While it may seem counterintuitive, social and cultural outrage is one of the most important aspects of human development, since without the ability to recognise when something is amiss and respond to it accordingly based on the combination of social conditions and visceral instincts, we’d be running amok as a species, unable to control ourselves…
Tag: comedy
The Roses (2025)
“Till death us do part” – a phrase embedded in the global culture, almost to the point of becoming a cliché. Yet, it ends most conventional wedding vows, a continued choice that highlights the lifelong commitment two individuals make to each other at the altar, whether proverbial or physical. Yet, that’s not all that interesting,…
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
By the time he set out to make The Purple Rose of Cairo, Woody Allen already had about two decades of filmmaking behind him, having grown to be arguably the most acclaimed director of American comedies working at the time – but gradually over the years, he lost his desire to tell outrageous stories, and…
It’s Complicated (2009)
The idea of first impressions being definitively final is such a passé concept, since there are many instances of a second chance sometimes being more meaningful than a first encounter. No one understands this better than Nancy Meyers, who has made something of a career based around ordinary protagonists going in search of some deeper…
Three Ages (1923)
Love is something we all experience, but yet rarely find ourselves able to explain. It’s a universal sensation, albeit one that has baffled and confused everyone from ancient philosophers to the average person walking down the street. However, this hasn’t stopped many terrific filmmakers from staking their claim and providing their own interpretation on the…
The Girl on the Broomstick (1972)
There are many qualities associated with the fall of the Soviet Union that tend to be fascinating, that extend beyond the historical context and instead focus on other qualities not normally discussed when looking at this era. For decades, the art produced by the Soviet Union and its closest allies was mainly hidden from Western…
Splitsville (2025)
Falling in love is easy, but staying in love is where it becomes challenging. It seems to be a dreadfully trite subject, but we’ve seen multiple examples of stories crafted around the trials and tribulations of couples as they find themselves weathering the storm of relationships that steadily decline for one reason or another. For…
Wide Open Faces (1938)
Comedy serves many different functions, but more than anything else, we find that the best comedies are usually those that present a snapshot of the time and place in which they were produced. The late 1930s were not a particularly pleasant time in the United States – the country was in the final stages of…
Mr Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007)
Purely based on logic, it seems implausible that there is any subject that could attract a range of notable names in the entertainment industry to gather for a discussion, in which this group includes the likes of Clint Eastwood and Sidney Poitier, to Joan Rivers and Chris Rock, and everyone in between. However, such a…
The Jerk (1979)
In the canon of works that are not only vitally important to the development of American humour, but vital to the entire cinematic process, we have The Jerk, a film that was initiated as a flight of fancy between director Carl Reiner and star and co-writer Steve Martin, best-known for his landmark appearances on the…
The Postmodern Pelican 