“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,…

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…