There are many reasons to appreciate Mel Brooks, but his sense of humour is perhaps the most important, and he built an entire career out of his quick wit and ability to make any subject funny. The story of how he came up with History of the World, Part I is one of the most…

If you have been reading here for a while, you will undoubtedly know about my fondness for The Front Page, the magnificent play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which is perhaps the finest piece of comedic theatre to come out of the first half of the 20th century, and like any well-received production, it…

One has to wonder whether when he made his notorious quip about his preference for screen partners (“never work with children or animals”), W.C. Fields truly understood how some of the most interesting performances in film history have come from these unexpected sources. Of course, his cynicism was not unfounded, and for the most part,…

There is a difference between being alone and being isolated, which is something that many of us encounter at some point in our lives. For the characters in The Holdovers, this takes on a new meaning over their Christmas break, when the majority of staff and students depart the hallowed halls of a prestigious New…

By this point, it is abundantly clear that, despite casting a vast net over all forms of cinema, the one subject I am most passionate about (or at least one of them) is comedy. From the start, I have always been attracted to works of art designed to evoke laughter, since it is possible to…

When we think about the early career of Spike Lee, the focus is usually on two of the films he made in the 1980s – She’s Gotta Have It, widely considered one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time, and the brilliant Do the Right Thing, which is one of a small handful of…

Nothing is simultaneously as comforting and frustrating as family, which is something that many of us should hopefully be blessed to have experienced, even if it comes from a chosen family. There is something so poignant about a story that focuses on two contrastive individuals trying to find common ground based solely on being born…

“I guess there’s always hope, even when you don’t fully believe.” There is such a narrow boundary between optimism and blind faith, and quite a bit of it has to do with how far someone is willing to hold onto the hope that their life will improve in some way – whether it be overcoming…

Between the dazzling metropoles of Chicago and New York City ran a train that was aptly named the 20th Century Limited, referring to her modern approach to long-distance travel, which she undertook for over half a century, being the prime mode of transport between the two locations for almost the entirety of the first half…

Some premises are so absurd, that they usually circle the spectrum of logic and start to make perfect sense, becoming oddly plausible and wildly entertaining. When George Barr McCutcheon wrote Brewster’s Millions in the early 20th century, we have to wonder whether he anticipated it becoming a story that would inspire over a dozen films,…