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A Good Lie: Lulu Wang on the Real Lie Behind Her Film, 'The Farewell'

Why don't we have more immigrant stories in film? Lulu Wang talks with PopMatters about fighting to tell her story, her way, and how that came to fruition in her latest film, The Farewell.

Interviews

Insular Musician; Collaborative Filmmaker: Director A.T. White on 'Starfish'

Director A.T. White reflects on his deliberately obtuse debut feature, Starfish, and letting go of a character, a version of himself to the film's actress, Virginia Gardner.

Film

'The Art of Self-Defense' Is a Knockout Black Comedy

If director Riley Stearns sometimes loses his thematic bearings, he never forgets to deliver large, violent doses of comedy in the instant cult classic, The Art of Self-Defense.

Film

Chanya Button's 'Vita & Virginia' Imprisons and Cages Virginia Woolf

Looking upon Virginia Woolf with an immature and childish creative lust, writer/director Chanya Button and co-writer Eileen Atkins reduce her to a bland literary figure in Vita & Virginia, leaving us to remember the contrarian truth.

Film

The Cost of Comfort: Racial Hierarchies in 'King of the Hill'

At its best, animation comedy show King of the Hill asks, Why are"race" issues in America always about white people?

Television

Not Where But When: Past and Future in Netflix's 'Dark'

The German-language sci-fi thriller Dark perfectly captures the unsettling experience of being trapped by history.

Television

'Sword of Trust' Is Random-Generation Comedy for a Truth-Deficient Time

Lynn Shelton's lo-fi Southern satire Sword of Trust yokes historical artifacts, the quest for meaning, Civil War Truthers, and the devastation of addiction to a pleasingly ramshackle comic quest.

Film

'Designated Survivor' S3: How Do We Deal with Neo-Fascists, Anyway?

Designated Survivor Season Three effectively criticizes the Trump administration and poses complex questions in our time of the rise of the extreme right.

Television

The Brilliant 'Midsommar' Is a Haunting Reflection on Love's Perversity

Director Ari Aster's uncompromising artistic vision in Midsommar creates a singular viewing experience of horror, beauty, and bafflement.

Reviews

The Willful Child in HBO's 'My Brilliant Friend'

HBO's My Brilliant Friend feels almost radical for its raw and un-romanticized depiction of female friendship and resistance in all its emotional complexities.

Television

'Detour' and 'The Big Clock' Cross Noir with Absurdity

Like a match made in Purgatory, Edgar Ulmer's Detour and John Farrow's The Big Clock are ingenious films with different but self-aware approaches to noir.

Film

David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' Covers the Darkness

How can we appreciate David Lynch's Blue Velvet, a film about America's private darkness, in an era when such anxieties, tensions, and corruptions are so openly apparent?

Film

Stark Realism Isn't Good Storytelling: Director Ritesh Batra on 'Photograph'

Don't mistake film for realism, it's all fantasy, says Director of Photograph, Ritesh Batra.

Interviews

'Black Mirror' Season 5 Should Be Its Last

It makes perfect sense that 2019 — the last year of the decade — should also be the last year for one of the 2010s' best shows. To continue would be a disservice to viewers.

Television

Hunter, Turner, Soaper, Weeper: 'Portrait in Black' and 'Madame X'

Sometimes a movie needs to overpower you, or why bother? So-called "women's films" Portrait in Black and Madame X glorify women's strength and resilience.

Film

Gentrification Blues: Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails on 'The Last Black Man in San Francisco'

Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails talk about their tribute to the old San Francisco -- before tech moved in -- in their moving feature debut, The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

Film

Pop Ten

The 50 Best Albums of 2019 So Far

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

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