In a world that is stricken with poverty, there are seemingly only two ways to escape: through hard work, or sheer force. In the case of the protagonist in Monkey Man, a blend of the two seems to be the best option. In his directorial debut, Dev Patel crafts a film that has a lot…
The Omen (1976)
Some horror films make you question whether it is a good idea to remain seated or retreat from the very first moments. They’re rare but they certainly exist, and from the first haunting note of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for The Omen, we are immediately plunged into a state of terror and despair, with the carefully-constructed…
Scoop (2024)
It’s always a peculiar experience to sit through a film that dramatizes events that you saw unfolding in real life since it almost feels redundant (and we often forget that films aren’t solely made for the present generation, but also for those that are still to come, with the contemporary dramas of today being the…
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
When a director has been working for more than half a century, and has made over fifty films and television shows, there are bound to be a few duds scattered throughout their career. If you asked one of them what their worst film is, they would usually find one particular film that they feel is…
Ripley (2024)
“His stories were good because he imagined them intensely, so intensely that he came to believe them” Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith occupies quite a peculiar place in the history of English literature – her works are embraced as wildly entertaining and genuinely daring pieces of writing, with stories that strike a…
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Fear is a fascinating topic, and one that has intrigued everyone from existential philosophers to eccentric artists for centuries, with the idea of something intangible or unlikely being able to have such a firm grasp on one’s psychological state. It is one of the only emotions that can be produced entirely organically by our psyche…
Lousy Carter (2024)
If there was ever a character who defined the belief that life is filled with suffering and sadness, and it is also far too short, it would be the hapless, down-on-his-luck protagonist of Bob Byington’s brilliant and subversive Lousy Carter, in which we are introduced to the titular character, a failed (although he may prefer…
Romance on the High Seas (1948)
Throughout its long and storied history, Hollywood has made countless remarkable films that tell important and impactful stories, provoking thought and stirring conversation with discourse around a range of deep themes. Romance on the High Seas is not one of these films – instead, it is an outrageous, vaguely absurd musical comedy that is about…
The Woman Chaser (1999)
There’s a very narrow boundary between paying homage to a genre of film, and fully becoming part of it in itself – and when it comes to The Woman Chaser, the distinction has never been more clear. A relatively underseen (some may even say obscure) dark comedy produced in the late 1990s by a director…
Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024)
In the opening scene of his masterpiece Annie Hall, Woody Allen provides us with a quote that has gone on to become iconic: “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering, and it’s all over much too soon”, which serves to be a perfect summary of life for those who have adopted it as their…
The Postmodern Pelican 