Wim Wenders has a special gift for capturing the human soul in images. Perfect Days (2023) is a visual poem that confirms the German director’s unique ability to explore the depths of the human spirit. From the ordinary, he constructs a story that transcends the triviality of endless repetitive days. He paints pauses and silences with eloquence, creating a mirror in which we see our own reflection and are compelled to reflect deeply.
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With The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a seismic shift of epic proportions took place. Because it is a martial arts film, its importance in film history is often underestimated. Every so often, films arrive that transform genres and redefine the way cinema is made and understood, and this is one of them. Before its release, martial arts cinema leaned heavily on fantasy and melodrama to tell its stories. With Chang Cheh’s new vision, the tone shifted toward a more physical, violent narrative fueled by the epic of revenge.
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It is easy for audiences to connect with films built around crime stories. That binary contrast between good and evil, embodied by police officers and criminals respectively, places the viewer in a comfort zone. The brain only has to choose between two options and let our ideas and assumptions do the rest. In the case of Crime 101 (2026), the film adheres closely to the established rules of the crime-thriller genre. We are presented with the classic cops-versus-robbers story.
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Even if you are not a cinema lover, you have surely seen at some point in your life the image of a man hanging from a clock high up on a building. That man is Harold Lloyd, and the image comes from the film Safety Last! (1923). This is one of the most important films in cinema history, one that forever changed the rules of the game. Alongside Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Lloyd’s figure is one of the most representative of Hollywood’s silent era.
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If we mix Terminator 2 (1991) with Groundhog Day (1993) and 12 Monkeys (1995), the result would surely be something like Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025). Director Gore Verbinski borrows the Terminator’s mission, the time-loop repetition of Groundhog Day, and the fatalism of 12 Monkeys to craft a sharp satire with a voice of its own. The peculiarity suggested by the title feels like a warning to the viewer who dares to venture into this film. Verbinski opts for a discourse that unsettles, both because of the truths it exposes and the way it delivers them.
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