If you can’t trust your friends and family, who can you trust? This is a question posed by Mohammad Rasoulof in The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Persian: دانهی انجیر معابد), an astonishing work that follows a few days in the life of a seemingly ordinary family in Tehran. Their patriarch has just been given…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Day of the Fight (2024)
We may get only one chance at a first impression, but there is rarely a bad opportunity to seek redemption, even if it can be a daunting process. Jack Huston seems to be enthralled by the idea of following someone as they set out to right the wrongs of their past, as it forms the…
The United Screams of America: A Terror-Fueled Voyage Through Fifty-One Films
A couple of years ago, I chose a slightly ambitious project – I would take a cinematic road trip through the United States, choosing a single film from each of the fifty states (as well as Washington D.C.) that was either entirely or prominently set within that particular part of the country, to get a…
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
“Most of what follows is true” When these words appeared towards the end of the title sequence of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, film entered into a new era, albeit signalling a change that was so subtle, most didn’t even notice it until some distance had been made between this film and the ones…
Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
While the debate around the exact film that kickstarted the screwball comedy genre continues to be a subject of considerable contention (with the general perception being that it can be reduced to the fascinating tug-of-war between Howard Hawks’ The Twentieth Century and Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night as the singular pioneering work), there are…
Here (2024)
“Right here is where we want to be” Home is a fascinating concept – for some, their home is nothing more than an ever-changing shelter from the outside world, for others it is a sanctuary in which they can truly be themselves, while for others it is a firm representation of their past that can…
Father of the Bride (1950)
Behind every beautifully lavish wedding, there is usually a disgruntled parent whose responsibility is to bankroll the entire event, which is generally done with a combination of the insistence on giving their offspring a memorable day and the frustration of realising both the cost and time that goes into one of these endeavours. Yet, it…
Playground (2022)
When it comes to social realism, the Belgians have produced some of the most exhilarating works (mainly due to the prolific careers of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, arguably amongst the most important filmmakers to hail from that country), and they have left a legacy that has made for some really fascinating storytelling in subsequent years….
Goin’ South (1978)
The idea of marrying someone for a particular reason that has nothing to do with love, only to fall in love after the fact, is one that has found its way into cinema at different points, becoming a more common trope that has been replicated a number of times. When Jack Nicholson, in his sophomore…
The New Year That Never Came (2024)
Every revolution begins with just one dissenting voice – in some cases, it’s delivered as a scream, in others it is a mere whisper, but regardless of how it is announced, it signals the beginning of a journey towards change from which any return seems to be impossible, at least as far as those dedicated…
The Postmodern Pelican 