The concept of a soulmate is certainly very interesting, since the idea of everyone alive having someone designated as their ideal partner, while encouraging and beautiful in theory, is logically implausible and probably just a way to comfort those who have not had luck in terms of finding a long-lasting romance. However, for the sake…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Fantastic Night (1942)
What is a dream other than a fantastical scenario that our minds create, convincing us that they are real for a very brief moment in time? We’ve seen countless works of art that look at the bizarre but universal phenomenon of dreams, whether directly or as the supplement to a larger narrative – and its…
Shirley (2024)
Growing up, I was surrounded by friends and family who were generally agnostic to the idea that there is any real difference between governmental candidates and carried a general distrust of politicians, particularly those who seemed to be driven less by serving their constituents and more the ego and agenda tacked onto whatever campaign they…
Nowhere (1997)
Queer cinema has undergone quite a journey, its sometimes surprising to remember that there was a time in which even the vaguest suggestion of queer content in a film was considered too deviant to have a place in the mainstream, and was often shoved into the arthouse or independent scene instead. Most filmmakers didn’t have…
Les Fugitifs (1986)
Crime doesn’t pay, but it certainly does make life a lot more entertaining – this seems to be the principle that Jean Lucas uses as motivation for his day-to-day life, and after being released from prison for the fourteenth time, decides that he is going to go straight – until he accidentally walks straight into…
Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
A few years ago, the shocking revelation was that Joel and Ethan Coen, the proverbial two-headed director, were splitting and pursuing independent careers after nearly thirty years of working together. Joel Coen went on to make The Tragedy of Macbeth, a formally offbeat, German Expressionism-inspired adaptation of the greatest play in the history of the…
The Circus (1928)
Sheer cinematic perfection does exist, and it comes in the form of The Circus, which is quite simply one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever produced. My reverence for Charlie Chaplin has been well-documented, and in both my personal and professional life, I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from his work. His…
Monsters and Men (2018)
As writers, there are two general guidelines that we are inclined to follow when discussing art – we are supposed to be objective as far as possible, as well as exercise enough restraint to make our arguments nuanced and detailed, using our words to explain why certain work is particularly intriguing. However, there are some…
12:08 East of Bucharest (2008)
Humour is the balm that we apply to the wounds of the past, and few filmmakers have proven this to be truer than those who formed the movement we know as the Romanian New Wave. For the past couple of decades, we have seen some truly gifted writers and directors emerging from Romania, crafting films…
Luv (1967)
Love – how does one even begin to describe it as a concept? It’s difficult enough already to fully encapsulate the feeling, so to even attempt to understand its resonance as an artistic theme is nearly impossible. It is one of the great mysteries of life and something that has been the subject of so…
The Postmodern Pelican 