The Documentary

Apr 7, 2025 — He played Iceman, Jim Morrison, Doc Holliday, and even Batman as no one else would or could have.

Jan 24, 2025 — We’re sampling new issues of Notebook, Senses of Cinema, and 032c and reading about Eisenstein and Charlotte Zwerin.

Mar 1, 2024 — This week offers David Bordwell on Hou Hsiao-hsien’s evolution, Jean Eustache on Ernst Lubitsch, and two must-read reviews of About Dry Grasses.

Sep 8, 2023 — We’re celebrating Ousmane Sembène’s centennial, reading interviews with Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Kasi Lemmons, and watching soundies.

Jan 19, 2023 — The frequent collaborators talk about their close friendship, the paths that led them to each other, and the artistic values they share.

Dec 6, 2022 — Directed by Chris Smith and produced by Robert Downey Jr., “Sr.” is a bittersweet tribute to a filmmaker and father.

Oct 12, 2022 — In one of Brazil’s largest favelas, women create their own underground economy.

May 27, 2020 — Walking, like breathing, is something we do without thinking, an activity so commonplace that pedestrian has as its second meaning uninspired, ordinary, dull. Movies, however, reveal this action as more than just the original mode of getting from here to...

Aug 20, 2019 — For the past twelve months I’ve been re-plunging into Ingmar Bergman. It began with a conference in Lund, Sweden, in June of 2018, to mark the centennial of his birth; numerous experts, among them contributors to Criterion’s mammoth edition last...

Nov 28, 2018 — It’s not every day that you see duds like these. One of the boldest splashes of local color in David Byrne’s True Stories—a genre-defying odyssey to the weird and wonderful world of north-central Texas—comes midway through, during a fashion show...