While his name is usually associated with the lavish, detailed melodramas that defined an entire generation, Douglas Sirk was far more versatile than contemporary perceptions would have you believe – and for those of us who are at all agnostic to some of his more popular works like Imitation of Life and All That Heaven…

As far as sociological history goes, nothing says more about a culture and its history than the humour that was popular at the time. Humour is one of the few tools that is both timeless and intrinsically tied to a particular point in the past, and as we see in many instances, the best way…

Anyone who has ever been in any kind of romantic relationship will undoubtedly know that it takes work to be a committed partner and more than a few loving companionships are built on a foundation of trust, virtue and honesty, as well as the ability to be with one another through whatever challenges may be…

Few directors defined the 1970s quite like Hal Ashby, mainly because nearly his entire career (or rather the aspects that are most memorable about it), were contained in this decade – prior to his directorial debut with The Landlord, we was an acclaimed editor, and his later output after Being There paled in comparison to…

There are few premises more wonderfully simple but effective than that of The Mask, a remnant of another world that appears in our own, and whoever finds it is impelled to wear it, being transformed into an eccentric but potentially dangerous being, depending on the person who wears it. Created by Doug Mahnke for DC…

It may be hopelessly cliched, by the adage “growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional” has proven to be far more relevant than we may have initially imagined, which is something that a lot of us have learned as we mature and realize the various trials and tribulations that come with adult life. There…

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and this has never been more true than the protagonists in John Turturro’s delightfully irreverent and oddly sentimental Fading Gigolo, a charming comedy in which the esteemed actor makes his fourth directorial endeavour, teaming up with Woody Allen to tell the story of a pair of down-on-their-luck New Yorkers…

They say family are the friends you can’t choose – at least this is a mangled version of a very popular sentiment that has been expressed countless times in the past when discussing the merits and flaws of a very particular kind of story, those which centre on family members finding out that they have…

It’s never a pleasant experience to encounter a small independent film, excited about the prospect of discovering a new gem, only to walk away disappointed. Regardless of how much I tried to give Joyride the benefit of the doubt, nothing came about that felt like it could be justification for this film’s existence. The feature-length…

Some filmmakers develop a specific style and spend their career mostly following that particular niche, and there are some that cast as wide a net as possible for the sake of constantly reinventing their craft, different styles and approaches to directing that keep everything exciting and unpredictable. In the case of René Clair, you never…