We all grieve in our own way – there isn’t any predetermined guidebook on how to navigate the loss of a loved one, which can make the mourning process excruciatingly difficult for many people. It is easy to feel lost, adrift in a sea of emotion in which all the rudder cables have been cut….
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Orphan (2025)
There was a point when we thought László Nemes was going to be the next great European auteur. He showed a lot of promise with Son of Saul, a film that has some flaws but is still an ambitious achievement. That proved to be somewhat of a divisive work, and one that did contain several…
Red (2008)
When someone has experienced an unspeakable tragedy, there is very little that can be done to soothe a broken soul – but for some, accountability is more than enough to push them towards a place of healing. This isn’t always necessarily easy to acquire, especially not when it involves people who don’t understand the enormity…
Ballad of a Small Player (2025)
Ghosts tend to follow us around. Whether we take such a sentiment as a literal description of the supernatural, or simply view it as a metaphorical idea about the inability to escape the past depends on each person, but it’s a relatively universal idea at its core. This is something that Lawrence Osborne explored in…
They Live (1988)
The general principle behind satire is that it needs to occupy one of two extremes – either, it needs to be subtle enough that we don’t realize what is being conveyed until a crucial moment in which we encounter some major revelation, or it needs to be so glaringly obvious that there is never any…
Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
There are only a small handful of filmmakers who are revered enough that every new film feels like a genuine cinematic event. Whether this is a result of their tendency to only work periodically, taking long breaks in between films, or simply because the quality of their work is impeccable enough to radicalise audiences to…
Last Orders (2001)
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” These words form perhaps the simplest but effective summary of what friendship represents – and surprisingly, it is not a contemporary quote, but rather found in the musings of the great philosopher Aristotle, who spoke about the concept of friendship with such beautiful and…
A Poet (2025)
Living the life of a creative person is not always easy – for every world-renowned artist, there are a thousand who genuinely believe that they have the potential to make it in the industry, but remain in obscurity for their entire lives. The reasons for this are complex – it could be a matter of…
Caught Stealing (2025)
Some filmmakers immediately establish their identity from the start of their careers and essentially ride a wave of popularity for the rest of their lives. Then some seem to take some time to fully craft their authorial voice, sometimes requiring several films for them to stand out. Darren Aronofsky is a peculiar case, since he…
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1942)
Few authors earned their reputation more than Edgar Allan Poe, and his status as the quintessential master of the macabre, his style being embraced as some of the most important literature ever to be written in Gothic horror and mystery. Pinpointing his most challenging and disturbing work is a challenge, but one of the strongest…
The Postmodern Pelican 