An old man (Hugh Griffith) lays dying – his death being notable, since he is Henry Russell, one of Great Britain’s most notorious jokers, having dedicated his entire life to elaborate practical jokes that defined his entire existence and made him something of a figure of notoriety. However, far from a selfish man, he decides…

When it comes to the subject of Nashville, you essentially get two different kinds of films – those about outsiders making their way to the notorious Music City, or those bursting to get out of there and explore the wider world. Regardless of the specific approach, it is almost impossible to find a film set…

“Dying is easy, comedy is hard” – these words appear whenever someone is talking about the frequent excursions many artists make when it comes to the subject of death. The great inevitability is a subject that has provoked and inspired directors for generations, especially when it comes to looking at it through the lens of…

There are many ways to describe Carmen Comes Home (Japanese: カルメン故郷に帰る), but the most appropriate would be to call it a film built on contradictions. It is bawdy yet elegant, hilarious yet melancholy, dignified yet playful, and simple but always consistently striking. Keisuke Kinoshita was a director who had a strong grasp on his craft,…

One of the more bizarre occurrences that we see from time to time is when a studio greenlights a film that is supposed to serve as nothing but a star vehicle for someone experiencing a degree of immense popularity at a particular moment, and instead of becoming sordid and uninteresting affairs, actually turn to be…

Some are blessed with the ability to fly, others the capacity to become invisible. Léon Dutilleul (Bourvil) has discovered that he can walk through walls, a skill that he initially enjoys, since it offers him the opportunity to essentially do whatever he desires, with everyone around him being entirely bewildered by this newfound ability, especially…

It’s been a while since we had a film that was so truly and unequivocally consistent and vitriolic in its disdain for technology. Just when we thought it was safe to once again sink back into your pleasant void of social media, Parents vs Influencers (Italian: Genitori vs Influencer) arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, and…

Without any doubt, there are few writers that defined the concept of wit quite as well as Oscar Wilde, who essentially set the standard for much of modern-day humour with his scintillating, scandalous comedies, whether they were written for the page or the stage. The piece with the most notable cultural footprint is undeniably The…

There’s something about the artistry of Sean Baker that seems both reliable and revolutionary – having achieved breakthrough recognition with his groundbreaking comedy Tangerine just under a decade ago (which came after a few years of mainly obscure work that went unnoticed by anyone not invested in the details of contemporary independent cinema), he has…

Robert Redford has directed several fantastic films, with the likes of Ordinary People and Quiz Show being relatively well-regarded, with many dedicated supporters that argue towards them being much better than most efforts produced by actors-turned-directors. For a lot of his career, Redford struggled with shedding the image of being an irresistible heartthrob, taking on…