Anaïs in Love (2022)

Despite having departed over a decade ago, the spirit of the wonderful Éric Rohmer remains alive and well in many young filmmakers, especially those from his native France that have inherited his legacy of telling beautifully human stories centred on ordinary people as they navigate any number of themes, ranging from romance to the most…

Boy Meets Boy (2021)

Harry (Matthew James Morrison) is a young doctor who has chosen to spend a weekend in Berlin, taking a break from the hustle and bustle of his native London. He spends the time engaging in anonymous sexual encounters, punctuated with intense sessions at any of the local nightclubs that he can find. It’s on the…

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)

While we can easily see the roots of his distinctive traits in even the earliest works in his career, Alfred Hitchcock was not immediately the Master of Suspense, spending some time as a director-for-hire on a number of projects that we now know are fortunate to bear his name, even after having made a few…

Our Souls at Night (2017)

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for not thinking too much of Our Souls at Night, based on the premise and the general tone of the film. The adaptation of the novel by Kent Haruf, directed by Ritesh Batra, is not necessarily the most revolutionary piece of filmmaking, functioning as a solid, endearing romantic drama…

People Will Talk (1951)

At the perfect intersection between screwball comedy and romantic melodrama resides People Will Talk, a daring and provocative film by the legendary Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who was operating at his creative peak around this time, having just redefined the Golden Age of Hollywood with the iconic All About Eve, as well as a range of…

The Lovers on the Bridge (1991)

Once you spend a considerable amount of time with Leos Carax and his films, you start to realize that he is not a director all that interested in playing by the rules, preferring to entirely dismantle the art of filmmaking on both the narrative and visual level, while still retaining a sense of control and…

The Sky Is Everywhere (2022)

After nearly a decade of making small, intimate independent dramas that bordered on outright horror, it seemed inevitable that Josephine Decker would make something that veered towards populist filmmaking. Mercifully, her first foray into the realm of the mainstream was one that actually seemed very fitting for the director, in the form of The Sky…

The Quiet Man (1952)

One of the benefits of being a notoriously prolific artist is that there are occasions where one has very little choice but to step out of their comfort zone. John Ford’s name often evokes one of two images – classical westerns, or intense character-driven dramas. It doesn’t often lead one to think of gentle romantic…

Roxanne (1987)

It’s an iconic image – Steve Martin sporting a prosthetic nose, on the end of which is perched an adorable yellow canary, as he looks into oblivion, deep in despair at the fact that his appearance weighs him down and prevents his character from ever finding love, since it’s impossible to encounter anyone who can…

Barefoot in the Park (1967)

In the history of romantic comedies, few films have done quite as much heavy-lifting as Barefoot in the Park, Gene Saks’ beloved adaptation of Neil Simon’s adorable play about two people who discover how easy it is to get married, with the challenge coming in staying together, especially in contrast to the obstacles they face….