I am a huge fan of Alexander Payne. I think there are very few directors who concentrate so meticulously on characters and performances quite like him. He is truly an actor’s director, and every single one of his films have been masterclasses in performances. People like Jack Nicholson, Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon have career-highlight performances…

Melissa McCarthy has become one of the most bankable leading ladies in movies today, and she is no longer a supporting funny lady, but instead a full-on, intense comedic force. Her film, Tammy, was a passion project for McCarthy – she and her husband, Ben Falcone, came up with the idea for the film and…

There are few people that epitomize the 1980s cinema world quite like John Hughes and Michael Keaton. In what was only their sophomore film efforts – Hughes writing and Keaton starring, they create one of the most endearing family comedies of the tumultuous eighties. Keaton plays Jack Butler, the ultimate 1980s family man – loving…

Smart satire and broad comedy are both very popular forms of humour, but they very rarely overlap. A great example is seen when we look at the smart, neurotic humour of Woody Allen, and the more lowbrow, but equally excellent, work of Mel Brooks. Both were excellent filmmakers that carved out their niches in Hollywood….

Robert De Niro might just be the greatest living actor, and part of that is attributed to the fact that he is able to do comedy and drama equally well. In comedies, he usually plays a grumpy, emotionless intellectual dealing with other people who get on his nerves. It has become a character De Niro…

The 1970s – an era that helped redefine comedy, and some of the greatest comedy films made today owe it to those made in the 1970s for allowing them to exist. A combination of the end of Vietnam, hippie subculture becoming even more popular, and an increased political landscape allowed for more edgy comedy. The…

In my review of The Big Lebowski, I mentioned how the term “cult film” is thrown around very loosely. Very few films that are dubbed “cult films” actually are. Cult films are oddities and are so unique and far-removed from the mainstream canon, they can never truly be considered crowd-pleasers, and therefore a big slice…

The term “cult classic” has become quite the buzzword to describe any offbeat, obscure film that isn’t popular by the mainstream, and one that simply does not meet the tastes of most people, despite critical acclaim or box office numbers. However, only a few films can be considered real cult classics, which are simply films…

I think Seth MacFarlane is one of the more divisive figures in the comedy industry right now – some people find him dreadfully unfunny and tasteless, and others think he is a comedy genius. I fall into the latter category – I may not love everything he does, but I do know that there have…