Art is often known to be very personal, especially when it comes to stories about family. Countless writers and directors have drawn influence from their own lives, whether taking cues from their childhood or their journey to become the artists we appreciate and revere, which is not always the easiest way for someone to develop….
Tag: movie-reviews
Bye Bye Tiberias (2023)
“Images of the past overlap those of the present “ These words are spoken by Lina Soualem, whose voice is heard primarily as the narrator of her film Bye Bye Tiberias (Arabic: باي باي طبريا), in which she travels from her home in France to a small village in Palestine, in an effort to unearth…
Last Orders (2001)
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” These words form perhaps the simplest but effective summary of what friendship represents – and surprisingly, it is not a contemporary quote, but rather found in the musings of the great philosopher Aristotle, who spoke about the concept of friendship with such beautiful and…
Top Gun (1986)
When it comes to films that are ordained as classics of cinema, you get two general groups – there are those that earn their reputation (either exceeding expectations or simply meeting them), and then there are the ones that are unfortunately overpraised to the point where eventually watching them is disappointing to say the least….
The Long(er) Take: The Career of…Paul Thomas Anderson (1970 – present)
At least once a year, I have been doing these features under a series I’ve called The Long Take, in which the premise is simple: choose a filmmaker I admire and gradually explore their work from beginning to end and then ultimately come forward with a definitive ranking of their films. This has mostly been…
Wind, Talk to Me (2025)
Nothing bonds a family like trauma, since the experience of losing a loved one tends to bring even the most conflicted people together as they attempt to navigate the grief and despair that comes with a great loss. In the case of Wind, Talk to Me, director Stefan Djordjevic makes his feature-length debut, crafting a…
Zenobia (1939)
Few situations have defined the concept of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” more than the brief moment when Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were forcibly separated as a result of a studio contract dispute, with each of them momentarily going their own direction, while producers attempted to prove that the magic that occurred…
Ebony & Ivory (2025)
When it comes to schmaltz in music, you can’t find anything that embodies it more than “Ebony & Ivory”, the often-parodied duet by Sir Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, two undeniable musical geniuses that found themselves reduced to a saccharine, heavy-handed message about racism and the importance of finding common ground, regardless of background, proving…
All My Friends Hate Me (2022)
We all know that familiar feeling of walking into a room, and suddenly being struck by a truly intrusive thought – “everyone here hates me”. Perhaps some have been lucky enough to have avoided such irrational and nonsensical delusions. Still, the vast majority of us have felt insecure from time to time, especially in arbitrary…
The Legend of Ochi (2025)
We all search for a sense of belonging – regardless of our background, there is always a desire to find a place where we feel comfortable and safe, whether physically or emotionally. We often find that there are interesting observations made by artists when it comes to exploring this idea, with entire genres being built…
The Postmodern Pelican 