Adam (Youssouf Djaoro) lives in the centre of a busy city somewhere in Chad. He has lived a simple but worthwhile life, with his earlier years being dominated by his reputation as one of the best swimmers in his nation’s history, which has made him into quite a folkloric figure. However, he has mainly spent…
Home Front (2020)
The exact moment when it happened isn’t clear, but at some point in the past, the general narrative shifted from portraying war as something to be celebrated (as was conventional), into representing it as a far more daunting, terrifying concept, particularly in the artistic sphere, moving away from lamenting the heroic actions of bloodthirsty conquerors…
Guest of Honour (2020)
Jim (David Thewlis) and Veronica (Laysla De Oliveira) are a father and daughter who carry many secrets, most of which have gone with the former to his grave. Now deceased, Jim is about to be buried, and his daughter decides to honour his final wish to have his funeral at a specific Catholic church, for…
Mank (2020)
Anyone who adores Hollywood history was undoubtedly clamouring to see what David Fincher was going to concoct when it was announced that his next project (his first in over half a decade, and the one directly following his reinvention of the psychological thriller with Gone Girl) would be Mank, based on a screenplay written by…
La Cérémonie (1995)
Claude Chabrol may be known for a great number of different films, but the one that is both the most cherished by his devotees, and serves to be the entry point for newcomers looking to get into the director’s work is La Cérémonie, his fascinating film that draws inspiration from several literary and historical sources,…
I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (2006)
We need to have a brief discussion about I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (Korean: 싸이보그지만 괜찮아). I’m not quite sure if this is a good film, or if it’s a bad film – in fact, I’m not even entirely sure if it counts as a film overall. Instead, what is absolutely certain is that…
The Entertainer (1960)
Archie Rice (Laurence Olivier) is the last person who will ever admit to being outdated, even though nearly everyone else around him holds this to be an unimpeachable truth. A relic of the days when the stage was dominated by eccentric, middle-aged men who performed in sold-out theatres to adoring crowds who enjoyed the upbeat,…
Why Don’t You Just Die! (2020)
Andrei Gennadievitch (Vitaliy Khaev) just wanted to eat his dinner in peace. A police officer who is respected (perhaps even feared) by his peers, he leads what appears to be a highly-principled life, based on a strong set of morals instilled in him from an early age. However, this afternoon turns out to be something…
Uncle Frank (2020)
Beth (Sophia Lillis) is an impressionable young woman starting college in New York City, which is just about as far as she can get, both physically and mentally, from her hometown, the small working-class hamlet of Creekville, South Carolina, where the spectre of the past still lingers, despite being well into the 1970s. As a…
9 to 5 (1980)
Has there ever been a film that better encapsulate’s William Congreve’s oft-quoted quip that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” more than the timeless classic 9 to 5? If there was ever a film that could be considered a definitive work of feminism on screen, you’d do worse than to name Colin Higgins’…
The Postmodern Pelican 