A Movie

Jun 10, 2020 — As we remember the first African American to win an Oscar on her 125th birthday, HBO Max temporarily removes the movie she won it for.

Nov 15, 2019 — It’s a strange feeling: adoring cinema while at the same time always sensing that it’s not made for you. This is how I felt growing up, at least. I came of age watching movies, crushing on them so hard that...

Oct 15, 2019 — The witch has a long history in Western cinema. Nowadays, we tend to associate her with horror, but early depictions resist easy categorization. She appeared in American silent films as early as 1908 (in a short called The Witch). The...

Aug 19, 2019 — The early days of the talkie were certainly a sensational time for the movies, as Hollywood didn’t shy away from portraying all manner of debauchery on-screen. And no star better embodies this bawdy, brassy period before the enforcement of the...

Jun 11, 2019 — The problem with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, everyone agrees, is that there is never enough dancing. You have to wait through often silly plots and hit-or-miss comedy for the musical numbers that are the whole point. But the dances...

Jan 18, 2019 — Dark Passages Getting old, in Hollywood, is at least a misfortune, if not a crime. But film noir had plenty of room for actors who looked the worse for wear, whose mileage showed on their faces, whose youth was less...

Oct 29, 2018 — Professor Jeff Smith breaks down how François Truffaut’s loving tribute to the crime genre Shoot the Piano Player uses anamorphic widescreen compositions to stylish effect.

Oct 18, 2018 — An autumnal round of reviews, excerpts, interviews, and news.

Jun 25, 2018 — It’s been six weeks since the Ukrainian filmmaker began his hunger strike.

Jun 11, 2018 — New on the shelves this season are volumes on David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Ernst Lubitsch.