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Disclosure, Dasein, and the Divine in Terrence Malick's 'The Tree of Life'

For Heidegger, "challenge" is a pejorative verb. But for Terrence Malick, "challenge" is a progressive verb. Malick's cinema is challenging, and we need that challenge.

Film

Our Private Prisons: Interview with 'Still' Director, Takashi Doscher

Takashi Doscher reflects on Still's emergence from a personal lifetime commitment and whether time transforms the meaning of our social constructs and relationships.

Film

Director Max Martini on 'SGT. Will Gardner'

From epic John Ford-type western shots to intimate close-ups, Director Max Martini talks about the filming methods used to convey PTSD in his latest, SGT. Will Gardner.

Film

Polite Movies? Not Interested: Karyn Kusama, Phil Hay, and Matt Manfredi on 'Destroyer'

The director and co-writers of Destroyer discuss Nicole Kidman's uncharacteristically rugged performance and how their collaboration brought forth the film's unconventional story structure.

Film

What Is It About 'You'?

Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble's You (Netflix) is a gripping, grueling plunge into the dangers of modern dating and the accommodation our culture makes for men of a certain privilege.

Television

Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Cold War' Is a Lustrous, Slyly Subversive Melodrama

Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War, a sweeping romance, is equally indebted to grand spectacle and the practical compromises of wartime Europe.

Film

Slavery, Piracy, and Shirtless Men in Silent Film, 'Old Ironsides'

Kino Lorber's release of Old Ironsides offers derring-do with cannons firing and masts breaking off and hundreds of extras swarming all over each other's ships.

Film

Nicole Kidman Wreaks Havoc in Karyn Kusama’s Disorienting 'Destroyer'

The most revolutionary thing Kusama's Destroyer isn't the antiheroism, but its genuine search for the goodness of a woman who's made objectively bad decisions.

Film

Through the Looking-Glass of Black Mirror's 'Bandersnatch'

Netflix's interactive movie, Bandersnatch, doesn't really offer choices, but it does offer something else: a warning.

Film

'Vice', Dick Cheney, and the Satisfaction of the Deed Itself

Adam McKay's gonzo Dick Cheney biopic satire, Vice, won't be compared to Shakespeare, but it shares the Bard's disinterest in supervillains' motivations.

Film

Evil Is Art, Murder Is Art, Torture Is Art: On Lars von Trier's 'The House that Jack Built'

It isn't entirely irredeemable, but The House that Jack Built's familiar gimmicks say much more about Lars von Trier as a brand than as a provocateur or artist.

Film

'If Beale Street Could Talk' Is an Intimate Rendering of Black Love in the Face of Hatred

Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk is a near-perfect success both as a grand statement of solidarity and as a gorgeously wrought, long-overdue story of black life and black love.

Film

Barry Jenkins' 'If Beal Street Could Talk' Is Unapologetically Romantic

Unlike justice, love has not abandoned the protagonists in Barry Jenkins' adaptation of James Baldwin's' If Beale Street Could Talk.

Film

Black Humour's Tender Touch: An Interview with 'Mug' Director Małgorzata Szumowska

Małgorzata Szumowska reflects on writing and directing Mug, "a grotesque satire on the fairy tale", and how the filmmaking process evokes opposing emotions that shape her personality.

Film

'Roma' Is Painfully Beautiful

Alfonso Cuarón's edgily political black-and-white epic of a family in 1970s Mexico City is as masterfully choreographed as Children of Men but more personally intimate.

Film

Mary Pickford: Hollywood's Most Powerful Waif

Well into her 30s, silent film star Mary Pickford was the waif-iest waif in film history, and the number of convincing variations she wrung on this theme is remarkable.

Film

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