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“Adorable” is a word I reserve for children and puppies. Up until now, I would’ve never been caught dead using it to describe a film. Yet, I can’t find a better adjective for the 1966 heist, Gambit. It is adorable; surprisingly, refreshingly adorable. Following an almost uninterrupted read more

Last week we looked at my Top 5 Best Costume films since the Oscar category came into existence. From 1929, when the Oscars began, until 1948 there was no Best Costume category. This week we’re heading back to these years and looking at my choices for the Top 5 Best Costume films. What are yours? read more

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers is currently available on Mubi. Sign up for a free trial here. It was a dark and stormy night at the beginning of this Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) noir. A young girl, Martha, tries to run away, for what is revealed the latest in a string of many read more

For No Eyes Only is showing Sunday, February 16 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Sam (Benedict Sieverding) is a teenage computer whiz and unlikely field hockey captain. When an injury during practice keeps him sidelined for three weeks, he passes the time by spying on his fellow students through their we read more

Slow and steady wins the race – and sometimes it also wins the little golden statue as did The Tortoise and the Hare. Before Walt Disney Pictures had Pixar Animation to annually contend for an Academy Award, there was a time when their Silly Symphony series dominated Oscar’s animation category for read more

Valentine’s Day is upon us again, and while many film fans will no doubt be drowning themselves in romances, from classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s to sop like The Notebook, there are those who avoid these films like a red-rose filled plague. For those who aren’t into their happily-ever-afters, read more

The ear – the humblest appendage. We rarely think of it, except when someone slices it off. Apparently, filmmakers’ ears receive threats constantly, given how often the lowly ear appears in movies. Here’s our list of the top 5 ear scenes in movies. Possibly a bit of a tenuous link read more

God Told Me To is currently available on Mubi. Sign up for a free trial here. As God Told Me To begins, it seems like it will be a pulpy crime movie akin to Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry, which preceded it by a few years. It has the grainy quality belonging to 70s cop dramas and a set up reminisce read more

Now that we’re buried in this chilly polar vortex, and most of the country is locked in a prism of ice, it seems like the best time to bolt the doors, put another log on the fire and hunker down with a good glass of wine, and a fine film that warms the heart while the hounds of winter howl at the read more

The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of the year was introduced in 1932, but the category was originally titled “Short Subject, Cartoon” and remained that way until 1972. The first cartoon to be so honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was Flowers and Trees; which read more

As a semi-abashed snob (ex-unabashed; I still don’t like anything, I just no longer consider that to be virtuous), I’m willing to admit that one of the biggest thrills of Oscar season is seeing the stuff you love not get nominated. I mean, how else are you going to be assured that the r read more

The “Short Film” categories may be one of the most overlooked at the Oscars. In fact, short films in general are overlooked, which is a shame, because year after year, filmmakers from around the globe release works that could stand comfortably alongside more widely seen and well-known f read more

The Rocky Heavyweight Collections drops on Blu-ray on February 11, 2014. Enter to win your very own from Pretty Clever Films and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.  Go the distance with this Rocky Heavyweight collection, featuring all six knockout Rocky films including the first film with a stunn read more

It’s Oscar month here at Pretty Clever Films. Surprisingly the Oscar for Best Costume wasn’t awarded until 1949 for work in the previous year. Not only that, but the award was also split into two sub-categories – one for B&W films and one for color. The B&W and color categories were read more

As the calendar pages flip away to the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, it’s tempting to think of the awards ceremony as venerable, a Hollywood stalwart that’s been doling out accolades from the start. That’s partly true, I suppose. The first Academy Awards were held in 1929, thirt read more

Did you know that regular Pretty Clever Films contributor Toyiah Murray also has her blog, The Cinephiliac? It’s true! While Pretty Clever Films has been covering Godard Forever: Part One, the lavish Godard retro screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toyiah has been covering Godard’s read more

One of Billy Wilder’s many skills was his ability to take fresh and atypical perspectives on familiar situations and exploit them for maximum humor and insight. Before Stalag 17, who would’ve thought to play a German POW camp with comedy and gallows’ humor, or a man who falls so hard for a prostitu read more

Okay, bear with me here. If you have ever seen an episode of Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp, go right ahead and squeal, squeak, and jump for joy that all 17 episodes of the series will be arriving on a 3-disc DVD set on February 4, 2014. If you haven’t seen an episode, what follows with seem unb read more

When it was first released in 1965, Jiří Trnka’s final animated film Ruka (or The Hand) was of no consequence to the Soviet-controlled government of his native Czechoslovakia. It was considered to be just another stop-motion puppet play from a man who had established himself as the USSR’s most read more

Did you know that regular Pretty Clever Films contributor Toyiah Murray also has her blog, The Cinephiliac? It’s true! While Pretty Clever Films has been covering Godard Forever: Part One, the lavish Godard retro screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toyiah has been covering Godard’s read more