You Have to Come and See It

May 20, 2025 — A film about and against everything, this astonishingly original comedy attacks Big Brother, the bomb, and the incipient collapse of our planetary ecosystem, along with the lies that stop us from recognizing all of the above.

May 11, 2021 — Dorothy Arzner’s deeply cynical portrait of marriage exemplifies the director’s ambivalence toward the norms dictating female behavior, wielding ironic detachment to mask one woman’s simmering inner turmoil.

May 27, 2025 — Suffused with slapstick humor and slightly surreal wit, Richard Lester’s beloved take on a frequently adapted adventure epic embodies a style of extravagant filmmaking that didn’t survive long past the 1970s.

Dec 13, 2024 — The week’s offered fine writing on Elaine May, Robert Siodmak and Ella Raines, and Christopher Nolan’s turning-point movie.

Jun 21, 2022 — “The best actors in the world,” he once said, “are those who feel the most and show the least.”

Jan 3, 2022 — Both as an art and a business, cinema faces serious challenges, but the past year offers reasons for optimism.

Sep 28, 2021 — The first Black-directed movie musical of the modern film era, Melvin Van Peebles’s drama illuminates the cultural and political concerns of working-class Black people with delight and fancy.

May 5, 2021 — Many lucky enough to have worked with her remember the star who broke through in Moonstruck.

Mar 30, 2021 — Mike Leigh’s midcareer masterpiece is one of the finest examples of his ability to construct riveting drama from ordinary life.

Jul 10, 2020 — This week’s highlights come in pairs: Bill and Turner Ross, Michaela Coel and Thandie Newton, Bradford Young and Ava DuVernay, and more.