They say blood is thicker than water – but very few of us should find ourselves in a situation where we discover this to be quite literally true. It is also the foundation of Riff Raff, in which Dito Montiel, working from a screenplay by John Pollono, goes in search of answers relating to this…
Tag: film
The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
Nestled deep in the countryside of pastoral New England sits a beautiful historical building, which has been the home of many fascinating people over the years. However, it is currently occupied by Professor Billings, a gentle but eccentric scientist, who has decided to sell the house, under the condition that he can maintain his laboratory…
Marlowe (2023)
Certain ideas for films tend to be best kept hypothetical, for a number of reasons. Whether it be that many of them work better in theory than they do in practice, or that it is sometimes impossible to live up to the impossibly high expectations that are packaged with some very ambitious concepts, we occasionally…
Weird Science (1985)
Few filmmakers are iconic enough that their very name is used to represent and define an entire generation of viewers, and it takes a lot of effort and genuine brilliance to get to the point where an entire genre is essentially created around their artistry. John Hughes was not only a great writer and director,…
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (2024)
As far as counterculture icons go, Anita Pallenberg is certainly one of the most fascinating, despite not being as widely known or revered as some of her peers. Someone whose career path was as layered and complicated as her ancestry, she was Italian-born of German parents, and who spent almost her entire life oscillating between…
Sinners (2025)
It’s been just over a decade since Ryan Coogler emerged with Fruitvale Station, a complex and engaging character study that examined a plethora of themes that are too familiar to contemporary audiences. Over the past few years, he made a small handful of films, each one brilliant and dynamic, and touching on complex themes that…
The Well-Digger’s Daughter (1940)
When it comes to sharp but meaningful satire, few writers were more adept at capturing the social and cultural milieu more than Marcel Pagnol. As both a playwright and filmmaker, he is responsible for several of the most important texts in the history of French literature, being an influential artistic force in both theatre and…
Love Hurts (2025)
We all carry remnants of our past, which we tend to prefer to keep hidden, at least to a certain extent – but the bigger the secret, the more challenging it is to conceal it, which can often lead to complications when the truth is unearthed, especially when they relate to more morally questionable aspects…
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
With every discussion of Buster Keaton’s work we’ve been engaging in over the last few months, the conversation inevitably is steered towards remarking on how, despite it having been roughly a century since these films were produced, they remain as fresh and exciting as ever, and have aged remarkably well, assisted by the support and…
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
There is a clear distinction between comedy films meant to be appreciated at the time of their release and those which tend to achieve their greatest success in the years that follow, usually when discovered by new generations of viewers. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion is an obvious example of the latter – it…
The Postmodern Pelican 