For a film that is influenced by a Robert Louis Stevenson poem, and even begins with the stanza that inspired the title, Home from the Hill is an awfully prosaic work that really doesn’t contribute much to an already saturated field of Southern melodramas that are far more overwrought than they are impactful, and which…
Sweat (2020)
Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik) is more loved than she realizes – one of Poland’s rising stars, she has taken the fitness world by storm, with her knowledge of getting (and staying) in shape being coupled with her effervescent positivity, and making her a figure many people look up to, whether in one of her large-scale public…
Tunes of Glory (1960)
As the commanding officer of a remove Scottish battalion, Colonel Jock Sinclair (Alec Guinness) has the responsibility of being a strict leader, but also one who values his soldiers above anything else. This has led him to gain the reputation of a strong but loving commander who is beloved by his subordinates, especially for his…
Curveball (2020)
“Based on a true story…unfortunately” These words greet us at the outset of Curveball, an exceptional German drama that dives deep into a discussion on the roots of one of the most harrowing episodes in modern history, the Iraq War. The boundaries between truth and fantasy are provoked quite heavily throughout this film, which proves…
Psycho (1960)
When it comes to cinema, we all have special memories about certain films. Anyone who has ever found solace in the warm embrace of filmmaking will doubtlessly hold some strong feelings towards particular works, which normally evoke some kind of reaction from them. However, there are some films that are memorable not only for their…
The Life Ahead (2020)
There’s a phenomenon that occurs very rarely, but when it does, almost the entire cinematic community comes to a grinding halt, standing in awe at what we’re seeing transpiring – a film legend emerges from the shadows after years of partial or outright retirement or relative obscurity, and provides us with another glimpse into their…
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney) is an ordinary man – he works a regular job in a local factory in working-class London, and spends his evenings and weekends in pubs and at the local picture show, where he passes the time until he has to return to work the following day. He lives a very simple…
Becoming Mona (2020)
Mona (Tanya Zabarylo) hasn’t had the easiest life so far. When she was only a child (Olivia Landuyt), her life was shaken after her mother dies in a tragic accident, which she experiences through her bereaved father, Vincent (Tom Vermeir) struggling to come to terms with such an immense loss. However, it’s not too long…
Auto Focus (2002)
It was the iconoclastic playwright and filmmaker David Mamet that called Hollywood “a sinkhole of depraved venality”, which isn’t a sentiment exclusive to his line of thinking – throughout its storied history, the proverbial Tinseltown has been the subject of a fair amount of brutal indictments, whether from those who were soured by their fifteen…
Love Among the Ruins (1975)
In a career that stretched from the earliest days of the Golden Age of Hollywood, right to the centre of the New Hollywood movement, George Cukor was a cinematic institution – and anyone who has had the great pleasure of seeing any of his films will doubtlessly attest to the fact that he was a…
The Postmodern Pelican 