There are many places we are encouraged to explore and experience their splendour, whether they are in the natural or constructed world. Yet, horror films set in these places very rarely yield particularly effective results, with the exception of a few that are truly innovative. Yet, the sense of adventure and familiarity with the excitement…
Tag: review
To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Perfection is impossible to replicate, but there is the possibility of producing something close enough to an approximation that we can at least be thoroughly entertained. As far as comedy goes, there are few films more flawless than Ernst Lubitsch’s masterful To Be or Not to Be, one of an elite group of films that…
Living Large (2024)
Anyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong can relate to the sensation of being an outsider. Whether due to physical appearance, ability or a more intangible element, many of us have felt like we exist on the outskirts of society, merely being fodder for the gawking mockery and entertainment of those around us….
Slow West (2015)
One of the most bizarre but understandable quirks of the popularity of the Western genre is the fact that so many works glamourized the Old West and presented it as some wildly entertaining, colourful period in the past where life was simpler and people were more eccentric. Naturally, this is all a product of Hollywood’s…
The United Screams of America: A Terror-Fueled Voyage Through Fifty-One Films
A couple of years ago, I chose a slightly ambitious project – I would take a cinematic road trip through the United States, choosing a single film from each of the fifty states (as well as Washington D.C.) that was either entirely or prominently set within that particular part of the country, to get a…
Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
While the debate around the exact film that kickstarted the screwball comedy genre continues to be a subject of considerable contention (with the general perception being that it can be reduced to the fascinating tug-of-war between Howard Hawks’ The Twentieth Century and Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night as the singular pioneering work), there are…
Goin’ South (1978)
The idea of marrying someone for a particular reason that has nothing to do with love, only to fall in love after the fact, is one that has found its way into cinema at different points, becoming a more common trope that has been replicated a number of times. When Jack Nicholson, in his sophomore…
Y2K (2024)
A new year brings new possibilities, a cliched and trite concept that adorns many inspirational posters and social media statements whenever we reach the final few days of a particular year, patiently waiting to transition into the next one. However, this was not necessarily the case in the late 1990s, with the fear of entering…
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Nothing inspires creativity and audacity more than rejection and failure – and few artists knew this more than Shane Black, whose career as a relatively successful screenwriter was brought to a grinding halt when one of his films did not perform as expected, leading to him becoming one of the countless casualties of Hollywood’s notoriously…
The Merry World of Léopold Z (1965)
In my continued efforts to explore important works of Québécois cinema, there were a few titles that emerged as being particularly noteworthy, whether for their artistic merit or the situation surrounding their creation. In the case of The Merry World of Léopold Z (French: La vie heureuse de Léopold Z), there were elements of both…
The Postmodern Pelican 