I won’t pretend that political drama films are an unexplored genre – as long as there has been politics, there have been representations of politics in entertainment and the media. That doesn’t mean that it is a trite, overwrought genre in any way – instead, political films can be thrilling, captivating and very well-made, depending…
Category: Drama
Bridge of Spies (2015)
There is one statement I try to avoid making too often, because somehow, it corrupts my status as a serious cinephile – I don’t really like Steven Spielberg. I think he has made some wonderful films, such as Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, I do…
Steve Jobs (2015)
Biopics – either you love them or you hate them. I seem to be somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. There is nothing I adore more than a riveting, exciting biographical film about an interesting figure, but there is also very few things I absolutely despise more than a saccharine, meandering biopic about…
Carol (2015)
I recently watched Brooklyn, and I was somewhat disappointed in it. I was hesitant about Carol, a film that shares a lot of themes with Brooklyn, such as the 1950s setting, the story of a girl out of water, finding unexpected love and a job that allows her to grow as a person. The two…
Secrets & Lies (1996)
There are very few words that can describe how much I adore Mike Leigh. Not only do I consider him one of the greatest filmmakers working today, I consider him one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, one that matches the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. The only other filmmaker that is…
The Dance of Reality (2013)
I adore surrealism. I think it is the most unique and brilliant sub-genre of art that has ever existed. How can complete absurdity, and otherworldly imagery, come together to form something so human and realistic? At the forefront of the surrealist film movement is Alejandro Jodorowsky, a man I have admired for many years, both…
Brooklyn (2015)
Period dramas can either be dreadfully boring or wonderfully entertaining, depending on the approach taken. There are some period dramas that tell a true story, and others that tell fictional stories set in the past. Brooklyn falls into the latter group, and while it certainly was not dreadfully boring by any stretch of the imagination,…
Room (2015)
It is a strange occurrence when a film brings you to tears. I won’t pretend to be a tough person by claiming to have the ability to not be brought to tears. There are a few films that made me a complete emotional wreck, and while I may not be overly sensitive to the tricks…
In the Mood for Love (2000)
It was about two years ago when my perception of cinema was completely changed, when I saw a film that broke the boundaries of what a film could make one feel. The film was Chungking Express, a bizarre and brilliant masterpiece of cinema. The mind behind that film was Wong Kar-Wai, a filmmaker who has…
The Great Beauty (2013)
What can I say about this behemoth of a film? Finding words for something like The Great Beauty is an extraordinarily difficult task. I could list an entire dictionary of terms to explain what I felt about The Great Beauty – complex, hilarious, meaningful, brilliant, twisted. It is a film unlike any you will ever…
The Postmodern Pelican 