A brief personal story to preface this review – when watching The Remains of the Day recently, I was struck by memories of a very particular time in my life, probably somewhere in primary school. Whenever the question would come up in class about what we wanted to be when we grow up, my classmates’…
Don’t Bother to Knock (1952)
Nell Forbes (Marilyn Monroe) is a young woman looking for any way to make a few dollars. Her uncle (Elisha Cook Jr.) manages to get her a temporary job, as a babysitter to a wealthy tourist couple currently staying at the hotel in which he works as an elevator operator. The mild-mannered Nell seems like…
Xanadu (1980)
If the last two decades in film discourse have taught us anything, it’s that we must not be hasty in judging a film, especially those that are more ambitious than we’d expect them to be, or those which seem to be doing something radically different, which audiences have a tendency to write off as being…
Paradise Now (2004)
Unfortunately, Paradise Now (Arabic: الجنّة الآن) hasn’t aged particularly well, despite being something of a sensation at the time of its release. Perhaps it’s the fact that it courted more controversy than was to be anticipated, or that the film isn’t always free of some glaring flaws the distract from an otherwise compelling story. Yet,…
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
Russian cinema is severely underrated, especially when it comes to looking at how there are many filmmakers who traversed every conceivable genre, but often had their voice stifled by either the Soviet government, or by western audiences, who weren’t particularly enamoured with the idea of embracing films produced in a region that was essentially their…
Funny Face (1957)
As much as they’d like to think they continue breaking boundaries with their constant pursuit of innovation, Hollywood quite simply doesn’t make films like Funny Face anymore. We certainly do see occasional pastiches of the Golden Era of filmmaking in movies like The Artist and La La Land, but these are only pale imitations of…
The Station Agent (2003)
There are some days where I consider The Station Agent to be a perfect film, while there are others where it completely slips my mind that such a staggering work of art exists, only at an arm’s length from bringing joy to anyone who decides to venture into Tom McCarthy’s wonderful world. A small and…
A Chump at Oxford (1940)
Sometimes, we tend to want to put away the overly serious, ambitious and artistically-resonant productions and instead simply just watch something entertaining. Mercifully, the film industry has never experienced a shortage of wonderfully exuberant productions, many of them produced through the partnerships of various comedic duos or troupes, which served as the foundation for countless…
Daddy Nostalgia (1990)
Daddy Nostalgia is the kind of film that has value we don’t realize until we’re nearly done. Bertrand Tavernier was a profoundly gifted filmmaker, a multi-generational French storyteller that could weave together the most complex plots into some of the most profoundly moving testaments to the human condition. However, this film in particular is one…
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)
When looking at any form of postcolonial literature written by an author that is part of a previously marginalized group, we can see some degree of “writing back”, whereby they are constructing works that not only describe their experiences or those of their ancestors, but also serve a discursive function, commenting on the issues that…
The Postmodern Pelican 