When it was published in 2011, The Sense of an Ending was an immediate sensation, with acclaimed author Julian Barnes having written what many consider to be his masterpiece. Instantly, there was discussion about bringing the novel to the screen, as is often the case with wildly successful works of literature, which is a consolidated…
Once Were Warriors (1994)
While I have never claimed to be experienced enough to consider myself desensitized to brutal cinema, once you have seen some of the more controversial works that have been produced over the years (referring specifically to those films that are still made with some artistic integrity and refuse to cross a line), it takes quite…
Haunted Mansion (2023)
In recent years, Disney has been trying everything to scrounge up enough interest in their live-action films, which do tend to make a decent amount of money, but not nearly enough to be considered as radically successful as their past work, as well as their animated output, which has been the focus of much of…
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980)
In order to have good taste, you need to have an appreciation for bad taste – this sentiment was originally pioneered by cinematic agent provocateur John Waters and has been the driving force behind his career, and while he is undeniably the driving force behind the movement towards more boundary-pushing filmmaking, he has been tethered…
A Night at the Opera (1935)
What I tend to appreciate the most about comedies produced during Hollywood’s Golden Era is their remarkable simplicity – there was very little need for high-concept stories or films that were entirely original or frequently experimental. We have seemingly lost the ability to acknowledge that the more simple a joke, the more effective it is…
My Love, Don’t Cross That River (2014)
For as long as it has been a subject that artists and philosophers alike have explored, the ideal version of love is growing old with someone, spending your entire life in their company and having your entire future defined by the person you consider your soulmate. This is a pleasant and beautiful idea, but one…
The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
We’ve seen numerous attempts to revitalize the Western genre, whether it be the gleefully deranged spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, the acidic revisionist westerns that contained an excessive amount of violence in the 1970s, or the move towards more hyper-realistic depictions of the frontier in more recent years. There’s merit to all of these, and…
Amsterdam (2022)
There is a very simple but unspoken rule when it comes to putting together a film – if a director is going to make the audience spend more than two hours with their work, they have to at least make it worth our while, especially if it is an original work and not one based…
Le Dîner de Cons (1998)
When it comes to exploring a country and its culture, I subscribe to the belief that everything that we need to know about a nation and its people can be found in its comedy since humour is both a universal language, but also something that is often quite specific, whether it is to a specific…
Blackberry (2023)
Every era, as well as the generation that came of age during that time, has something intrinsically tied to that period that becomes an iconic part of the culture, but yet disappears without a trace, being a remnant of the past fondly remembered by those who were present for its invention, while remaining inexplicable to…
The Postmodern Pelican 