The Fin

Nov 25, 2020 — “Yes, life is a dream, but sometimes that dream is a fatal abyss.” Wanda in The White Sheik (1952) I have a vivid memory from the first film-studies class I enrolled in, a class on Italian neorealism, where the weekly...

Oct 13, 2020 — I know I need somethingOr someone. From “Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day” (1978), by Nikki Giovanni While the screen is still dark, Gladys Knight’s voice drifts in, in a strong, sincere belt: “How can I / Work out this...

May 14, 2020 — Restoration Spotlight I was just coming of age as a moviegoer when digital video hit the big screens, around the turn of the twenty-first century. At the time, I remember being every bit as entranced by the gritty horror of...

Apr 14, 2020 — Whether or not you believe it is the greatest year of all for the Hollywood studio system, the wonder of 1939 is the sheer depth of its bench. On a ten-movie best-picture ballot, the Oscars found no room to nominate...

Mar 4, 2019 — Thanks to Charly Palmer, our edition of To Sleep with Anger certainly catches the eye. The Atlanta-based artist, who illustrated our cover for Charles Burnett’s long-underseen 1990 film, has for years been renowned for his vibrant, densely layered depictions of...

Aug 15, 2017 — Walter Matthau solidified his reputation as a formidable comedic force in this delightful Cold War espionage romp.

Feb 17, 2017 — Did You See This? In a wide-ranging and moving new interview with online film magazine Bright Wall/Dark Room, Guillermo del Toro discusses the political power of art, the election of Donald Trump, and the way that film “exists in a...

Jun 29, 2016 — Olivier Assayas’s Clouds of Sils Maria brings together Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart to play out a psychologically complex relationship between two women. Binoche, once again teaming up with Assayas, after starring in his 2008 drama Summer Hours, is Maria...

May 19, 2016 — Repertory PicksThis week, as part of its Hollywood Summer Nights series, the County Theater in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, will screen Sydney Pollack’s 1982 American classic Tootsie. Starring Dustin Hoffman in one of his finest performances, this progressive New York comedy follows...

Mar 23, 2016 — We had come to expect Chantal Akerman’s periodic gifts of small and large cinematic gems. Certain of this flow, we were devastated when, all too abruptly, we were forced to think of her latest film, so beautiful, as her last.