Well, where do we begin? As shameful as it is to say, I don’t think I’ve got the words that can appropriately describe Mandy, the latest film from the obscurely brilliant Panos Cosmatos. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but considering the director’s previous work, Beyond the Black Rainbow was a work…
The Children Act (2018)
Life is a precious thing – regardless of what you believe, I think we can all appreciate the fact that life is something to be cherished – but there is something else that governs life in many instances that is often extremely important, as well as extremely divisive: the right to choose. This is the…
You Can Count On Me (2000)
Despite having made only three films over the span of nearly two decades, Kenneth Lonergan is most certainly one of the most important voices in contemporary independent cinema. Margaret was a misunderstood labour of love, and Manchester by the Sea was a towering achievement that remains one of the finest representations of grief ever committed…
Destination Wedding (2018)
Perhaps the most succinct way to describe Destination Wedding is if Richard Linklater’s iconic Before…Trilogy featured two despicable curmudgeons who, instead of waxing poetic about life’s great philosophical quandaries, spew vitriolic misanthropy towards each other and society as a whole, while slowly falling in love. Anyone who knows me will understand how this is most definitely…
Hearts Beat Loud (2018)
Audacity doesn’t need a big budget to be fully-realized, and no one knows this better than Brett Haley, the director of some illuminating independent comedies, such I’ll See You in My Dreams and The Hero, as well as the subject of this review, Hearts Beat Loud. A gentle, unassuming and heartwarming project, this film is the representative of everything…
Othello (1951)
My joyful celebration of the incredible work of Orson Welles continues, and the next part of this retrospective is one of Welles’ more exuberant works, the magnificent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy, Othello. Welles, a notoriously brilliant scholar of The Bard, is perhaps the person who could be trusted most with his work, as…
Chinese Roulette (1976)
There was something about Rainer Werner Fassbinder that made him so exceptionally special. Perhaps it was his career of directing nearly four dozen films in a span of just over a decade, making him one of the most prolific auteurs of his generation, distinctive not only for his vast body of work but also the…
Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1993)
With the exception of Charles Dickens’ seminal words “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, or Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins”, I would argue that there has not been a more iconic and noteworthy set of words to open any work of literature than…
A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
This year, I have finally take the leap directly into Peter Greenaway’s career, and exploring his films have been a truly rewarding experience. There is nary a friend, relative or co-worker that has not been on the receiving end of my adoration-fueled lamentations of Drowning by Numbers, a film that changed my perspective on literature…
Damsel (2018)
There’s nothing better than a good genre film, especially a genre that has somewhat fallen out of favour. Except for a film that subverts the genre and re-imagines it as something entirely different, unique and wonderful. Nathan and David Zellner made Damsel, which could quite possibly be the most outrageously hilarious Western since Blazing Saddles…
The Postmodern Pelican 