After having quite a prolific career in both Europe and the United States, and having made films quite late into his life, it’s tough to imagine that Jean Renoir, one of cinema’s finest directors, had many instances of projects that didn’t manifest as he intended them to, most of his work being well-crafted and very…
Tag: review
Two-Way Stretch (1960)
From a linguistic perspective, few places breed innovation in how language develops and is used than prisons – these institutions tend to provide fascinating insights into how people change meanings of words ascribe entirely new definitions to existing terms, or even just outright create new phrases, all of which is usually done to establish some…
Starlet (2012)
Much like I suspect would be the case with many people, I first became acquainted with Sean Baker in 2015, when he had a major breakthrough with Tangerine, an extraordinarily ambitious dark comedy about two transgender sex workers that was notable for both its unconventional narrative, the fact that it was shot entirely on an…
La Moustache (2005)
The key to the success of any good film is often quite simple – have a good story and execution that matches or overtakes the level of ambition that went into its conception. Obviously it is integral to add other elements for the sake of diversity, but good art is really just a matter of…
A Real Pain (2024)
Everything is a matter of perspective – what some may find uncomfortable may be far easier for others to handle, and when it comes to some of life’s most challenging inevitabilities, we all tend to deal with them differently. Pain is something we all experience in some way or another, whether it is physical or…
Pressure Point (1962)
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite” These words were written by…
Una (2017)
While it may not be particularly memorable in retrospect, there was a brief moment when many of us believed that Una would become one of the major dramas of the past decade. In terms of the premise, the film was an adaptation of Blackbird, a critically acclaimed stage play by David Harrower, which told the…
Strange Voyage (1964)
There is a very particular sub-genre of fiction, which we can refer to as small-town noir or pastoral gothic, and which we often find occurring in a lot of European and American cinema in the years following the end of the Second World War, whereby filmmakers ventured out of the cities and chose to explore…
Bartleby (2001)
While he is mostly known for his towering tome Moby-Dick, which is appropriately considered possibly the greatest American novel ever written, Herman Melville was a much more varied writer and someone who composed several tremendous stories, many of which have gone on to become incredibly influential in their way. One of the more prominent is…
Blue Steel (1990)
As far as public perceptions go, very few professions have been subjected to scrutiny and division amongst the general population than police officers – many view them as admirable individuals who pledge their lives to serving and protecting the community. In contrast, others find their constant abuse of power and tendency to resort to needless…
The Postmodern Pelican 