Science fiction has always been a source of an abundance of fascinating storytelling, with the idea of speculating about the future (or rewriting the past in creative ways) often resulting in stirring, captivating works in terms of both film and literature, many writers and directors positioning themselves as almost exclusively working within this genre, both…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Eileen (2023)
“It’s easy to tell the dirtiest minds—look for the cleanest fingernails.” There are many fragments of sentences in Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh that are immediately striking, and the entire novel is a tightly wound, masterful examination of many different concepts and one of the most ambitious literary debuts of the past decade. Yet, this one…
The Best Films of 2023
It’s that time of year again – Hollywood is about to descend on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where the 96th Academy Awards are being held, honouring the best in cinema from the past year. As always, this brings an end to the cinematic year, a 15-month endeavour that sees many of us travelling…
Child’s Play (1988)
One of the more unfortunate casualties of the contemporary cinematic landscape is that we have not been given iconic horror characters on the same level as we did in previous decades. Jigsaw in the Saw franchise is perhaps the only one that carries any cultural cache, with all efforts to launch new characters not manifesting…
A Late Quartet (2012)
A single individual creating art is a beautiful process, but there is something even more remarkable about a group of creative collaborators coming together to share their gifts and produce something extraordinary. Music in particular has been an art form that has allowed for some of the most fruitful collaborations between artists, going back to…
Garibaldi’s Lovers (2012)
Defining love is a perilous activity since there is never any clear indication of what it means entirely, or how you can find it without utilizing forcible means. This seemed to be a concept that fascinated Silvio Soldini, whose wonderful Garibaldi’s Lovers (Italian: Il comandante e la cicogna), which is also alternatively known by the…
Evil Does Not Exist (2024)
It isn’t very often that we find a filmmaker whose entire purpose seems to be to redefine the margins of what cinema can be and represent. Ryūsuke Hamaguchi has been working for the better part of a decade (with films like Asako I & II and the arthouse masterpiece Happy Hour drawing a small but…
The Collector (1965)
There is a very narrow boundary between love and obsession, and some may even argue that the lines become increasingly blurred once someone grows too fond of the object of their affection, to the point where it can become quite disturbing. Literature has developed quite an appreciation for this ambiguity since we find stories of…
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023)
From a distance, we observe a group of people talking and drinking on what appears to be a relatively pleasant evening in one of Vietnam’s central urban hubs. Off-screen, a crash is heard, followed by a cacophony of screens, and the characters begin to retreat out of frame. The camera follows them, but it’s slightly…
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Few novels have had quite a bizarre journey to the screen as Dune, with the first entry into the iconic series by Frank Herbert having quite a troubled history, including failed projects from over half a century ago, an ill-fated adaptation that has resisted becoming a cult classic despite efforts from all sides, and a…
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