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…
Support the Girls (2018)
Sometimes the most memorable films are the most simple. No one understands this better than Andrew Bujalski, who has quietly risen from obscurity to become one of the more fascinating young filmmakers in contemporary independent cinema. Some of his films have been so abstract and intimate, they border on being almost non-existent, such as the…
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
When someone asks me why I admire Spike Lee, I normally point to any of his tremendous films such as Jungle Fever, 25th Hour, She’s Gotta Have It or Do the Right Thing, a film I consider to be the greatest film ever made by an American director. This year, he may have just proven…
F for Fake (1973)
I want to be Orson Welles when I grow up, honestly. I don’t think there has ever been a more fascinating cinematic figure than Welles, who never fails to surprise me with his exceptional skills, both as a performer and as a filmmaker, being someone whose career helped set the foundations for modern cinema. A…
Branded to Kill (1967)
Branded to Kill is the kind of film that makes me want to realize my dream of becoming a filmmaker so I can make films just like this. Perhaps not a film I could absolutely understand, it is one that exhibits an impressive amount of sheer audacity, and if there is something I admire in…
Zama (2018)
What a terrific film Lucrecia Martel has made with Zama. A powerful historical drama that transports the audience into the past, with the director’s meticulous style and dedication to her narrative providing a substantially fascinating journey to a period that has been somewhat under-represented in contemporary literature. I have mentioned it before, but I find…
The Postmodern Pelican 