When it comes to satire, you can never tell whether something is going to be an enormous success or a dismal failure – and any director who respects the art of lampooning a particular aspect of culture knows that any satire worth our time is not going to be preoccupied with its prospects, but rather…
Tag: film-review
Happyend (2025)
A couple of years ago, I attended a film festival in which one of my most anticipated titles was Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, which was the final concert by arguably the greatest pianist of the 20th century, an essential voice who we lost far too soon, but who managed to (in the final chapter of his…
Coup! (2024)
They say you should be wary of the people you allow into your home – there is a reason why many cultures have it embedded in their customs the standard practice to wait to be invited into someone’s dwelling before actually being able to step in, which some say has its roots in older folklore,…
Memory (2023)
It may be slightly inappropriate to start a discussion on a film by saying so, but there is a reason why Michel Franco is one of the most controversial contemporary filmmakers. It isn’t because the subject matter of his films is provocative or defiant of standards, nor is his filmmaking particularly challenging in a way…
Storm Over Lisbon (1944)
The shadow of Casablanca loomed large over Hollywood in the mid-1940s. The radical success of that iconic film was frequently a source of a lot of active efforts to recapture the same spirit of the wartime romance between Rick Blaine and Ilse Lund, so much so that it became a minor genre all on its…
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…
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)
Just a brief note before we begin – I have not set out to spoil this film or ruin its many surprises, but in an effort to speak more openly about some of its themes and ideas, I have taken a slightly more liberal approach. While the actual solution isn’t revealed at any point, I…
Georgia (1995)
Independent cinema has had a long and storied history, but it cannot be viewed as a single endless stream, but rather a series of chapters, each one defined as something of a generation in a long journey towards negotiating the boundary between the mainstream and the arthouse. One of the most fascinating, at least in…
Orphan (2025)
There was a point when we thought László Nemes was going to be the next great European auteur. He showed a lot of promise with Son of Saul, a film that has some flaws but is still an ambitious achievement. That proved to be somewhat of a divisive work, and one that did contain several…
My Sweet Little Village (1985)
Everyone who has lived in a major city or urban area has likely at some point in their life imagined the joys that would come from leaving the hustle and bustle of whatever metropolis that defines their daily routine, venturing into the countryside and starting a far simpler life. It is a concept that is…
The Postmodern Pelican 