A Boy and His Dog had all the qualities a film needs to make it a masterpiece – it has an audacious concept, a funny storyline and effective approach to the execution of its many ideas. Yet, somehow it just isn’t good as it should be, and while it is far from a disaster, it…
Overlord (1975)
Tom (Brian Stirner) is a young man who is soon set to leave his comfortable suburban home in Britain and head for the battlefields of the Second World War, where he will be serving alongside his fellow countrymen and Allies in the battle for victory against the Axis forces. Tom is a creative young man…
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Hell hath no fury like a woman bored. From the first moment of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman takes us on a fascinating journey into the depths of the human condition, where we are presented with the story of an ordinary woman going about her average life and not much…
To Dust (2019)
Schmuel (Géza Röhrig) has recently lost his beloved wife to cancer. The well-liked cantor and father of two finds his world thrown into disarray with this tragic incident, and as a result, he recedes from public view, becoming a shadow of his former self, constantly burdened with nightmares and dark thoughts about his late wife,…
Shadow (2019)
Shadow (Chinese: 影 or Yǐng) is an astonishing achievement. Zhang Yimou has established himself as perhaps China’s most important filmmaker, at least from the perspective of the worldwide resonance of his films. This film, in particular, sees the master returning to form, creating a film that will undoubtedly exist alongside his towering masterpieces such as…
Giant Little Ones (2019)
Franky (Josh Wiggins) lives a pretty happy life. He has a loving family, is extremely popular at school, has many girls fighting for his affection and most importantly, has a solid friendship with Ballas (Darren Mann), who has been at his side since they were children. However, below the surface, there is something deeper troubling…
Xala (1975)
“Modernity must not make us lose our Africanity” Senegal in the 1970s. The nation has just declared independence from the French, and have chosen to create their own government to rule over the people in the African way, establishing a fiercely proud politician as the President, and employing a range of businessmen and influential thinkers…
Barry Lyndon (1975)
I was recently talking to a friend, and I mentioned that there are few words that are more profoundly striking at the end of a film than “Directed by Stanley Kubrick” because naturally, you’d have just been through a period of great existential manipulation, as was par for the course for a man who relished…
Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
Phillip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) is patiently waiting inside a hotel room. The famous detective is now older, more grizzled and has a certain world-weariness that only comes with decades of dealing with the most sordid and deplorable of individuals, being a servant to the deviants and an ally to the law enforcement. He is approached…
Coonskin (1975)
Ralph Bakshi is renowned for The Lord of the Rings, revered for Wizards and infamous for Fritz the Cat. Yet, none of these films can be called his masterpiece, which is reserved strictly and without any hesitation for Coonskin, his magnum opus, a film of such undeniable brilliance, its relative obscurity (salvaged only by its…
The Postmodern Pelican 