If I Were for Real

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.

Oct 19, 2023 — Her entrance in the film is impossible to forget. She swings into the scene to serve a patron some coffee, holding a cup in one hand and a book in the other. Her diamond-shaped face is obscured, but her aura...

Aug 22, 2023 — In 1962, the young Bo Widerberg threw a grenade into the complacent waters of Swedish cinema. It came in the form of four articles in the evening newspaper Expressen—followed by a book version titled Vision in 
Swedish Film—in which Widerberg...

Feb 21, 2023 — On the verge of implosion, the band rages through a performance of their song “Circle Sky” in a psychedelic, politically trenchant sequence from director Bob Rafelson’s debut feature.

Mar 31, 2022 — This year’s edition features a spotlight on Alice Diop.

Jul 19, 2021 — When Dennis Lehane joked in 2011 that the only real difference between Greek tragedy and noir was that in the former characters fall from great heights and in the latter they drop from the curb, he was pinpointing something simultaneously...

Apr 30, 2021 — One Scene Shatara Michelle Ford could not have made their first film without their filmmaking community, in addition to the sustained support and encouragement from members of their chosen family. Test Pattern—which is now available on Kino Now and Kino...

Apr 27, 2021 — The winner of top awards at Visions du Réel now heads to New Directors/New Films, Hot Docs, True/False, and Rotterdam.

Mar 12, 2021 — This week’s round features Merawi Gerima’s conversation with Ephraim Asili, an early talk with Claire Denis, and the greatest performances of the twenty-first century.

Oct 26, 2020 — The very first romantic kiss between men on American television happens in Marlon Riggs’s groundbreaking film Tongues Untied. That kiss is between two Black men, and one of them is Riggs himself. As of this writing, if you look up...