When it comes to Solaris, the jury is still out on Steven Soderbergh’s attempt to adapt Stanisław Lem’s impenetrable novel. The general sentiment was that it stands as a noble effort, but an otherwise misguided attempt to capitalize on a wave of cerebral science fiction cinema that had recently become quite prominent in Hollywood at…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
A tall, gangling man, sporting a wide-brimmed hat and the words “love” and “hate” scrawled on his knuckles – these are iconic images imprinted into the minds of any film lover, or even those who have just casually taken journeys into the world of the Golden Age of Hollywood, of which these are some incredibly…
Promising Young Woman (2020)
I normally tend to start my reviews with either a brief summary of the plot, or some preamble that sets the stage for the following thoughts. However, there are occasionally films that just appear and make such an incredible impression, it’s better to cut right to the chase, and proclaim it as something quite extraordinary….
My Psychedelic Love Story (2020)
There are many different forms of documentary, but the ones that tend to be the most fascinating are usually those that are portraits of unusual individuals. In this regard, you don’t get anyone more peculiar than Dr Timothy Leary, the world-renowned Harvard professor who abandoned his academic career to become inarguably the most notable proponent…
Sound of Metal (2020)
Representation matters, perhaps more than anything else in cinema. We’ve seen every conceivable story portrayed on screen, but those that normally strike the most significant chord are the films that touch on issues close to the heart of the viewer, whether its those from a particular community, or the general audience at large. We tend…
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Pieces of a Woman is not a film that always works as well as it should, particularly when we consider how much potential there was embedded in this story. The English-language debut for director Kornél Mundruczó, who has already established himself as a fascinating cinematic voice in his native Hungary, as well as his collaboration…
The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)
When it comes to going with the most simple approach with filmmaking, Hollywood took a while to adjust, especially during the era in which cinema was still quite new and revolutionary, and every film was considered to be a crucial step towards normalizing it as the dominant form of literature in a world slowly being…
Good Morning (1959)
Throughout his prolific career Yasujirō Ozu managed to capture so many different kinds of stories, with the emphasis often being placed on older people and their various trials and tribulations. However, there were occasions where the esteemed director took a sojourn into the lives of the younger generation, and crafted vivid stories of childhood and…
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
When it comes to the intersections between camp and horror, very few names have defined it as much as William Castle, a filmmaker of such a singular vision, it’s impossible to not equate his work with the entire concept of the most bombastic kind of horror imaginable. In a long career peppered with some magnificent…
Brewster McCloud (1970)
In an incredibly prolific career, Robert Altman proved himself to be quite a formidable filmmaker, being one of the few artists who successfully mastered both the art of producing quality and quantity, which is quite an elusive concept that not many people are able to stake a legitimate claim towards. It meant that, despite making…
The Postmodern Pelican 