The Girl on the Train (2016)

The Girl on the Train is the silliest movie I’ve seen all year. I also, in a very strange way, really enjoyed it. It was a campy, ridiculously overblown and often very pompous mess of a film, and for that, it is truly very enjoyable. To be honest, I really doubt any of us really…

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

There is a moment towards the end of The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) where our two protagonists get on a boat and sail down a river. In front of them, on the island they just departed, stand dozens of lepers, all waving towards these two men. It is single-handedly the most heartbreakingly emotional moment…

Margaret (2011)

Many people seem to have so many differing opinions on what is the greatest film of the 21st century – and the BBC recently bestowed that honour upon Mulholland Drive, a high point (perhaps the highest point) in the career of David Lynch. One film that has been tossed around as being one of the…

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

I am not someone who thinks that any film adaptation of a book is superior to its source material, but I am also not someone who vilifies the practice. I do think there are some truly extraordinary cinematic adaptation of great books (such as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, which border on being…

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Full disclosure – Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, also The Bicycle Thief) was the first film I watched this year – that is nearly nine months ago. The reason I am writing this review so late is simply because I couldn’t muster up the courage to do so – how do you write a review…

Queen of Earth (2015)

From the very first moment in Queen of Earth, you are instantly captivated. It begins in a very unconventional manner – Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) sits, an emotional wreck, screaming and weeping at her boyfriend who is about to leave her. We are not given any context or explanation, but the camera stays on her as…

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Cinema is meant to tell stories, and very often those stories are rather far-fetched or fantastical and are not rooted in reality. It is thus the responsibility of independent cinema to tell the stories that mainstream cinema refuses to. Independent films show a different side to society very often and often venture into taboo territories….

Hamlet (2009)

I consider myself somewhat of a scholar of Shakespeare, literally and figuratively. Literally, because I am studying English Literature and there is not an English literature course that does not feature the work of The Bard in some way, and figuratively because as long as I remember, I’ve always been captivated by the work of…

Lilies of the Field (1963)

Other than Peter O’Toole and Jack Lemmon, the only actor I am willing to contend is the greatest actor to ever live is Sidney Poitier. It boggles my mind to see his output from the late 1950s to the late 1960s and not legitimately believe this guy was on the exact same level as Marlon…

Coriolanus (2011)

I love William Shakespeare – more specifically, I love his plays. I think that they were as relevant as social and political criticisms in the 16th century as they are now, in the 21st century. It is not a contentious point that they are timeless and filled with a quality that keeps them from ever…