While it is easy to look at them with disdain and concern for their present work, there was a very brief moment when Peter and Bobby Farrelly were amongst the most acclaimed directors working in comedy, with their input in the 1990s entailing quite a few films that would become classics of the genre –…
Hello Out There! (1949)
James Whale was certainly an enigmatic figure – while he is most well-known for defining the genre of horror as we know it (being amongst the first auteurs to ever make a career out of scaring audiences), he was known to try other genres from time to time, experimenting with different stories and finding a…
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
At the time of its release, there were certain major film critics who called Carnal Knowledge the best film Mike Nichols had made to date – and mercifully, he would go on to have a decade that stretched into the 21st century, in which he would prove this to be quite far from the truth,…
The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
There are few voices in contemporary cinema more exciting than that of Peter Strickland. For just over a decade, he has continuously pushed the boundaries of what is possible to do and say in terms of films, his work being a feverish blend of homages to a bygone era in filmmaking and biting satire that…
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
If there’s something that the Golden Age of Hollywood has taught us, it is that there is always room for a good Cary Grant film. This is taken quite literally in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, which serves as a vehicle for the actor (who was steadily approaching his peak as one of the…
Hair High (2004)
There are few artistic voices I respect more than that of Bill Plympton, a man whose belief in his vision is so strong, that he didn’t even allow studio rejections and stringent conventions of the mainstream industry to deter him from making the films that interested him, instead taking their refusal to produce his work…
Love Before Breakfast (1936)
One of the great joys of the Golden Age of Hollywood is that filmmakers were able to make a romantic comedy about absolutely anything, regardless of the cultural or moral standards that they may have challenged. Only under this system could a film like Love Before Breakfast be made, whereby the story centres on a…
Memoria (2022)
Few names evoke the sensation of absolute prestige and artistic brilliance more than Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who may have only made a few films over his career, but each one is a perfectly-crafted masterpiece of existential complexity. His most recent offering is Memoria, in which he collaborates with Tilda Swinton in telling the story of a…
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
When it comes to film studios, few were as distinctive in their ability to make a very particular kind of film as Ealing Studios, the esteemed British production company behind some of the greatest comedies of all time, whose prolific output was rapid but rarely anything less than impeccable. Of all their films, the one…
Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998)
Death has many purposes. Scientifically, it’s the ceasing of all biological functions. Philosophically, it is the process where we come to accept our inevitable fate. Socially, it is the chance for all those who knew us (whether lovers, friends or adversaries) to reflect on their relation with the deceased. These are all the primary tenets…
The Postmodern Pelican 