“There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society…outside of a kennel.” The sheer amount of individuals I’ve encountered over the years that claim to have been radicalized by George Cukor’s The Women is absolutely staggering, but far from surprising. In his capacity as one of Hollywood’s most lovable eccentrics, Cukor…

1998 was a surprisingly solid year for Studio 54, the notorious New York City nightclub known for its exclusive clientele, and for being a shining beacon of the disco era before its initial closure in 1980. Nearly two decades later, two films were produced that were intent on capturing the spirit and energy of the…

Professor George Hamilton (Edmund Gwenn) is a profoundly gifted scientist who has been working tirelessly with the American government to produce new technological innovations that will help push them further on the global scale. However, he is upset and chagrined to realize that his work is being used to develop weapons of mass destruction. Not…

We’ve seen many works of fiction that present us with the most unconventional protagonists – vile and malicious career criminals that are portrayed in a slightly more positive light, their reputations almost being entirely repurposed to be vaguely heroic. One of the more captivating examples of this comes in The Captain from Köpenick (German: Der…

The death of Joseph Stalin in 1952 was a monumental event for a number of very obvious reasons, and has been engraved into the historical canon in a multitude of ways. However, some of the most interesting stories of this fateful day aren’t found in history books, but rather through the first-hand testimonials of the…

Russian comedy is certainly a very strange phenomenon, for a number of reasons. The first time we encounter it, we might think that it’s a bit of a contradiction, since there is a quality of seriousness that is often associated with the country, with most of the more prominent Russian films known internationally often being…

The absolute gall that Joel Schumacher had in naming this film Flawless, when it is anything but free of shortcomings, would be frustrating had it not been a work that had a lot of soul to it. I’m very divided on this film – on one hand, it is an overwrought and inconsistent story that…

When it comes to literary icons, few define British theatricality more than Noël Coward, who remains the gold standard for many playwrights, directors and actors. His career was long and filled with sojourns into nearly every genre and medium that was available to him, and found a niche within the world of literature that few…

There are some days where I consider The Station Agent to be a perfect film, while there are others where it completely slips my mind that such a staggering work of art exists, only at an arm’s length from bringing joy to anyone who decides to venture into Tom McCarthy’s wonderful world. A small and…

Sometimes, we tend to want to put away the overly serious, ambitious and artistically-resonant productions and instead simply just watch something entertaining. Mercifully, the film industry has never experienced a shortage of wonderfully exuberant productions, many of them produced through the partnerships of various comedic duos or troupes, which served as the foundation for countless…