Appreciating and admiring an artist sometimes entails admitting that they too have their shortcomings, and not everything that they produce can be considered a masterpiece. This is unfortunately the case with Xavier Dolan, a filmmaker I hold a huge amount of reverence towards, with his films being some of the most extraordinary of the past…

At the time of its release, there were certain major film critics who called Carnal Knowledge the best film Mike Nichols had made to date – and mercifully, he would go on to have a decade that stretched into the 21st century, in which he would prove this to be quite far from the truth,…

Death has many purposes. Scientifically, it’s the ceasing of all biological functions. Philosophically, it is the process where we come to accept our inevitable fate. Socially, it is the chance for all those who knew us (whether lovers, friends or adversaries) to reflect on their relation with the deceased. These are all the primary tenets…

As arguably Japan’s foremost cultural critic, few filmmakers managed to as effectively explore the life and times of ordinary citizens quite as well as Yasujirō Ozu, whose work reflects a keen sense of interest in the human condition, which has fuelled so many of his incredible films. As is often the case with notoriously prolific…

When looking at the long career of Alfred Hitchcock, we can divide it into various distinct eras – there were the experimental 1970s, the provocative 1960s, the absolutely rivetting 1950s (his greatest decade) and the tumultuous 1940s. This decade in particular was notable for being the one that had some of the director’s most significant…

You can essentially divide Spike Lee’s career up into two broad groups – there are the unimpeachable classics, and then there are the films that are excellent, but have yet to receive the attention they deserve. Red Hook Summer certainly fits into the latter group, being the sixth entry into the Chronicles of Brooklyn, the…

While his days of being more intentionally controversial are more contained to the earlier stages of his career, where he was seen as somewhere between an agent provocateur and wunderkind of contemporary European cinema, François Ozon still tends to make films that can cause quite a stir, even if they’re done in a way that…

There are so many layers to American Heart, that one can easily spend nearly the entire film trying to find the right entry-point into the world director Martin Bell presents us with. However, the most logical approach would simply be to drop anchor anywhere in the film, and allow yourself to just be immersed in…

Despite being one of the most celebrated filmmakers of his generation, to the point where he is considered a pioneer of an entire nation’s cinematic culture, Yasujirō Ozu has had a few films produced that are more obscure than others, regardless of the efforts many have put into preserving and distributing his work. For someone…

Like most Eastern European countries, Hungary was one of the many nations that attempted to fight against the encroaching danger of the Soviet Union, and in 1956 staged an uprising against the Communist government in an attempt to break free of the shackles that were gradually being placed on its people. These protests unfortunately failed…