The world of art has often made a point of exploring the concept referred to as a “national novel”, which is defined as a work of literature that embodies every aspect of that country, encompassing both its history and present culture, and touching on many issues that are faced by their citizens, condensing them into…

When it was announced a few years ago that Joe Mantello, an actor and director known for his electrifying stage productions, would be mounting a revival of Mart Crowley’s powerful play The Boys in the Band, the response was divisive – it’s a text that has carried great significance over the past half a century,…

I’m not sure what any of us expected from Hillbilly Elegy, but if it was a good film, it seems to have been something of a tall order, and one that simply could not be met in any conceivable way by a film that seems, more than anything else, entirely unnecessary to begin with. Naturally,…

A lot is simmering below the surface of Proxima, the daring space drama (which doesn’t actually show the proverbial “final frontier” at all, one of several fascinating directorial decisions made in the creation of this film) from Alice Winocour, who plucks a number of timely, incredibly relevant themes and throws them together into what can…

When composing the canon of great American films, there is one in particular that occupies a very strange space – Elmer Gantry is a film mostly remembered for the dynamic performance given by Burt Lancaster, who was already one of the industry’s most interesting leading actors, and very little else. Richard Brooks was a filmmaker…

Where does one start when talking about Luchino Visconti? A filmmaker who consistently challenges conventions, while becoming quite a formidable creative force in his own right, his career was populated by a wide array of films occurring across multiple genres, each one a masterpiece that challenged certain conventions while immediately proving themselves to be worthwhile…

For a film that is influenced by a Robert Louis Stevenson poem, and even begins with the stanza that inspired the title, Home from the Hill is an awfully prosaic work that really doesn’t contribute much to an already saturated field of Southern melodramas that are far more overwrought than they are impactful, and which…

Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik) is more loved than she realizes – one of Poland’s rising stars, she has taken the fitness world by storm, with her knowledge of getting (and staying) in shape being coupled with her effervescent positivity, and making her a figure many people look up to, whether in one of her large-scale public…

There’s a phenomenon that occurs very rarely, but when it does, almost the entire cinematic community comes to a grinding halt, standing in awe at what we’re seeing transpiring – a film legend emerges from the shadows after years of partial or outright retirement or relative obscurity, and provides us with another glimpse into their…

Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney) is an ordinary man – he works a regular job in a local factory in working-class London, and spends his evenings and weekends in pubs and at the local picture show, where he passes the time until he has to return to work the following day. He lives a very simple…