In a conclusion to what has proven to be one of the most singularly peculiar, and some would argue wholeheartedly unnecessary, film trilogies in recent memory, Ti West has produced MaXXXine, a film that brings an end to a series of films in which the self-styled 21st-century schlockmaster experiments with different styles of horror, following…
Land Without Bread (1933)
Where does one even start with a discussion on Land Without Bread, the ambitious and deeply unnerving documentary by Luis Buñuel? This isn’t to suggest that this is the kind of unimpeachable masterpiece that renders the viewer speechless (although this is certainly not untrue, for reasons we will discuss momentarily – it is one of…
Next Door (2021)
In his directorial debut, Daniel Brühl asks his audience a series of fascinating questions, none of which have any clear answers. Playing a fictionalized version of himself (or at least a Spanish-German actor named Daniel, who has found relative success in both Europe and the United States), Brühl is telling the story of Berlin through…
The Mask (1994)
There are few premises more wonderfully simple but effective than that of The Mask, a remnant of another world that appears in our own, and whoever finds it is impelled to wear it, being transformed into an eccentric but potentially dangerous being, depending on the person who wears it. Created by Doug Mahnke for DC…
And God Created Woman (1956)
There came a point in cinema history where certain filmmakers simply just decided to go against the advice of censors, and instead of following their strict code of what was supposedly acceptable on screen, most of them simply disregarded these standards and started to go in their direction. Roger Vadim has quite a notorious reputation…
This Is the Night (1932)
Infidelity has rarely been funnier than in This Is the Night, the Pre-Code comedy directed by Frank Tuttle, which tells the story of a pair of lovers whose romantic journey to Venice is disrupted by the major inconvenience that comes in the form of a spouse returning from an overseas trip long before he was…
We Are from Jazz (1983)
While he may have been known for being the foundational pioneer of nihilism, one of Friedrich Nietzsche’s most astute and meaningful observations was found when he stated that “without music, life would be a mistake”, which is not only a beautiful idea, but one that resonates with every one of us. There is something very…
Three Floors (2021)
There is an idea we’ve discussed from time to time, which is the philosophical concept of “sonder”, which is defined as the realization that every person we encounter in our daily lives, whether in a brief interaction or passing, has their own rich, complex life and we remain only a brief part of it, rarely…
Citizen Ruth (1996)
The boundary between earnestness and controversy is so narrow, and crossing it is far easier than many may anticipate. This has prevented many filmmakers from covering subjects that would otherwise be considered fertile ground for engaging and thrilling projects, since the idea of unsettling the status quo is not entirely appealing, especially for those starting…
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023)
For just about as long as stories have been told, there has been an effort to preserve our history, whether in the spoken or written traditions of different cultures. Storytelling is nothing more than the act of simply taking words and assembling them to have some meaning, with the emphasis being on conveying something integral…
The Postmodern Pelican 