There’s a moment early in Capone where the titular character stands on a small boat in a body of water somewhere in Florida, curses at an alligator for stealing the fish he was trying to reel in, and subsequently shoots it, resulting in the water turning a bright shade of red, accompanied by a bevvy…
Another Woman (1988)
Woody Allen’s career has always fascinated me – over the course of over fifty years, he’s made dozens of films, demonstrating a longevity and versatility very few filmmakers have been able to match, at least in terms of quantity. His career can also be segmented into different periods, with the 1980s seeing Allen slightly step…
Greed (2020)
In an era where the world’s wealthiest people are given far too much power and influence over the lives of ordinary people, there are few films that embody the spirit of the rousing call to “eat the rich” than Michael Winterbottom’s Greed, a film that progresses from an outrageous comedy to one of the darkest…
A Well for the Thirsty (1965)
In a secluded home, somewhere distantly in the desert of Ukraine, resides an elderly man (Dmitri Milyutenko). He has lived a long, challenging life, experiencing enormous social and cultural unease, coupled with the violence wrought from a flawed political system and the poverty that comes as a result. Over the course of what appears to…
Cat Ballou (1965)
Two minstrels (Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole) sing about the legend of Catherine “Cat” Ballou (Jane Fonda) – she was a young schoolteacher on her way home to Wolf City, Wyoming. She’s hoping to start a job there, all the while assisting her elderly father (John Marley) with the running of his ranch, which…
The Shameless Old Lady (1965)
“She ate the bread of life to the last crumb” Madame Berthe (Sylvie) is an elderly woman who has just been left a widow after the death of her husband. Her children are naturally worried about their mother, who had devoted her entire life to her marriage and has suddenly been left without direction. She…
How to Murder Your Wife (1965)
Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) is a wealthy cartoonist who enjoys the life of a bachelor – his company is normally restricted to his personal butler, Charles (Terry-Thomas), and a number of random women who Stanley meets regularly for passionate rendezvous that rarely last longer than a single evening. He has amassed his wealth through the…
Red Beard (1965)
When considering filmmakers that have risen to the level of folkloric reputations, there are few that embody the towering brilliance better than Akira Kurosawa. His iconic career, which stretched over half a century and saw the director venture into so many different genres, sampling from innumerable styles and telling a wide array of stories, it…
Tammy’s Always Dying (2020)
Tammy McDonald (Felicity Huffman) is a middle-aged woman who is always on the verge of dying, a result of her alcoholism and drug abuse compelling her to flirt with the idea of suicide, which is normally just a cue for her to get the necessary attention from her daughter, Cathy (Anastasia Phillips), who is growing…
Women in New York (1977)
In looking at the history of women-focused cinema, there are few films that represent as seismic a shift into looking at female issues as George Cukor’s The Women, the 1939 adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s revolutionary stage production of the same name. Cukor was one of the most influential directors of the Golden Age of…
The Postmodern Pelican 