Once you’re a canonical stalwart of the film industry, one’s entire career is open for analysis, with the earliest works of some of the greatest directors in history being quite fascinating, if only for the sake of seeing where their style originates. When he was hired to direct an adaptation of Alice Doesn’t Live Here…

Billy Wilder could do absolutely anything – his versatility as a director made him a perfect fit for any kind of film. However, despite taking numerous forays into different genres, he did tend to understand where his strengths lay, and while there isn’t a single kind of film that defines him as an artist, some…

When discussing postmodernism from a contemporary cultural standpoint, we tend to look at it as the expression of artistic chaos, where the rules of art are subverted in favour of more bizarre or unconventional works that seek to challenge what creativity should strive to be. However, what is often forgotten is that postmodernism didn’t start…

Palm Springs is the kind of film that reminds us that unique cinema is still very much possible. One of the most wildly original works of filmmaking of the past few years, a piece that blends science fiction, romance and comedy in sometimes surprising ways, Max Barbakow’s directorial debut is quite an achievement – and…

Robin (Carol Lynley) is a quirky young woman who has been in love with her college sweetheart, David (Dean Jones) for years, with the intention being to marry him, something he is very receptive to. However, she is not one to make hasty decisions, so she implores her intended to undergo something of a social…

In 1963, two works of fiction were released that stand independent of each other, but are inextricably linked in numerous ways. The first was V, the debut novel by Thomas Pynchon, who would go on to become one of the late twentieth-century’s most important writers. The second was Hallelujah the Hills, the first major work…

2020 has been a year in which not a lot has made much sense, based on a variety of events that have caused our collective species to come to a grinding halt and reconsider even the most essential components of our existence – yet, in a time when nothing is what it seems, one film…

Here’s a lesson: it pays off to be a bit sceptical from time to time, because if you blindly trust a film based on what it appears to be, you’re occasionally going to find that you’ve been deceived the whole time, and not always in a particularly clever way. Based on the title and the…

The Second World War rages across the Pacific, as Commander Houghton (Trevor Howard) does his best to protect his Allied forces during the Japanese invasion. He employs a number of lookouts on a variety of the surrounding islands, to alert the army to the movement of the Japanese military by watching for enemy planes. He…

Kostya (Viktor Kosykh) is a rebellious young boy who finds himself constantly at odds with everyone around him. Presumably to keep him out of trouble, he’s sent to a communist pioneer camp for children, where he gallivants with his fellow campers, much to the chagrin of Comrade Dynin (Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev), the over-strict head counsellor who…