It’s A Wonderful Life
Director Frank Capra explored the theme of the innate goodness of the young at heart, as personified by James Stewart, overcoming the evil schemes of black-hearted older men once before in…
Inspired by the New York Daily Inquirer from Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane.
Christmas Features
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
Disney's A Christmas Carol might have been better titled Dickens' A Christmas Carol as screenwriter/director Robert Zemeckis has very faithfully adapted the classic short story by blending the original text,…
Birthday Feature
Sondheim! The Birthday Concert
So, I turned 40 in 2011! I wasn't alone in this, among the luminaries joining me were Ewan McGregor, Mark Wahlberg, Winona Ryder, Mariah Carey and Sacha Baron Cohen, not that it…
Birthday Feature
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music was not one of my parents' favourite things so, consequently, I do not have any fond childhood memories of it as I have for the Wizard of…
Good Friday Feature
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
I was first exposed to Monty Python whilst I was at school; I got one of their albums, Monty Python's Previous Record, out of the local library, and was instantly…
Editor’s pick
Blue Moon (2025): The Cost of Staying in the Room
Long before Blue Moon, I had become interested in what happens to songwriting partnerships once their period of effortless alignment has passed. Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy remains one of the most perceptive explorations of that dynamic, concerned less with the triumphs of Gilbert and Sullivan than with the strain of having to…
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More Featured Stories
Sister Wives (2024): When Intimacy Becomes Dissent
Sister Wives understands something many films about repression miss: the most dangerous thing in a closed system isn’t rebellion, it’s tenderness. Set inside a fundamentalist polygamous marriage, the film follows Kaidence…
Song Sung Blue (2025): Love, Time, and the Cost of Compression
I went into Song Sung Blue already inclined to like it. I was something of a musical magpie from an early, impressionable age, discovering Neil Diamond through my father’s record collection; his…
Rewatching Hello, Dolly! (1969): A Misunderstood Roadshow Gem
On my recent rewatch of Hello, Dolly! I was struck by how much more alive and charming it feels than its reputation suggests. For years it has been filed away…
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Arizona Dream
Almost 20 years before the overhyped Inception focused on the phenomenon of dreaming Emir Kusturica directed Johnny Depp in the surreal comic fantasy Arizona Dream. The movie was produced by…
The King’s Speech
Despite taking the top awards at the 2011 Oscar Ceremony, or perhaps because of that, I was in no hurry to see director Tom Hooper's The King's Speech, although I…
Black Swan
Director Darren Aronofsky's award-winning film Black Swan is a dark and disturbing psychological thriller, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie and Roman Polanski's Repulsion, focusing on the highly competitive and pressurised…