The Current
A magazine of film culture past and present, with new articles, interviews, and videos published every day
Recent Articles
A Newly Restored Paris Struts Back into Theaters
Starting this weekend, Janus Films is putting Jennie Livingston’s extraordinary snapshot of Harlem’s drag balls of the 1980s back on the big screen.
Why Swing Time Is the Greatest of All Dance Films
In this excerpt from an interview on our new edition of the Astaire-Rogers classic, dance critic Brian Seibert explains how beautifully and cleverly the film integrates dance into the structure of a romantic-comedy plot.
Dead Neighbors: Jim Jarmusch on George A. Romero
With his eccentric new zombie movie The Dead Don’t Die coming to theaters, Jim Jarmusch talks with us about the inspiration he drew from the late horror maestro’s postmodern, politically tinged approach to genre.
More Is More: Lessons in Excess from Women in Love
The director of the Sundance hit The Last Black Man in San Francisco reflects on what he learned from Ken Russell’s extravagant style and approach to the subject of male relationships.
Swing Time: Heaven Can’t Wait
In their most sublime collaboration, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers perfected a seamless blend of song, dance, and swooning romance.
Queer, There, and Everywhere
Now playing on the Criterion Channel, Christopher Munch’s New Queer Cinema landmark The Hours and Times excavates a gay fantasy from the annals of Fab Four lore.
The Chameleonic Charms of Sir Alec
Alec Guinness carved out a place among the greatest of British actors by mixing his demure persona with dry wit and a taste for the absurd.
The Angriest Cartoon in the World
David Lynch took his obsession with lost American innocence into bizarre new territory in the cartoon series DumbLand, originally made for his website and now available on the Criterion Channel.
The Pioneering Female Director Who Broke into the Hollywood Boy’s Club
Critic B. Ruby Rich pays tribute to the underappreciated career of Dorothy Arzner, who was the only woman directing movies in the studio system for the majority of her career.
Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence: The Word and the Spirit
In this series of intense chamber dramas influenced by the work of August Strindberg, Ingmar Bergman grapples with Europe’s collective crisis of faith in the modern era.
Shooting Stars
With the help of MGM’s most ingenious photographers, screen goddesses like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford made the still portrait a key part of their artistry.
Brian Raftery’s Top 10
The year 1999 may be this culture critic’s favorite in Hollywood history (he just wrote a book on the subject!), but the Criterion films he holds most dear span a number of different eras.
Video
Spotlight
Songbook
Some of cinema’s most memorable moments are fueled by one perfectly chosen tune on the soundtrack. In this series, writers explore what happens when music and image meet.
