“Say his name” As far as I’m concerned, Candyman is one of the greatest creations in horror history, with Clive Barker’s fascinating tale of a vengeful spirit that wreaks havoc after being summoned by anyone brave enough to say his name being an indelible part of slasher movie history. This was made abundantly clear by…
Please Give (2010)
Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) are a longtime couple who run a relatively successful furniture store, which they stock by visiting various estate sales of recently deceased individuals. Alex sees very little problem in profiting off property that no one wanted anymore, but Kate is more reluctant, especially since they intentionally don’t disclose…
Beau Geste (1939)
While his name may not be known to many people outside of aficionados of early Hollywood history (and even then, it may not be as obvious as it would seem), William A. Wellman will always be considered part of film history for directing arguably one of the defining works of silent era cinema, the incredible…
La Ciénaga (2001)
At the intersection between class and sanity resides La Ciénaga, the ambitious directorial debut of Lucrecia Martel, one of the most important South American directors of the last few decades. She weaves together a story of a bourgeois family that spend their leisure time luxuriating at their secluded summer home somewhere in pastoral Argentina, which…
The Green Man (1956)
The title The Green Man might not be familiar to many viewers, who might (on hearing of it), expect it to be some strange, provocative science fiction thriller, since it evokes such images, as well as being made during an era where these films were at their peak. However, in reality, the film is a…
Drunken Master (1978)
There are two genres of films that I think have managed to achieve the status of showcasing the full extent of what the human body is capable of doing. The first are the musicals produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood, where the lives of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and a wealth of…
The White Lotus (2021)
We all need to break from tradition from time to time, especially when the occasion calls for one to do something different. While I normally focus on reviewing film, sometimes another project comes around that is so special, it impels me to put pen to paper and write about it, especially if there is something…
Le révolutionnaire (1965)
As the old saying goes, “all’s fair in love and war” – however, we can easily conflate the two, since they’re both amongst the most difficult ideas to understand at a conceptual level, and unless someone has experienced either of them, logically explaining their function is a fool’s errand. This serves as the foundation of…
Career Girls (1997)
Cinema adores friendships, especially those that change over time. There’s something about a solid exploration of the trials and tribulations of the companionships of two or more people that make for profoundly moving testaments to the human spirit. Mike Leigh implicitly understood this when he set out to make Career Girls, a slightly atypical film…
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
When it came to the swashbuckling genre – a kind of film that barely exists anymore, outside of a few ill-fated attempts to revive it – you got a wealth of different styles. These were films propelled by action, romance, mystery and even some comedy, many of them occurring in tandem, creating enthralling and captivating…
The Postmodern Pelican 