There aren’t many people who contemporary audiences can implicitly trust to deliver a film about a haunted dress without descending into parody more than revolutionary auteur Peter Strickland. He is a director who has proven himself to be one of the most peculiar directors working today through a set of films that are both incredibly…
A Safe Place (1971)
Come for the promise of a stylish New Hollywood fairytale, stay for a heavily-accented Orson Welles taunting an orangutan in-between magic tricks. This seems to be the premise behind Henry Jaglom’s A Safe Place, a film that is quite remarkable in precisely how misguided it actually finds itself being, despite all the promise it had…
Bananas (1971)
There was a time when Woody Allen wasn’t making incredibly safe, often innocuous films about self-centred romantics hoping to find some meaning in worlds they don’t understand, but rather capable of telling stories that were edgy, subversive and even a bit controversial at times, and indicative of a filmmaker who was intent on satirizing anyone…
The King (2019)
The work of William Shakespeare has the unique distinction of being both extremely resonant, inspiring many of the greatest works of art since their inception centuries ago, as well as being heavily saturated to the point where no other artist can attest to have their work more scrutinized and explored. Thus, it takes a lot…
Doctor Sleep (2019)
I’ve always had a very strong relationship with The Shining. My adolescent years were spent obsessing over the novel and the iconic (if not highly contentious) film adaptation, looking for every crucial detail, trying to discern what it meant in the grander scheme of what Stephen King was trying to convey with this masterful story…
Shoplifters (2018)
“What makes a family?” – this was apparently the question that served as the impetus for Hirokazu Kore-eda’s masterful Shoplifters (Japanese: 万引き家族), a beautiful character-driven drama that once again sees the maestro venturing into the realm of social realism, delivering one of the most profoundly moving films of the past few years, and an utter…
Born Yesterday (1950)
It’s unfortunate that Born Yesterday doesn’t get enough of the love it deserves. It is decently acclaimed and has many ardent admirers, but it has often struggled to be seen as anything other than just an effective comedy hailing from the mind of George Cukor, who was never really able to reach the same heights…
Pink Narcissus (1971)
In a small but luxurious apartment in an unnamed American city resides an unnamed call-boy (played by Bobby Kendall), who spends his time daydreaming when he isn’t seeing to one of his clients. He imagines himself in a variety of situations – a matador to a cheering audience, a slave to a Roman court, a…
Taking Off (1971)
Jeannie Tyne (Linnea Heacock) is a young woman slowly growing tired of her overprotective parents, Lynn (Lynn Carlin) and Larry (Buck Henry), who do everything they can to control the life of their daughter. Jeannie, wanting to explore the world and learn about life, runs away from home and sets off on her own adventure….
Malpertuis (1971)
“It’s pretty, but its a bit difficult to understand. Somehow it makes me think of all kinds of things, but I’m not sure exactly what” These are the first words the viewer is presented with the beginning of Malpertuis, the audacious fantasy film crafted by Belgian horror auteur Harry Kümel, and one of the most…
The Postmodern Pelican 