the kind of awards bait prestige projects of the 1970s and 80s. It’s a restrained, stately looking effort full of simmering, restrained, tastefully delivered melodramatic emotions.

Between his films In the Name of the Father and Brothers, director Jim Sheridan has shown that he is a director with uncommon skill who knows how to deliver films on difficult topics that also have powerful mood-driven stories. In particular, In The Name of the Father is a classic from the nineties that still carries just as much weight today as when it was released.

New this week in theatres, Denzel Washington stars in the post-apocalyptic drama, The Book of Eli. Also opening this weekend, Peter Jackson directs the family drama, The Lovely Bones, and Jackie Chan stars in The Spy Next Door.

This is a fantastic week to be a movie fan as a handful of great films, made for just about any taste, arrive on DVD. There is the dark, but comic crime drama In Bruges; Ryan Reynold‘s romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe; the 80s dance musical Xanadu; children’s fantasy tale, The Spiderwick Chronicles; and the musically grounded drama, Honeydripper. The dud of the week is 10,000 BC, which also arrives on Blu-Ray, offering vast special effects, scenic locations, and one of the worst stories so far this year.