There are some films that despite being remarkable pieces on their own, never quite achieve the worldwide recognition they deserve, especially when it comes to foreign films being appreciated by English-speaking audiences. One such film is Dying to Survive (Mandarin: 我不是藥神), the incredible true-life dark comedy directed by Wen Muye, who takes on a story…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
One of my great blindspots in cinema has always been The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film that has always lurked omnipotent as something I knew I’d get around to eventually, but never felt much urgency to watch, as so much has been said about this film, despite the praise compounding with every passing review or…
Spider Baby (1968)
Bruno (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is the mild-mannered chauffeur and caretaker for the Merrye family, who live in a large mansion in the countryside. He’s dedicated his entire life to serving the family, which has recently entailed being the guardian of the three Merrye children, Virginia (Jill Banner), Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Ralph (Sid Haig), who…
Bombshell (2019)
When it comes to timely topics, films tend to either be profusely inappropriate, having very little tact as they approach contemporary issues without any filter, or innocuous social dramas that avoid any in-depth discussion, hoping that a surface-level summary that somewhat softens the situation at hand will be enough. Bombshell is a film that classifies…
Tone-Deaf (2019)
Olive (Amanda Crew) has just been fired from her job, which comes almost simultaneously to the end of her most recent relationship, and in response to the crushing pressure of her modern millennial life, decides to pack up and leave, going on a solitary weekend excursion into the countryside, where she rents the house of…
Little Joe (2019)
In a near-future, the overlap between technology and biology have developed so much that the genetic composition of plants can be manipulated to the point where they can be used to do nearly everything. This has been the latest project of Alice (Emily Beecham) and Chris (Ben Whishaw), a pair of scientists working for an…
Nevia (2020)
Right from the start, I’ll mention how Nevia is one of the most astonishing pieces of contemporary filmmaking I’ve seen in quite a while – there have been many works that took a daring approach to representing existence over the course of the past few months, but not many of them were as effective as…
What Did Jack Do? (2020)
Here are three undeniable facts – firstly, none of us were expecting to wake up this morning to find a new David Lynch film having secretly been released, especially when the story involves Lynch interrogating a monkey, who is yearning for his long-lost love, Toototabon, a beautiful chicken, and who may or may not be…
1917 (2019)
1917 is the kind of film that thinks it matters more than it actually does, and while it isn’t difficult to see why so many people outright adore this film, there’s a certain quality about it that keeps the viewer at a distance, never quite allowing us into this story, which otherwise proposes itself as…
Murder Mystery (2019)
Nick Spitz (Adam Sandler) is a detective for the NYPD who is about to celebrate his fifteenth anniversary with his wife, Audrey (Jennifer Aniston), a hairdresser longing for the romantic and exciting life she constantly reads about in her mystery novels. She yearns for her husband to give her the attention she feels she deserves,…
