The question that we all need to ask when it comes to A Fine, Windy Day (Korean: 바람 불어 좋은 날), is whether this is a story about people living in a city, or a tale of a city and the people who occupy it. This may sound like the same concept, but it’s an…
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
As one of the greatest filmmakers to ever work in the medium (not a revolutionary opinion, but rather very close to an objective fact), Alfred Hitchcock’s career is filled with a wide array of films of varying quality. What is most interesting is that even lower-tier Hitchcock films are still absolutely worth watching, with very…
Babo 73 (1964)
We recently lost the extremely talented Robert Downey, Sr., which evoked a wealth of conversations surrounding his importance to the world of cinema, as made very clear by the legions of people who remarked on his brilliance as one of the formative voices in American independent cinema, which would not have been the cherished institution…
Camp (2003)
The teenage years are a challenge for many of us – it’s tough enough to try and fit in during a period of such physical and mental change. We start to see the world differently, and we learn that the follies of childhood are certainly not something that we can hold onto forever. What makes…
Doc (1971)
Referring to Doc, one of the many films that focused on the eponymous legend of the Wild West, John “Doc” Holliday, as a western is both technically accurate and theoretically false, since despite its setting, there is very little that can be compared to traditional westerns, even those that fall under the revisionist category. A…
Together Together (2021)
Matt (Ed Helms) is a successful app developer who leads quite a happy life, enjoying middle-age as a single man, without much intention of finding a partner. However, he does desperately want to become a father, so as a result, he seeks out alternative options for fatherhood, which leads him to hire a surrogate to…
Uncle Buck (1989)
The Russells are an ordinary, middle-class family living the American Dream – to the point where they have made the pilgrimage from their home in Indianapolis to suburban Chicago, which has been a cause for great chagrin, and the reason why rebellious teenager Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) is belligerent to all of her parents’ attempts…
The Bad Seed (1956)
Any film that has an extended spot in John Waters’ repertoire of references is bound to be something special, especially if one has a penchant for high camp. My first encounter with The Bad Seed was through the famous, oft-quoted line of “give me those shoes”, as delivered by the sinister but hilariously deranged Rhoda…
Sink or Swim (2018)
Bertrand (Mathieu Amalric) is a manic-depressive, unemployed stay-at-home father who quite literally eats medication for breakfast. Laurent (Guillaume Canet) is a bourgeois man who deals with his familial problems through unhinged anger. Marcus (Benoît Poelvoorde) is the owner of a pool business that is rapidly declining. Simon (Jean-Hugues Anglade) is a line-chef who has held…
High Hopes (1988)
No one tells stories quite like Mike Leigh. He has devoted almost his entire career to bespoke explorations of the working class, taking the viewer into the intimate recesses of a nation torn apart by the broken promises of the Thatcher regime. His earlier films are also the ones that are propelled most notably by…
The Postmodern Pelican 