Visionary filmmaker and cinematic legend Pedro Almodóvar clearly has flawless taste, and when commenting on The Florida Project, he boldly stated that “Sean Baker is my bet for the future” – and this compliment from one of cinema’s most iconoclastic artists is not undeserved, as Sean Baker has proven himself to be a supremely talented…

Allow me to be completely frank: Mike Leigh is a cinematic genius and has made some of the greatest films of all time. He is the filmmaker responsible for making the film that I consider quite possibly my personal favourite of all time (the astonishing Naked), and I have yet to encounter a film by…

One of my more controversial and contentious opinions in regards to cinema is that I never quite bought into the idea that Steven Spielberg was some cinematic doyen, an elder-statesman of quality (and as of late with his one-film-a-year output, quantity) cinema. Many of his more enduring films, such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost…

Despite being one of the most straightforward and simple films I’ve seen in a while, it is difficult to speak about Lucky in a way that actually makes sense. There are some films that are almost celestial in how perfect they are, and while I don’t through around the word “perfect” very often, Lucky is…

I have had a very complicated cinematic relationship with David Gordon Green. He has made such cinematic misfires as Your Highness and The Sitter, as well as the funny (albeit entirely lacking in cultural significance) stoner film Pineapple Express. I enjoyed the latter, but have nothing but utter disdain for the former. Yet, for every…

There is no denying that Woody Allen is an extremely influential filmmaker, and one of the most prolific directors of the past few decades, usually releasing a new film every year. This is admirable and has resulted in some great films. However, there have been some misfires in Allen’s career, as not every film can…

In 1952, acclaimed writer Dambudzo Marechera was born in rural Zimbabwe. In 1955, acclaimed Greek writer and social critic Nikos Kazantzakis wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, a highly-controversial account of the life of Jesus Christ, a subversion on what has come to be accepted as Christian truth through the Biblical Gospels. In 1988, Martin…

Despite usually finding something to like in almost every film I watch, it takes quite a bit for me to absolutely adore a film. There is a set of criteria that a film needs to meet for me to consider it an utter masterpiece, and something that can definitively be called a truly incredible, moving…

There are sad films, and then there are extremely sad films. Then there are films that can only be described as being “misery porn”, films that have the intention of creating complete and utter despair in the audience to the point where it is wholly uncomfortable. Then you get The Sea of Trees, a film…