The Fisher King – 1991

Mental illness is challenging to portray on film. It is often seen as insensitive to have someone who isn’t mentally ill portray a severe mental illness, but the severely mentally ill usually aren’t in a position to appear on screen in that capacity. This means that it falls to truly talented actors to take up […]

Hunt for the Wilderpeople – 2016

Two more different people probably don’t exist in the world of film. A boy called Ricky and his foster ‘uncle’ are the subject of a national manhunt over a misunderstanding. Taika Waititi is an indie darling and here is where he finally put himself in the spotlight. He straddles the line perfectly between comedy and […]

Casablanca – 1942

There is no debating that Casablanca is one of the greatest films of all time. There is a reason it is considered one of the most well-received films. The simplicity of the scenery, the timeless message of love and sacrifice, the casual connective tissue between the characters. The film expresses sentiment in a way that […]

The Assassin – 2015

The Wuxia genre is fairly commonplace in Chinese cinema. The Assassin is a pretty standard martial arts film, but it offers some interesting filming techniques. Hou Hsiao-hsien uses minimal action and minimal dialogue, but his story tells an interesting tale nonetheless. He films through windows and entryways. He plants the camera and waits for the action […]

Manchester by the Sea – 2016

Pain is real. Acting isn’t. It takes a truly gifted actor to make an audience believe that the agony on the screen is real. Casey Affleck has never been on the radar as an extraordinary actor, but I am happy to be proven wrong. He pours his life force into this role and it shows […]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – 1937

There is no argument that Walt Disney invented the animated film. It wasn’t the first, but it certainly set the standard to which every other animated film aspired. The story is simple and the voice cast is insignificant, but the simplistic beauty of the film lies in its art. Before this film there were limits […]