When constructing a comedy, there are always guides that supposedly set the standard for effectively extracting laughs by following a specific formula that they claim guarantees audiences will embrace what they’re seeing and feel compelled to seek out even more similar works – and in an era where a lot of comedies were built on…

There comes a point in every film lover’s life when we realize that not everything needs to make sense or be particularly good, and that it is perfectly acceptable to just enjoy something for the sake of it, since not every film we watch needs to be a revelatory experience. This realization is paired with…

“Family is not one little thing – it’s everything” – sometimes the wisest words come from the most unexpected sources, as we can see by his statement, which is found nestled at the heart of About My Father, the irreverent and heartwarming comedy by Sebastian Maniscalco, who wrote the film based on his experiences with…

Over the course of his prolific career, Aki Kaurismäki has made several hilarious films about truly miserable people, which has become something of his trademark, and a large reason why he is arguably one of his native Finland’s most celebrated directors. It’s not necessarily that he is focusing on the plight of his characters and…

Here is an unimpeachable, almost gospel truth: absolutely no one makes films like Mel Brooks. Somehow, this obscure television writer and comedian born and raised on the tail-end of the peak of vaudeville flourished into one of our greatest filmmakers, someone whose work reflects nothing short of pure, unhinged artistic brilliance. He is one of…

There have been countless attempts to adapt  Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s wonderful play The Front Page into every conceivable medium, and they have all achieved varying degrees of success. Everyone from Billy Wilder to Kathleen Turner had their sights set on luxuriating in the hilarious and irreverent world that the playwrights had created, which…

Two strangers from radically different walks of life meet by chance while commuting to some destination, not realizing the serendipity of such an encounter – this is a common trope that has existed almost as long as stories have been told. There’s something so compelling about chance meetings, and whether they result in a romantic…

The majority of us know the character of Roxie Hart from either the theatrical sensation Chicago, or the well-received film adaptation that immortalized Bob Fosse’s iconic staging and the unforgettable music by John Kander and Fred Ebb for future generations to experience for themselves. However, the character has existed much longer than many of us…

Everything must inevitably come to an end, even those entities that we genuinely believe could last forever. For decades, the Marx Brothers were the gold standard of comedy, and whether on stage or in film, they were always the definition of pure charisma and talent, being at the forefront of the movement that took many…

You’d certainly be hard-pressed to find a film produced since the 1940s that didn’t owe some of its existence to Casablanca, whether it be the iconic imagery, memorable characters or memorable dialogue. The latter occupies a slightly odd position, since arguably the most famous line in the film, where the suave but mysterious Rick Blaine…