Despite being one of the more cherished directors working today, Guillermo del Toro’s films may be considered an acquired taste. With the exception of a couple of films that are almost universally praised and adored, his work is quite divisive, which is less of an implication of him being a director that doesn’t register with…
Tempest (1982)
Throughout a career that saw him essentially redefining how comedy is made, particularly in his approach to looking at some very serious subjects through his off-kilter brand of melancholic humour, Paul Mazursky made some terrific films. One of the great stalwarts of a particular era in American filmmaking, he was not someone afraid to push…
The Machine That Kills Bad People (1952)
The name Roberto Rossellini evokes many different images, very few of them having anything to do with comedy. He was not a director known for making lighthearted films, instead being one of the formative voices in the Italian neo-realist movement, which saw him addressing the postwar period through an array of gritty, direct dramas that…
Licorice Pizza (2021)
As is the case with many filmgoers, it doesn’t take much for me to get invested in the prospect of a new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, who has proven himself to be one of the most versatile filmmakers working in cinema today. The past quarter-century has been dominated by discourse around his steadily-growing status…
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
When I first saw Napoleon Dynamite (which was most likely around the time of its original release) I found it funny but unremarkable, the kind of well-meaning independent comedies that had good intentions, but became unbearable once audiences adopted the mannerisms of the characters, making them part of their personality, which was funny for a…
1. April 2000 (1952)
There is a certain deranged pleasure that comes in watching films made many decades ago that supposedly predict a future we have already bypassed – while those set in the distant future tend to be quite compelling, the most fascinating are those that look slightly closer to reality, as is the case in 1. April…
Chopper (2000)
The story of Mark Brandon Read, who was better known by the name “Chopper” Read, is one of the most notorious in Australian history. Not only was he a bloodthirsty criminal who took the lives of anyone who would dare cross him (often doing it with a grin on his ghastly face), he was also…
Umberto D. (1952)
Without any hesitation or sense of hyperbole, I can boldly proclaim that Vittorio de Sica made what I consider to be the greatest film of all time, the absolutely stunning and deeply captivating Bicycle Thieves, a cinematic marvel that never fails to make an impact when I revisit it and see how the director managed…
Soapdish (1990)
Irony is a powerful literary tool when used correctly – and there’s nothing quite as wonderfully self-referential as Aaron Spelling, a mogul of soap operas and television dramas, producing a film like Soapdish, which both celebrates and annihilates the empire he helped construct. Michael Hoffman’s irreverent and hilarious satire is one of the funniest films…
The Killer Inside Me (2010)
Any cursory summary of the career of Jim Thompson will doubtlessly mention how he was a writer who transformed pulp fiction into art. His particular brand of hardboiled, Southern-fried crime fiction has captivated audiences for generations, with the off-kilter humour, graphic violence and twisted narratives making them far more complex than other supposedly cheaply-produced works…
The Postmodern Pelican 