Features
Friday, February 1 2013
The Best DVDs and Blu-rays of 2012
From classics to contemporary television, the typical titles and the surprising outsider choices, the year in home video was just as divisive, and delightful, as the rest of our meaningful media.
Wednesday, June 20 2012
Essential Film Performances - 2012 Edition Part Three
PopMatters follows up our hugely popular 100 Essential Female and Male Performances feature and 2010 update with 50 additions to the essentials list. Part three features Kirsten Dunst, Kirk Douglas and more...
Monday, January 23 2012
The 40 Best Films of 2011
2011 was a year of good, not necessarily great, films, though the amazing choices by our staff might argue against such a overall cinematic classification.
Tuesday, January 17 2012
The Best Female Film Performances of 2011
It was a monumental year for women in film as our selections for 2011's best female performances indicate... over and over and over again.
Tuesday, September 6 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 10: Josef Von Sternberg to Zhang Yimou
The final day of directors is here, Josef Von Sternberg through Zhang Yimou. German Expressionism, Dogme 95, contemporary views of Asian life, post-WWII malaise in Eastern Europe, and the alternately heartwarming and queer takes on everyday life in Baltimore all hold a space on today's list. Did we forget your favorite director on this list?
Columns
Tuesday, April 27 2010
The Illusion of Identity in Lars Von Trier's Antichrist
Lars von Trier suggests that the terrible and the horrific are not to be found in the abnormal behaviour of an outsider, but within our relationships, and the play of domination and submission in everyday life.
Friday, August 29 2008
Katrin Cartlidge: The Working Actress
Whether it was through silence, grotesquerie, fury or intelligence (or, at times, lack of intelligence), Cartlidge was not afraid to upturn the dark corners of the women she portrayed.
Reviews
Tuesday, April 10 2012
'Melancholia': The Stasis of Despair and the Allure of Rapture
Lars von Trier's stunning, occasionally beautiful, slow-motion apocalypse, Melancholia, reaches for a moment of cathartic ecstasy amongst the crippling stasis of despair.
Friday, November 11 2011
'Melancholia' Is Far From Transcendent
Melancholia begins and ends with scenes of utter destruction, scenes that are truly powerful, very scary, and somehow strangely beautiful.
Monday, October 3 2011
New York Film Festival 2011: 'Melancholia' + 'Carnage' + 'The Loneliest Planet'
New York Film Festival organizers have thankfully maintained the limited number of films on the Main Slate (21 this year), preserving NYFF’s identity as an “elite” festival.
Friday, May 20 2011
Cannes Film Festival: 'Melancholia' and 'Hors Satan'
Both Melancholia and Hors Satan conjure a long-building sense of foreboding, though they lead to very different resolutions.
Wednesday, November 24 2010
The Haunting of Lars von Trier in 'Anti-Christ'
Just as the female lead character strikes out against the identifiable point of oppression in her own life, von Trier strikes out against the very audiences and critics who continue to endure his films in order to both convince them otherwise -- and annihilate them.
Blogs
Wednesday, September 14 2011
Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Melancholia'
"The earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it." So declares a luminous Kirsten Dunst in Danish provocateur Lars von Trier's best and most powerful film yet.
Tuesday, November 9 2010
Chaos Reigns!: 'Antichrist - The Criterion Collection' (Blu-ray)
So obsessed with birth and biology that the symbols practically stand up and shout their intent, this is New Age therapeutics as Grand Guignol geek show.
Saturday, October 24 2009
'Antichrist' is an Ambitious, Audacious Masterpiece
It's fairly obvious that vision is in short supply in Hollywood. Just look at what passes for art among the mindless mainstream movies that make…
Tuesday, June 2 2009
"Anti Christ" dir. Lars von Trier (trailer)
Director Lars von Trier recently declared himself to be "the best film director in the world", at Cannes, where Charlotte Gainsbourg picked up Best Actress…
News
Thursday, May 19 2011
Lars von Trier says he doesn't deserve a Palme d'Or
MOUGINS, France — On Wednesday, Lars von Trier set off a worldwide firestorm when, in his typically provocative way, he attempted to make a number…
Thursday, May 19 2011
Cannes 2011: Director Lars von Trier retracts Nazi comment, apologizes
CANNES, France — Danish director Lars von Trier, an auteur provocateur known for his controversial films, apologized Wednesday after joking with reporters at the Cannes…
