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…
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
There was a joke that used to frequently go around my corner of the playground when I was younger, namely that there are only two examples of pure genius when it comes to making music – Ludwig von Beethoven and “Weird” Al Yankovic, with the comparisons between the two not being nearly as tenuous as…
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Contrary to what many people may believe, crafting any work of well-made romance is a challenge. This isn’t applicable to the endless stream of cheap, disposable stories that think that lust and desire are adequate stimuli for a relationship, but rather those rare works that touch on issues much deeper than carnal cravings. Few texts…
The Postmodern Pelican 