Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Every family tends to have the designated dunce, the person who is always getting into scrapes and precarious situations, but who we still love regardless – and if you think your family doesn’t have one, I have some bad news for you. We are taught to love our families regardless of their imperfections, but sometimes…

Anywhere but Here (1999)

The relationship we have with our parents is something that is inherently built on a foundation of mutual love and affection (at least in the ideal scenarios – sadly we cannot speak for everyone, as individual domestic situations tend to differ quite notable), but like any other relationship, it requires constant work and maintenance, from…

Friendship (2025)

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value. Rather, it is one of those things which give value to survival” These words by C.S. Lewis can be found in his book Four Loves, his meditation on faith, friendship and life in general. It has always stood out to me as a…

First Time Female Director (2024)

There is a general rule of thumb that drives the film industry – if an actor is around for long enough and dedicated to the craft of filmmaking, there will come a point where they endeavour to step behind the camera. This is oddly most prominent amongst comedians, since there is some kind of pipeline…

Earthworm Tractors (1936)

Capitalism can easily be reduced to a straightforward question: Do we live to make money, or do we make money to live? For the protagonist in Earthworm Tractors, based on the syndicated stories and later bestselling novels by William Hazlett Upson, both the stories and the novels somehow manage to be true. Alexander Botts, whose…

The Navigator (1924)

There has never been an artist quite like Buster Keaton, and I doubt that we will see anyone like him ever again – and with each passing film of his that I watch, I become more assured of this, which has essentially become a sacrosanct fact by this point, and one that very few have…

That Certain Feeling (1956)

Nothing burns brighter and more intensely than an old relationship that has been rekindled – there is something about falling in love all over again with someone you considered to be your soulmate that is quite rare, but extremely special when it happens. For the characters in That Certain Feeling, it poses quite a problem,…

My 5 Wives (2000)

There are certain subjects that have become the fodder for comedians looking for a quick laugh by aiming at the low-hanging fruit, to the point where misinformation can exist purely for the sake of cheap humour, leading to audiences being misled into thinking something to be true, when in reality it is the opposite. Yet,…

Party Girl (1995)

There was a very specific point somewhere between the late 1980s and early 1990s where many films tended to gravitate towards exploring the folly of youth – no longer were teenagers and young adults viewed as world-weary, complex individuals worried about their future (as was the case with the iconic films made by John Hughes),…

Snack Shack (2024)

Friendship is something that comes and goes with time, and the connections we form in our younger years do not always carry through as we grow older and begin to move on separate paths. This doesn’t necessarily invalidate those who manage to hold onto those lifelong friendships. Still, it does lend itself to some very…