The Guide

Jun 27, 2012 — The warrior and philosopher protagonist of The Samurai Trilogy, Musashi Miyamoto, was a real-life seventeenth-century figure. Here, the translator of Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings tells us about this fascinating man and his principles of swordplay and spirituality.

Mar 29, 2023 — The Brazil-based programmer discusses her transnational, oppositional approach to curating the daring lineup for Opacity, which was presented at the Flaherty Seminar in 2021 and is now available on the Criterion Channel.

Apr 19, 2021 — What lies beyond the grave? Human cultures across space and time have imagined many kinds of afterlives, from the attenuated shades of Hades to the lush paradise of the Islamic Jannah to the merger with the infinite anticipated by mystics....

Mar 24, 2020 — Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson, and Natasha Lyonne have some home viewing recommendations.

Dec 6, 2017 — We’ve seen the features—all of them—and the lineups for the new Indie Episodic section as well as the Shorts and Special Events. Today, the Sundance Film Festival, whose 2018 edition runs from January 18 through 28, presents the lineup for...

Jul 18, 2017 — With a weeklong run of our new restoration of Desert Hearts opening at the IFC Center in New York, we spoke with director Donna Deitch about this landmark of LGBT filmmaking.

May 6, 2016 — The distinctive musician and composer discusses his instinctive approach to composition and the value of a total immersion into a film’s world.

Apr 9, 2013 — This essay by novelist, playwright, and culture critic Gary Indiana originally appeared in the 1992 book Everything Is Permitted: The Making of “Naked Lunch.” Burroughs’s work tends to affect people like a Rorschach test. It separates cultural conservatives from avant-gardists,...

Jul 21, 1998 — Despite its title, Samurai II, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, is not really an action film. It has more than its share of action and violence, to be sure—the duel between Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) and the chain-and-sickle master that opens...

Jun 10, 2024 — Sam Fragoso gets Linklater talking about the evolution of his approach to making films from Slacker through Hit Man.