We all love a good underdog story, especially when it comes to those that centre on ordinary folk going up against some systemic issue and emerging victorious. This was exactly what Jerry Selbee and his wife Marge, a happily retired couple from a small town in Michigan, did when they discovered a flaw in the…

When it comes to contemporary American theatre, few names carry both the prestige and element of intimidation quite as much as that of David Mamet, who remains one of the most revered and feared modern playwrights, known for his scathing critiques of contemporary life, no-holds-barred vulgarity and truly deranged sense of humour that make him…

Do not let its generic, unremarkable title fool you – The Inside Story is an absolute delight. The film, which was written by Mary Anita Loos and Richard Sale (the latter a notable writer of pulp fiction) and brought to life by Allan Dwan, one of the more underrated filmmakers of the Golden Age of…

Has Woody Allen lost the magical touch that placed him at the very apex of his craft all those years ago? The answer is unfortunately the affirmative, as his most recent efforts have proven that he epitomizes the concept of quantity over quality. While not all of his films produced in the past decade are…

On the surface, What About Bob? doesn’t seem like much more than the conventional, by-the-numbers comedy that were produced by major studios, who normally managed to attract popular actors to let loose for a while, giving them the opportunity to have fun and play to a much wider audience. All of this is certainly true,…

As a mental condition, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is rarely afforded the attention it deserves when it comes to representation in the media. In most case, it is used as a punchline, a way of drawing attention to the neurotic and obsessive behaviours of those who suffer from it, as if they are simply one-dimensional individuals…

As much as we tend to gravitate towards the films we know, there is something special about making a discovery. We form a relationship with every work of art we encounter, and while most of us are aware that we are sharing with experience with countless other people in several instances, there are some that…

When it comes to Daddy or Mommy (French: Papa ou maman), there are many ways to describe it – mean-spirited, misanthropic and morally bankrupt. It’s also one of the funniest films of the past decade, a comedy that doesn’t pay too much attention to how it is perceived, and instead tries to entertain the viewer…

While it may not be particularly well-known outside of a core group of fanatics, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing is inadvertently one of the most important Canadian films ever made, both for what it says, and specifically what it represents as a whole. Written and directed by Patricia Rozema in her feature-length directorial debut, weaving…

When it comes to iconic characters that are derived from popular television shows, there’s always a temptation to expand on their reputation by giving them their own films, and while many of these have been quite successful, there are an equal amount that are simply not very good, proving that what works in one medium…