For nearly a decade, I worked in a bookstore, and from the beginning of my time there until I left a few years ago, there was a particular book that seemed extremely popular for reasons no one could ever explain to me. It proved to be a puzzling exercise in trying to determine exactly why…
Category: Drama
Magellan (2025)
As the adage states, history truly is written by the victor – why else would we find some of the most brutal and bloodthirsty individuals being hailed as heroes, when their actions would have them positioned as treacherous villains in most other contexts. It has proven to always be a matter of perspective, as Lav…
I Swear (2025)
We all fight our own individual battles, some being more visible than others. One of the great injustices of human existence is that the combination of our inherent lack of patience and desire to categorise people into need compartments will always be the reason many are forced to experience the isolation that comes with dealing…
Eagles of the Republic (2025)
There is only one subject that the film industry loves above all others: itself. There is seemingly nothing that energises a filmmaker more than telling a story set within the world of cinema, and whether through deep reverence or merciless lampooning (or some combination of them both), there is something about the metafictional nature of…
Hamnet (2025)
There are many ways to describe grief – it’s the mask behind which we try to hide our pain, the feeling of immeasurable loss and hopelessness, the lingering sense of dread and despair that follows you daily, or even “the thing with feathers”, a simple but evocative term coined by Max Porter as the title…
The Dead (1987)
“Falling in that lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lies buried. Falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living, and the dead.” Despite being one of the most acclaimed and admired authors in the history of the English language, James Joyce has proven to be…
The Summer Book (2025)
Something that no one tells you before experiencing the death of a loved one is that there aren’t any definitive guidelines on how to mourn. The act of processing a loss takes many different forms, and it’s impossible to pin it down to a single approach. This includes both the immediate aftermath and the lengthy…
The Outrun (2024)
Addiction is very difficult to achieve, and almost impossible to get rid of, a lesson that far too many people have learned the hard way. Whether a substance or some other kind of vice, the ability to shed one’s dependency on something that brings them some sense of physical and psychological comfort and euphoria is…
Where to Land (2025)
We all search for meaning. Regardless of who we are or where we come from, each one of us is consistently trying to make sense of our existence, whether we choose to verbalise it or not. Yet, despite some riveting works by philosophers, theologians and scientists alike, we are no closer to understanding the miracle…
Everybody’s Fine (1990)
The great polymath and intellectual Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once famously remarked “there are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.”, a statement that has lingered in the minds of many parents as they endure the emotional challenges that come when they realise…
The Postmodern Pelican 