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Roman Holiday (1953)
In turning Rome’s architecture and geography into a living, breathing environment in Roman Holiday, William Wyler crafts a romantic adventure for newspaperman Joe and runaway princess Ann, and offers Audrey Hepburn a perfectly charming setting for displays of natural magnetism that carry entire scenes.
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The Card Counter (2021)
Though sin has implanted itself firmly in the soul of gambler William Tell, his attempts to soften its impact by putting up physical and emotional barriers between him and his environment points towards a deep complexity in his character, as Paul Schrader turns The Card Counter into a masterfully rigorous study of regret, self-discipline, and…
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Squid Game (2021)
In building out its characters in rich enough detail that both thrilling set pieces and quieter moments of drama are able to operate on equally gripping levels of tension, Squid Game forms a layered microcosm of cruel, barbaric capitalism in South Korea.
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M (1931)
More than just its dark, perverted subject matter, M remains a provocative film in Fritz Lang’s masterful use of subtext and signifiers to understand the mind of a reprehensible child killer, thus becoming one of the key cornerstones of German Expressionism.
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The Power of the Dog (2021)
Within the mesmerising power plays between ranchers, mothers, and sons of The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion paints out duelling images of the Old West, neither of which clash in violent shootouts so much as they quietly manipulate each other according to their own visions of America’s future.
