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,…

Perhaps the canniest piece of writing that William Shakespeare ever produced, or at least one of his most relevant, is when he wrote that “life’s but a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage” – and few people embody this concept more than the two protagonists of The Actors, the fascinating…

Before she filtered all of her creativity into the wonderfully quirky and oddly engaging television show Girls, as well as becoming someone who courted controversy just as much as she garnered acclaim, Lena Dunham was a young writer and director intent on making her mark in an industry that was decidedly hostile to female filmmakers,…

Author’s Note: This review is part of a four-part series in which we are discussing Wes Anderson’s recent quartet of short films based on the work of Roald Dahl. While these reviews are as independent of each other as the films, they still exist in dialogue with one another, so for the sake of consistency,…

The term “revolutionary” is often used too frequently to refer to films that are only mildly impactful – anytime a director does something slightly different or ahead of their time, they are immediately labelled as being a pioneer, which can sometimes be a decent way to immortalize their legacy (especially amongst those that are not…

There are generally two kinds of directors who find themselves making a film that proves to be quite successful – there are those who choose to rest on their laurels to an extent, making films within that wheelhouse based around the idea of finding their niche and maintaining it, particularly when it comes to genre…

One of the reasons Joel and Ethan Coen have been so radically successful as filmmakers for decades is that when you watch their work, you are not only getting films that occupy spaces in several genres, but you are essentially seeing the history of cinema compressed into a singular story, which comes from the directors’…

At first glance, Theatre Camp may feel insufferable – it comes across as a high-concept version of Glee if it had been filtered through the lens of an independent comedy, and possesses the same sense of trying too hard to appeal to a niche corner of the market, one that didn’t necessarily warrant this level…

My first encounter with Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker was shortly after its release, just before his breakthrough with the celebrated Beginners that established him as one of the most exciting new voices in independent filmmaking. His adaptation of the novel by Walter Kirn, which tells the story of a teenager struggling to navigate the challenges of…

One lesson that we all come to learn at some point in our lives is that it is never too late to start afresh. For some, this means reinventing yourself and uprooting your life, while for others it is simply making a small but substantial change, rather than taking a tabula rasa approach to reconfiguring…