While it is always wonderful to see gifted individuals in the film industry collaborating with a wide array of people, it is undeniable that certain people are better suited to working with certain people than others, not because they are limited, but rather due to the fact that they bring out the best in each…
The Verdict (1982)
Few directors have been able to produce work that feel as urgent as that of Sidney Lumet. Whether satirical or sobering, his films were always imbued with a sense of immediacy, which assisted massively in defining him as one of the great masters of the industry. In this regard, we can look towards The Verdict…
Matthias & Maxime (2019)
Appreciating and admiring an artist sometimes entails admitting that they too have their shortcomings, and not everything that they produce can be considered a masterpiece. This is unfortunately the case with Xavier Dolan, a filmmaker I hold a huge amount of reverence towards, with his films being some of the most extraordinary of the past…
Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2022)
The story of Hiroo Onoda is certainly fascinating – a soldier so dedicated to defending his nation while stationed on a remote island in the Philippines during the final days of the Second World War, he refused to surrender after the war was declared over, remaining an active soldier on duty for nearly 30 years…
Tender Little Pumpkins (1949)
I’ve always appreciated comedy above nearly every other genre, specifically when it comes to looking at a cultural landscape. Few other genres are capable of capturing the true spirit of a time and place, as well as the people who occupied it, more than those works that aim to make audiences laugh. Sometimes viewing these…
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
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…
The Postmodern Pelican 