On nearly all occasions, I try my best to avoid hyperbole when writing about films. Rarely is anything said that isn’t entirely meant, and the act of speaking in absolutes is not a technique that I tend to use regularly unless it is necessary, which is increasingly sporadic considering the wealth of very good but…
Cluny Brown (1946)
When it comes to directors that set the foundation for the film industry, few have been more influential than Ernst Lubitsch, a filmmaker that established the gold standard for many genres, most notably that of the romantic comedy. Not too many artists have entire motifs named after them, and when the likes of Billy Wilder…
See How They Run (2022)
We all love a decent murder mystery – whether it is the thrill of trying to solve a case alongside the detectives using the carefully-placed clues, the often eccentric characters or bizarre scenarios that usually reflect deeper ideas surrounding social and cultural conventions, there’s something so endearing about these stories, which is the reason they’re…
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
There are two categories of war films – there are those that take place during the conflict, focusing either on the political machinations that lead two or more groups into battle or the soldiers themselves, while the second category involves films that are set in the direct aftermath of war, here usually focusing on both…
Wooly Boys (2001)
Whatever the reason for making Wooly Boys was, it seems to be entirely tenuous and impossible to discern. It isn’t very clear why anyone thought this would be a good idea for the story, not because it is controversial or looks at questionable subject matter – it just simply doesn’t have any real narrative, and…
RRR (2022)
At some point in the past few decades, Hollywood has seemingly lost the ability to make purely entertaining epics, and where every film of enormous scope feels like a major event that comes around very rarely, audiences often going years without witnessing a true spectacle that isn’t somehow tied to the recent influx of superhero…
Antoine and Antoinette (1947)
In comparison to some of his contemporaries, Jacques Becker was a far less prolific director, despite having made just over a dozen films – but each one a cherished part of French film history, a work of immense importance and genre-defining brilliance in the vast majority of cases. Becker is well-regarded amongst those with a…
Blood Simple (1984)
It seems almost too ludicrous to be true, but there was a time when Joel and Ethan Coen weren’t the iconic stalwarts of filmmaking they are today, but rather obscure independent storytellers, film school graduates without any experienced, venturing into Hollywood with nothing but ambition and a couple of strong ideas for stories. Blood Simple,…
Costa Brava, Lebanon (2022)
Home is where the heart is, the place in which we feel the most comfortable and secure, safe from the outside world that tries to invade the sanctuary we have constructed for ourselves, whether literal or metaphorical. This idea serves as the foundation for Costa Brava, Lebanon, the wildly ambitious and deeply meaningful solo directorial…
Dark Passage (1947)
The 1940s were inarguably the peak of film noir – the 1930s featured several thrillers that laid the groundwork, while the 1950s were all about experimenting with form and content, continuously searching for new ways to explore the genre and represent its many fascinating conventions. Squarely in the middle of these two eras was one…
The Postmodern Pelican 