In the great legions of Hollywood legends, one person I have never seen the appeal for is Robert Mitchum. Sure, his performance in The Night of the Hunter is brilliant, but I just never saw what was so excellent about him. Despite years of great film noir in his heyday, it was a performance he…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Inherent Vice (2014)
Oh boy, am I tired of defending Inherent Vice. I have been anticipating this film since it was announced years ago. I adore Thomas Pynchon, I adore Paul Thomas Anderson and I adore Joaquin Phoenix. They are my cinematic dream team. There was no way I would be disappointed with a film involving these three…
Home (2015)
I love animated movies – I really, really love them. They are the consummate art of cinema in my eyes – to do what Pixar and Disney and Studio Ghibli have done for decades now is an amazing feat and have contributed some cornerstones of our culture. So it is bitterly disappointing to discover an…
Peeping Tom (1960)
I often talk about films that have their reputations preceding them. Films such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Star Wars are films so ingrained in our culture as filmgoers, it doesn’t really matter if we haven’t seen them, the important thing is that we feel like we have. There are, of course, other films…
Wolf (1994)
If you follow Movies Unchained regularly, you’ll know I consider Jack Nicholson to be one of the finest actors of all time, and perhaps the greatest living actor, and it breaks my heart when I remember that he hasn’t made a film since 2010. Of course, we all know Jack for his masterful performances in…
Wild Tales (2014)
Anthology films are so rare these days, which is a shame because they are such an interesting concept – short films with a loosely common theme, telling different stories in a confined space. It is a refreshing way to tell a story, because no longer does a writer and director have ninety minutes to tell…
An Appreciation of…Joaquin Phoenix (1974 – present)
This one is a record-breaker folks. In the past, I have honored such luminaries in cinema as Mike Nichols, Kevin Spacey and Roger Ebert. All people at the top of their craft, who have been working for decades, changing the art of cinema in their own way. The latest honor goes to Joaquin Phoenix, who…
Song for Marion (2012)
Every year, without a doubt, comes a few films that are a rare combination of comedy and drama. They may address subject matter inherently saddening, but the film in itself, through story and intention, is the epitome of that taut phrase “feel-good”. Whether they are good or bad is irrelevant, as a film’s true worth…
The Best Films of 2014
The Academy Awards have just been announced, and to cap off the year, I though I would post my annual Top 10 list a little earlier, instead praising the films I feel were extraordinarily special, added a lot to the cinema canon and did amazing work to entertain, thrill and excite us. I will first start with…
Starred Up (2014)
Prison films are a horrid, but very popular, subgenre of films these days. One of the most iconic films of all time, The Shawshank Redemption, is a prison film. The hottest show on TV at the moment, Orange is the New Black, is centered around a prison. There are many prison films, including the overlooked…
The Postmodern Pelican 