How does one begin to describe William Douglas Street Jr. in a way that makes sense? Perhaps the first person we should ask is “The Chameleon” himself – but it’s very likely he’d not be able to answer it either, since his entire life has seemingly been committed to taking on numerous personalities, all of…
The Things We Say, The Things We Do (2020)
Nothing has been more actively explored in the history of literature quite as much as the concept of love. Whether it be on stage or the printed page, or delivered by way of images on screen or sounds that come from musical instruments, the elusive idea of romance has been the primary theme for countless…
Kansas City Princess (1934)
There’s something so appealing about comedies produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood, particularly those made in the Pre-Code era, a time in which artistic expression within the film industry was driven by the simple but effective adage of “anything goes” – and few films demonstrate this with more elegance or nuance than Kansas City…
The Cathedral (2022)
It was the great photographer Diane Arbus who said “a photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know”, which she used to describe her approach to photographing the various people who agreed to be her models as she traversed the streets of her native New York, taking…
A Room in Town (1982)
There are many elements that persist throughout the incredible career of Jacques Demy, which make them easily recognizable – amongst them are often vivid colours, familiar actors and stories that pay tribute to a particular time in the history of his native France. A few of his best-known works are musicals, with The Umbrellas of…
It Doesn’t Hurt Me (2006)
While his career was cut tragically short as a result of his untimely death, Aleksei Balabanov was a relatively prolific director, having made nearly two dozen films over the course of his career. The ones he is most fondly remembered for are his more abstract works, like Happy Days and Of Freaks and Men, both…
Chi-Raq (2015)
There are very few filmmakers bold enough to make a film like Chi-Raq as Spike Lee, a director whose entire career has been defined by his willingness to push the envelope in ways that we had never seen before. Never afraid of controversy, since he knew what he was doing was for the greater good,…
Max, My Love (1986)
As a theme, desire has been explored in a multitude of ways throughout the history of art – it is perhaps even more distinct than representations of romance, with many artists across every conceivable medium viewing the concept of love as entailing a combination of emotional connection and carnal cravings. It has become an incredibly…
The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)
While their status as wildly inventive auteurs of the American independent arthouse may be almost entirely consolidated now as a result of their last few films, there was a time when Josh and Benny Safdie were two amateur filmmakers that weren’t particularly well-regarded, working in the deepest recesses of the mumblecore sub-genre. Their steady rise…
Rope (1948)
For all the talk about Alfred Hitchcock being the definition of conventional, not in the sense of it being derogatory but rather as a way of explaining how he defined cinema in a considerable way, he certainly did not find it difficult to experiment with form and content from time to time, as made abundantly…
The Postmodern Pelican 