Cinema is an art form that primarily strives to entertain, to tell stories that allow audiences to escape for a brief period of time and often sit in blissful ignorance to the outside world. However, there are many instances where cinema also intends to educate the audience by conveying a certain message that has real-world…
Mystic River (2003)
Clint Eastwood, for better or for worse, has made a substantial impact on cinema, both as an iconic actor and as a director whose works span over five decades and include a number of significant accolades and positions within the canon of great American filmmaking. One could argue that Eastwood’s work is very much hit-and-miss,…
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
There is a great deal to love about Sorry to Bother You, one of the year’s most audacious films, and a great debut from musician Boots Riley, but the most impressive aspect of this film is its ability to be incredibly to the point and direct in what it is intending to convey – so…
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Beautiful Boy is not a good film. It is not a comfortable film, nor is it particularly pleasant. It is often extremely heavy-handed and in many instances, it may be dour enough to qualify as being the most miserable film of the year. However, Beautiful Boy is still an extraordinary film simply on its premise,…
The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Eli Sisters (John C. Reilly) and his brother, Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) are a pair of hitmen in the Gold Rush era. They are in the service of a mysterious but wealthy man known only as The Commodore (Rutger Hauer), who sends them on a quest for Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), a chemist who has…
Killing Gunther (2017)
Truthfully, I don’t know which is the more disappointing aspect of Killing Gunther. Is it the fact that it has such a good premise, but it squanders it by turning it into something that feels like an overlong and dreadfully unfunny sketch that was rejected from Saturday Night Live? Or is it the fact that…
Bird Box (2018)
When it comes to horror film (or any work that has the intention of creating fear or terror in the audience), I hold a few principles in very high regard – but the most important concept of horror cinema is what I call the Unseen Principle, which states that while seeing what we fear is…
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
In 1964, the world was introduced to the first cinematic representation of one of literature’s most beloved creations, Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews’ made her explosive debut as the titular nanny and set herself up for a career of iconic roles, all because of her iconic portrayal of Poppins. Now, five decades later, we return to…
Hud (1963)
When it comes to film stars, very few people could match Paul Newman and his decades-long dominance of cinema, especially in the 1960s – with his piercing blue eyes, his subtle conviction in his willingness to challenge himself as an actor and ability to play any role across a number of genres, he truly was…
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Of all the cinematic conventions that have seemingly gone out of style, none is more fascinating than that of the horror anthology. Perhaps not entirely absent, the days when films were built around short but impactful stories, often retaining some loose connection through wraparound sequences, are long behind us. A few months ago, I reviewed…
The Postmodern Pelican 