We seem to have lost the traditional romantic comedy, or at least the kind we used to receive, which is unfortunate because even though these kinds of films were not particularly innovative or groundbreaking, they were certainly extremely charming, and they brought out a familiar sensation of joy that is often missing from more contemporary…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Madeline’s Madeline (2018)
Sometimes, on the rare occasion, you see a film that pushes the boundaries of what one would think as being remotely possible in narrative storytelling. Recently, I witnessed a film that I had been eagerly anticipating since its explosive debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. That film was Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline,…
Cold War (2018)
Falling in love is easy, staying in love is a lot more difficult, and sometimes it proves to be an extraordinarily challenging endeavour – this is the central theme present in Polish maestro Paweł Pawlikowski’s latest masterwork, the brilliant Cold War (Polish: Zimna wojna), a film that takes the viewer on a decade-long journey throughout…
10 Rillington Place (1971)
I was recently having quite a spirited discussion with a colleague of mine on the subject of serial killers, and we were both questioning precisely what is it that makes true crime stories so captivating? What is it about recountings of the grisly, gruesome crimes of other people that manages to be so alluring? From…
Rushmore (1998)
There was a time when Wes Anderson was not the overly-stylistic auteur who was known for his films that could be reduced to nothing more than just a bundle of quirks set to a retro soundtrack and an abundance of bright colours. I understand that I have often come across as being extremely critical of…
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)
With what is undeniably one of his masterworks, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, Albert Lewin did something quite astonishing – he took a very formal premise garnered from a classic French text and morphed it into a remarkable achievement, a positively riveting affair that is scandalous without being cheap, and exhilarating without losing its…
An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)
A few years ago, I was one of the most ardent supporters of Jim Hosking’s solo directorial debut, The Greasy Strangler. It was a film that appealed to me based on my adoration for the trashy transgression of John Waters and his rebellious contemporaries in the underground film industry, as well as someone who really…
Juliet, Naked (2018)
Juliet, Naked doesn’t do or say anything we have not seen countless times before. In many ways, it is a traditional, by-the-numbers romantic comedy that we has been made so many times throughout the years. Yet, how is it possible that such a conventional film manages to be one of the very best of the…
Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Many of us have often fantasized about the possibility of turning the corner and being confronted with ourselves. It is a common belief that somewhere in the world, we have a doppelganger, and the likelihood of us meeting this person who is identical to us is astronomically small, but it is nonetheless an enduring and…
Searching (2018)
David Kim (John Cho) is an ordinary man living in San Jose with his daughter, Margot (Michelle La), the archetypal teenage girl who loves her friends and is constantly frustrated with her father, who has raised her single-handedly since the death of her mother and David’s wife. However, when Margot doesn’t return home one evening,…
The Postmodern Pelican 