Navigating the world is often difficult when you feel a profound sense of isolation and detachment from the rest of society. For many women, you can only be considered successful if you adhere to very traditional elements of femininity, whether it is taking on a career that is inherently more nurturing, or becoming a mother,…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Love Happy (1949)
Everything must inevitably come to an end, even those entities that we genuinely believe could last forever. For decades, the Marx Brothers were the gold standard of comedy, and whether on stage or in film, they were always the definition of pure charisma and talent, being at the forefront of the movement that took many…
Play It Again, Sam (1972)
You’d certainly be hard-pressed to find a film produced since the 1940s that didn’t owe some of its existence to Casablanca, whether it be the iconic imagery, memorable characters or memorable dialogue. The latter occupies a slightly odd position, since arguably the most famous line in the film, where the suave but mysterious Rick Blaine…
Infinity Pool (2023)
Great filmmakers don’t necessarily produce the most auspicious progeny, and allegations of nepotism have never been more relevant than they are today, when we see the inexplicable rise to fame of some truly unworthy talents. Mercifully, there are a few that warrant their status, and when Brandon Cronenberg released Possessor a few years ago, it…
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
While she is undeniably one of the biggest stars to ever exist in the expansive entertainment industry, opinions on Barbra Streisand tend to vary, with some being put off by her reputation for being one of the most compulsive and forthright entertainers of her generation, while others adore her for it. Some may call Streisand…
Drag Becomes Him (2015)
Over the past decade, we have watched RuPaul’s Drag Race develop from a small show designed to exhibit the art of drag to a small core group of supporters, to an absolute cultural phenomenon, a worldwide sensation and a landmark of contemporary queer culture, enjoyed by a group far larger than the initial core audience….
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
The distinction between good satire and revolutionary satire is extremely narrow, and can’t always be predicted at the time, since artists can rarely predict how relevant their work will be in later years, and the extent to which future generations may engage with their ideas. However, the best satires are those that take a bold…
Inside (2023)
While we normally tend to gravitate towards films that follow a familiar structure (granted they are not predictable to the point of being tedious), there are some occasions when a more subversive work catches our attention, whether either in terms of narrative or execution, there is something quite different about a work that piques our…
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967)
Over time, one of the greatest joys of my journey into the world of cinema was realizing how Russia is responsible for some of the greatest films of all time – and we aren’t even discussing the likes of Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, who have been universally canonized as tremendous filmmakers. Instead, I’m referring to the…
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
For nearly four decades, Studio Ghibli has been regarded as the gold standard for animation, perhaps even more so than Disney and Pixar (which have unsurprisingly collaborated with the Japanese animation studio on a few occasions in recent years), and the reasons are extremely obvious. Few studios have been as committed to capturing quality over…
The Postmodern Pelican 