They certainly don’t make romances like they used to – there’s something so compelling about how love was perceived during the Golden Age of Hollywood that has allowed so many terrific works to become cherished classics of the genre. Ball of Fire is a film that has remained admired and beloved for over half a…
Journey to Bethlehem (2023)
Whether it be Cecil B. DeMille or the straight-to-DVD shelf at your local supermarket, the film industry has always found a place for religious films, which is surprisingly a market that is quite profitable. Even those who avoid these stories as much as they can will inevitably find themselves being coerced into experiencing them firsthand,…
All Through the Night (1942)
Many of us enjoy comedies, while others are partial to a good crime story. Then some adore a decently-made gangster picture, and those of us who love the experience of a strongly-constructed thriller. Somehow, there is a film that combines all four of these genres, and even adds in a bit of social satire and…
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
Where does one even begin when it comes to the subject of the cinema of Hayao Miyazaki? To call him a groundbreaking filmmaker is a wild understatement since what he has achieved throughout his career is beyond revolutionary. He and his colleague Isao Takahata (as co-founders of Studio Ghibli, which has become synonymous with quality…
Victor/Victoria (1982)
The sign of a truly great film is if its entire premise can be condensed into a single sentence, albeit one that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the story, while still piquing our curiosity to want to explore further than this brief synopsis. In the case of Victor/Victoria, the concept of “a woman pretends to…
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
All it takes is a single moment for your life to change – and for the frumpish but well-meaning Guinevere Pettigrew, it was a glance at her employment agency that allowed her to rise above her paltry working-class life and sample instead from London’s high society after finagling herself into the life of a well-to-do…
The Zone of Interest (2023)
While he may only direct sporadically, each one of Jonathan Glazer’s films is a masterful examination of a specific subject, handcrafted by a filmmaker with a keen vision and an even more intriguing sense of philosophical virtue. His fourth feature film, as well as the first film he has made in nearly a decade, is…
Il Mare (2000)
We have always been preoccupied with the concept of time – whether it is in the form of reflecting on the past and wishing we could go back in time, or pondering the future by trying to predict what the next stage of our lives will bring. It almost seems as if we are never…
Dream Scenario (2023)
Anything that can happen will more than likely manifest in a dream at some point in our lives. Scientists, psychologists and philosophers have been trying to figure out why our brains need to be put in a state where we begin to hallucinate while asleep, and we aren’t any closer to finding a definitive answer,…
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
For some inexplicable reason, Denys Arcand is a filmmaker whose name is not widely known, despite his work being exceptionally strong. He has a small group of devoted followers but has mainly remained quite under the radar outside of his native Canada, which seems like quite an unfortunate turn of events, especially considering he is…
The Postmodern Pelican 