Postmodernism as such is defined by the certainty that every artistic element (or every thought in general) has been created before and that everything can therefore only be a copy of a copy of a copy. George Lucas, for example, makes no secret of the fact that he modelled his Star Wars heavily on Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, John Ford's The Searchers, Michael Anderson's The Dam Busters and Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. Zack Snyder's first part of…

It has become the running gag of 2023 to accuse bad films of having been written by artificial intelligence rather than by authors. Disney in particular is often confronted with this accusation, especially since the Marvel series Secret Invasion actually used AI to design the series' ugly opening credits. But films like Wish are not helpful in getting rid of these allegations. In the main villain song there is a line that goes: "I let you live hеre for free…

For anyone interested in the life and work of Leonard Bernstein after seeing Maestro: This stunningly directed biopic does an excellent job of showing him as a broken man, a conflicted and troubled husband who has to deal repeatedly with his homosexuality, with his Jewishness and antisemitism, with his honor, and with the compassion and love he desperately wants to feel for his wife. But there is something that this movie somehow overlooks. In just a few moments, filmmaker (and…

Of course, this 90s pulp noir thriller has become best known for how much nudity is on display, although the sex itself is shown in a comparatively tame manner. However, Wild Things is at least as notorious for its sheer absurd amount of clever plot twists and unexpected turns as it is for its licentiousness. Even during the end credits, there are still a handful of scenes shown to explain the finer details. Watching Wild Things is not only entertaining…

In Germany, The Holiday has the alternative title 'Liebe braucht keine Ferien' (Love doesn't need a holiday), which is quite funny because both female main characters literally have to decide to go on holiday in order to finally find their true love.

Not everything in this sweet double romance and modern Christmas classic works. It's very odd how much the two different stories work kind of against each other. One plot about the British girl Iris (Kate Winslet), who suddenly…

This quintessential 80s noir thriller by William Friedkin with an astonishing score by new wave band Wang Chung is a terrorist attack on every foundation of the action gerne. 'Hurricane Billy' is never interested in simply delivering pure entertainment, his work is always possessed by some almost malevolent entity crawling under the skin of every biotope he presents. In this case, it is the City of Angels, shown as a sunny hell on earth that devours every soul that enters…

In one scene Meg Ryan is told: "You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie." The scene is a turning point for Sleepless in Seattle - or could have been. This line opens up the possibility that the film is now grappling with the false and idealised expectations that romantic comedies and melodramas (such as An Affair To Remember, which is quoted several times) create. When Meg Ryan's character starts stalking a…

It's frightening that this cynical and manipulative montage of episodes about awful and insufferable people has somehow managed to become a holiday classic. Summarising the incoherent bunch of cheesy short stories, it includes an episode about a creepy stalker who secretly films his crush (his best friend's wife) for hours on her wedding day and later turns up unannounced at her door, an episode in which the Prime Minister lusts after his secretary and has her transferred to another department…