The Current
A magazine of film culture past and present, with new articles, interviews, and videos published every day
Recent Articles
Lucrecia Martel’s Closet Picks
The Argentine master behind such enigmatic, formally audacious films as Zama and La Ciénaga reveals her love of genre cinema.
My Man Godfrey: The Right Kind of People
Once called “the great directorial genius of Hollywood” by Carole Lombard, Gregory La Cava struck comedy gold with this mix of madcap high jinks, irresistible romance, and social commentary.
Finding the Life of the Party in Cold Water
Olivier Assayas revived the spirit of the 1970s in one of cinema’s most evocative party sequences, which serves as the centerpiece of his acclaimed 1994 film.
The Tree of Life: Let the Wind Speak
The imitation of nature becomes a devotional act in Terrence Malick’s cinema, which reaches sublime heights in this exploration of childhood, memory, and grief.
David Byrne’s Wild Texas Odyssey in Chicago
The Talking Heads front man mines the extraordinariness of ordinary American life in his surreal genre hybrid True Stories, playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center tomorrow and Tuesday.
Traveling Across the Eons in The Tree of Life
Visual-effects supervisor Dan Glass offers a glimpse into the complex process of creating the film’s majestic vision of the cosmos.
Cold Water: Dancing on the Ruins
Fueled by the rebellious sounds of rock and roll, Olivier Assayas’s long-unavailable breakthrough film is a remarkably unsentimental journey through the memories of youth.
Inside Katarzyna Gondek’s Grown-Up Fairy Tales
Stretched between beauty and horror, Polish director Katarzyna Gondek’s work uncovers magic lurking at the edges of everyday life.
Joachim Trier Grapples with the Fractured Time of Don’t Look Now
The acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker talks about Nicolas Roeg’s richly suggestive, nonlinear approach to time in his masterpiece Don't Look Now.
The Many Faces of Hal Ashby: A Conversation with Amy Scott
New Hollywood rebel Hal Ashby takes the spotlight in a new documentary by director Amy Scott, who talks with us about the deep allure of his humanist sensibility.
Video
Spotlight
Keeping Score
From melodic theme music to boundary-pushing soundscapes, the wide-ranging art of film scoring takes the spotlight in this selection of articles and videos.
