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…
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Here are two unimpeachable truths – John Ford was the greatest director of westerns in history, and John Wayne the best actor to ever work in the genre. There’s a third truth that combines them both, in the form of the fact that when Ford and Wayne worked together, no one could come close to…
Away We Go (2009)
When one thinks of Sam Mendes, we normally associate him with more large-scale filmmaking that is produced on a much larger scope than many of his peers, whether it be multiple entries into a beloved spy action franchise, or his forays into the world of war in a couple of well-received films that made him…
Radio Days (1987)
Whenever the topic of Woody Allen’s output in the 1980s inevitably comes up, the devotees and general admirers of the director and his work doubtlessly will mention how this decade represented a seismic shift for the esteemed filmmaker. Following on from the more profound, dramatic material he produced at the tail-end of the 1970s, with…
The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)
While he did work across a range of genres, John Ford was mostly known for directing either action-packed, highly influential westerns, or searing historical dramas, either focused on particular individuals from the past, or an entire group at a specific time in America’s history. However, he did make a few forays into comedy, mostly in…
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)
While there have been divided reactions to his previous films, there’s very little doubt that Cooper Raiff is here to stay, representing the future of independent filmmaking. This isn’t some resounding praise (since it is understandable why he has been considering a polarizing figure), but rather an acknowledgement of the fact that he’s proven himself…
The Postmodern Pelican 