Thematically resonant almost thirty years on, arguably more so given our chronically online lives, and genuinely visionary in its use of the unreliable narrator as a means for psychological unravelling. The debt filmmakers like Darren Aronofsky, Edgar Wright, and Nicolas Winding Refn owe it is obvious and well documented, with a lineage of influence that earns it considerable respect.

But all that said, I didn’t find it as affecting or earth-shattering as everyone else apparently does. The social commentary around…

The perfect Sunday afternoon naptime flick, Akira Kurosawa’s most accessible and unabashedly entertaining film is a genuine breath of fresh air. As close to an overt crowdpleaser as his filmography gets, this is surprisingly brisk for its runtime even if a subplot or two could have been trimmed without much consequence. Toshiro Mifune is transcendent, but that’s par for the course at this point. The more time spent in his company the clearer it becomes that he’s simply one of…

The Pope is having a bit of a moment right now. Outside of being a much needed voice of reason in the midst of global instability, and protecting the sanctity of Chicago hotdogs (mustard only forever), most surprisingly perhaps is his emergence as an outspoken cinephile by calling for a return to emotionally sincere and thought-provoking filmmaking to Hollywood. As someone who feels the same way about 99% of releases, Train Dreams feels like a direct answer to that clarion…

Paul Thomas Anderson has lived with the grand vista of film history in view. Stretching back to Boogie Nights in its Scorsese-obsessed haze, or the Altman-esque tilt of Magnolia's sprawl, There Will Be Blood’s capitalism origin myth, his films always seemed to made with a knowing sense of legacy in mind. This tenth entry into his filmography continues that tradition, but in ways not yet totally seen before. One Battle After Another exists in an all too familiar world, weathered and…