There aren’t many genres that have been revived, reinvented and rebooted quite as much as the western, with its long and storied history going all the way back to the earliest days of motion picture filmmaking, and persisting in some form or another for as long as audiences have been going to the movies. Far…
Never Gonna Snow Again (2021)
While it may take a while to fully understand what is being said in Never Gonna Snow Again (Polish: Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie), we can tell from the first mysterious moments that this film is going to be quite an adventure. The story of an enigmatic masseur who travels from rural Ukraine to the…
Johnny Guitar (1954)
The western genre is a peculiar one – most of the time, it produces films that are mostly enjoyed by devotees to the genre, with those who may not be enamoured with it normally keeping their distance. Yet, it’s one of the few instances where every entry into the genre that is classified as a…
The Blazing Sun (1954)
As arguably the greatest African filmmaker to ever work in the medium (or at least one of them), Youseff Chahine left behind an enormously intimidating legacy, albeit one that is always a pleasure to explore. His canonical masterpiece is almost universally considered to be his homage to film noir in Cairo Station, which remains his…
Run Uje Run (2021)
Something that we don’t often talk about when it comes to film is how art can be a form of therapy. Most of the time, we view cinema as either pure entertainment, or attempts to convey a particular message around some broader social or political message. However, there are instances when someone makes a film…
Malignant (2021)
I don’t normally start my reviews with a warning, but in this case, it feels entirely appropriate. When Malignant, the latest offering from supposed horror maestro James Wan was released, nearly every review and bit of publicity, as well as word-of-mouth responses, indicated the prospective viewers should not read anything about this film, since part…
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
Religious-based films tend to have quite a bad reputation, especially in the last few decades, where they have come to be associated with not only cheap production value and poor filmmaking, but also overly conservative values that go against the more progressive nature of the mainstream film industry (or rather, the kind of armchair liberalism…
Risks and Side Effects (2021)
One has to admire films that manage to find the humour in even the most serious of situations, since they tend to be amongst the most well-composed, meaningful projects, subversive where it matters and insightful where we may not expect it to be. This is very true for Risks and Side Effects (German: Risiken &…
The Invisible Man (1933)
There’s nothing quite like a Universal horror film, especially around this time of year, when we all tend to dip into the more unsettling side of cinema. It’s a pleasant and unforgettable experience to nestle into a chilly autumnal evening (or springtime, depending on where you are choosing to be terrorized), armed with the knowledge…
Oliver & Company (1988)
The 1980s were a tough time for the Walt Disney Company – the glory days of their first Golden Era was too distant for them to coast on the goodwill from their classic films, and it would be a few years before they entered into another prolific era of producing brilliant films. This was also…
The Postmodern Pelican 