So Much More Than Enough By Soraya Roberts Feature My favorite director, Lynn Shelton, died suddenly this month at the age of 54. Did the spirit of indie filmmaking go with her?
This Week in Books: A B-Movie Storytelling Moment By Dana Snitzky Commentary Give me a Bolaño novel that starts with a guy walking into a bar, and then another guy starts telling him a story, and the rest of that novel is just the second guy telling that story.
Thumbing a Ride: What I Learned from Siskel and Ebert By Dipti S. Barot Feature Dipti S. Barot pays homage to the two irreplaceable voices who informed her love of good movies.
Let Me Show You the World By Iman Sultan Feature Almost everything you think you know about Aladdin is wrong.
Cahiers du Post-Cinéma By Soraya Roberts Feature The movie theater was once a kind of lay church, with festivals like TIFF serving as annual religious holidays — until new houses of worship opened online.
Nashville contra Jaws, 1975 By Longreads Feature In their time, “Jaws” and “Nashville” were regarded as Watergate films, and both were in production as the Watergate disaster played its final act.
Death Proof By Soraya Roberts Feature With ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,’ Quentin Tarantino slakes his thirst for nostalgia while he plays god with another piece of history.
The Erotic Thriller’s Little Death By Soraya Roberts Feature What/If references the celebrated steamy genre of the 80s and 90s, but lacks its guts. Why can’t any of the new neo-noirs go all the way?
Recalling the Making of ‘Go,’ 20 Years Later By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Director Doug Liman and screenwriter John August look back on the production of their indie film Go, 20 years after its release.
Hollywood and the New Female Grotesque By Soraya Roberts Feature Actresses are being lauded for pushing their supposed undesirability to the extreme, and it’s redefining how we see women.
‘It Happened to My Father the Way It Happened’: The Truth About Green Book By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight At Vanity Fair, film critic K. Austin Collins explores the shaky “true story” of Green Book, the film by Peter Farrelly starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
Carl Weathers, You Deserved Better By Michelle Weber Highlight Maybe with Creed II, a black actor will get the Oscar nod instead of the one white guy.
After World War I, Horror Movies Were Invaded By an Army of Reanimated Corpses By Longreads Feature Were early horror films, with their long, angry processions of the undead, repeating the mass trauma of the First World War, or foreshadowing the coming of the Second?
‘Do you like scary movies?’ By Michelle Weber Highlight We voluntarily watch horror movies, despite the very real fight-or-flight physical reactions they provoke. Why?
Filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ Adaptation of James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk” By Danielle Jackson Highlight “I think when I found film,” he said, “I found a way — I still hide a bit — but a way to not hide as much. I felt like I could put these things into the work because it’s the movie. It’s not me.”
Shooting For Truth By Adam Skolnick Feature Adam Skolnick visits director Chris Weitz on the set of his new film, Operation Finale.
Defeating the Celluloid Axis By JW McCormack Feature The invisible language of film permeates Christian Kracht’s “The Dead,” prose that is neutral and shot through with so much darkness, you occasionally can’t find the light.
Great Reviews Of Movies I Have Never Seen: A Reading List By Sara Benincasa Reading List Sometimes, the review is better than the film it reviews.
When the Movies Went West By Longreads Feature Scorned by stage actors and mocked by the theater-going upper classes, filmmakers nevertheless developed a bold new art form — but they needed better weather.
A Remarkable Child By Daniel Rafinejad Feature My friend Sam went back to Brooklyn and his gang of peculiar white buddies watching their endless Stanley Kubrick film festival. I shall not see him again.
Why Can’t Female Reporters Stay in the Picture? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Journalists who get screen time are most often men—even when the original story was told by a woman.
More Than a Riot Going On: A ‘Detroit’-Inspired Reading List By Danielle Jackson Reading List The failures of Kathryn Bigelow’s film undercut the fullness, complexity, and beauty of Detroit.
Longreads Goes to the Movies: A Reading List By Em Perper Reading List Five stories about movies, for your reading pleasure.
In a League of His Own: One Man’s Mission to Make Moviegoing Fun Again By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Alamo Drafthouse creator Tim League wants to make moviegoing fun again.
The (Film) Revolution Will Be Streamed By Ben Huberman Highlight “We have to get rid of the romantic part.”
How Long Does Barry Jenkins Have to Keep Hanging Out with Damien Chazelle? By Michelle Legro Commentary If it was up to the media, probably forever.
Fifty Shades of Dreck (or, Save Two Hours and Read This Spoiler-Filled Review) By Michelle Weber Highlight Christopher Orr, film critic for The Atlantic, watched Fifty Shades Darker — the second film in the series based on the super popular Fifty Shades of Gray books — so that you don’t have to.
“BRAAAM!”: The Sound that Invaded the Hollywood Soundtrack By Adrian Daub Feature How Inception changed the way we listen to movies.
How Winona Ryder Became the Face of ‘90s Nostalgia By Ben Huberman Highlight Why can’t we let go of Mermaids-era Winona Ryder? Soraya Roberts at Hazlitt explores the last great pre-internet icon.
The Broken Pop of James Bond Songs By Ben Huberman Feature What can the endurance of the messy, campy canon of James Bond theme songs tell us about contemporary popular music?
