“It is impossible to ever finish a portrait” There tend to be many ambiguities related to the nature of art, but perhaps most challenging to comprehend is its tendency to never be complete. Anyone who has peddled in a form of creation, whether professionally or merely as a pastime, will know that there are two…
Category: Drama
The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967)
While he may be more commonly associated with his blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, or the merciless and scathing satire Watermelon Man, Melvin Van Peebles had quite a diverse body of work, which stretched from the earliest days of New Hollywood (some may even argue that he predated this movement), right into the heart…
An Enemy of the People (1989)
One of the most exhilarating experiences one can have is witnessing two incredible, generation-defining artists intersecting, especially when they come from entirely different backgrounds, to the point where any collaboration would have seemed unlikely. There is almost a century separating the births of Henrik Ibsen and Satyajit Ray (in fact, the former died fifteen years…
Montparnasse Bienvenüe (2017)
It isn’t always easy to be young, which is the thesis statement for many films that have become part of an emerging sub-genre of narrative storytelling, which usually focus on individuals caught in the awkward space between adolescence and adulthood, placing the viewer in the position of observers that watch them navigate and negotiate their…
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)
When I’m not discussing film, one of my other professional passions is linguistics. It is the area in which I hold a couple of degrees, and it is a field that I truly love. I ran the gamut of subjects over the years, finding interesting elements in a range of sub-disciplines that all fall under…
The Listener (2022)
Many people warrant our admiration, especially those who put the centre of their careers, or even their entire lives, to serving others in one way or another. We all celebrate our first responders and those people who spend their time in the service of the community. However, there is a silent majority that remains almost…
The Girl from Petrovka (1974)
For a large portion of the 20th century, relations between the United States and Russia (particularly during the era of the Soviet Union) were beyond fraught, with their rivalry and determination to assert dominance as the most powerful global entity leading to a series of conflicts over the years. This was not only a fascinating…
The Mariana Trench (2024)
Life is short, filled with joys and sadnesses, and it is all over far too quickly – but if we are lucky, we find someone with whom we can share the burden of navigating these challenges. Many of us are able to encounter kindred spirits, and occasionally they tend to come to us at seemingly…
Blue Collar (1978)
The creation of trade unions is either the best decisions or biggest travesty to ever happen to the free market, depending on who you ask – the workers who find themselves protected by these unions designed to uphold their rights and prevent exploitation find value in the process, whereas they can be a thorn in…
A Traveler’s Needs (2024)
Does oversaturation truly exist in cinema? We’ve often found ourselves questioning whether a director who works frequently is more inherently interesting than those who take long gaps in between new projects. Personally, there can be an argument made for either, but the truth is that a balance of the two is the reason the medium…
The Postmodern Pelican 