The distinction between friends and family is very narrow for some people, with the term “chosen family” becoming increasingly popular as a description for those close, intimate friendships that feel like a genuine, lifelong connection being made between people who are otherwise not related, but still play an important role in the others’ lives. However,…
Category: comedy
Baby’s Laxative (1931)
In the canon of revolutionary and historically resonant filmmakers, you rarely find someone who has left quite as much of an impression on cinema as Jean Renoir, whose entire life was defined by the constant pursuit of a new kind of artistic expression, which he inherited from his equally important artistically-minded family. A provocative voice…
The Admirable Crichton (1957)
While it may not be universally agreed upon, it is generally accepted (usually begrudgingly) that society is built on a steady order, where everyone has their place and is required to stay within it to allow for everything to run as smoothly as possible – but like everything, even this well-maintained order sometimes shifts and…
Gasoline Alley (1951)
We all define family differently, and the idea that it is only established by a biological connection is a fallacy – blood may be thicker than water, but it doesn’t necessarily always need to be the primary reason for forming an ironclad bond with those who enter our lives and become increasingly important. It lends…
Seize Them! (2024)
There is a bizarre tendency to view history as dull and uninteresting, which is very likely a remnant of the fact that many associate the past with the sanitised, overly-neatened version we received in school, where the thornier and more exciting details were deliberately elided, mainly to shield impressionable minds from the sordid activities and…
You Never Can Tell (1951)
There’s something genuinely charming about the irony that the best depiction of what it means to be human usually tends to come in films that are focused around animals. One of the most bizarre premises for a film ever produced relates to this topic, and comes in the form of You Never Can Tell, in…
The Invite (2026)
Good fences make good neighbours, as the well-worn adage tends to go. There’s something very peculiar about the relationship we develop (or don’t develop in many cases) with the people who live in our proximity, almost as if there’s an unwritten social code that we all have to follow in some way, simply by virtue…
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
It seems to be a universal experience to want to be able to leap out of our ordinary lives and instead pursue a supposedly more exciting existence, which plays into the idea that being entirely content with your life is very rare, and the majority of us have broader and more enthralling expectations or dreams,…
Y tu mamá también (2001)
There are some filmmakers who defy categorisation, since their versatility in terms of skill and tendency to explore a wide range of stories has often allowed them to challenge conventions, going in pursuit of something deeper and more profound, regardless of which genre in which they’re working. Very few directors have been able to achieve…
Holy Days (2026)
There’s an old adage I’ve heard bandied about in the film industry from time to time – when all else fails, put a nun in the movie. Has there ever been a group of people more affectionately relegated to the status of human props more than the brides of Christ, whose distinctive manner of dressing…
The Postmodern Pelican 