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…
Clockers (1995)
Ronnie Dunham (Mekhi Phifer) is a misguided young man who somehow lost his way years before, and found himself under the control of Rodney (Delroy Lindo), a kindly shop owner who is also a fearsome drug kingpin, supplying crack cocaine to the residents of the nearby Brooklyn projects. He employs Ronnie, who adopts the street…
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Watching Taika Waititi rise from being an unheralded director of obscure independent comedies to one of the most sought-after directors working today has been an interesting experience, especially for those of us who have been devoted to his work since the earliest days of his career (the discovery of Eagle vs Shark is still one…
The Pornographers (1966)
In the decades after the Second World War wrought unimaginable damage on the nation, the people of Japan do their best to rebuild their society. For most of them, they undergo immense travail in the hopes of recapturing the glory of their pre-war culture. However, others are not quite as dedicated, and choose to rather…
7 Women (1966)
In a career stretching from the formative years of the silent era, to just before the apex of New Hollywood, John Ford redefined cinema in his own way. It takes a very special filmmaker to win the endless admirations of the likes of Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman, who could legitimately lay claim to being…
The Postmodern Pelican 