The Tasters

Dec 18, 2025 — Checking in on lists of the best films, performances, scenes, scores, restorations, and more.

Dec 4, 2025 — PTA wins one accolade after another, and Peter Hujar’s Day leads the nominations for the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Nov 12, 2025 — In this Sundance-award-winning exploration of war and memory, writer Cathy Linh Che shines a spotlight on her parents, who were Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines when they were cast as extras in Apocalypse Now.

Nov 4, 2025 — The director of La commune and The War Game shook up viewers with dramatizations historical conflicts and imminent futures.

Sep 3, 2025 — Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee), Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone (Bugonia), and Dwyane Johnson (The Smashing Machine) dazzle in Venice.

Apr 10, 2025 — The competition alone will launch new films by Wes Anderson, Kelly Reichardt, Richard Linklater, Joachim Trier, and Ari Aster.

Dec 16, 2024 — Next year’s programming kicks off with some of our favorite actors, including Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, and David Bowie.

Sep 3, 2024 — The Room Next Door, The Brutalist, and Babygirl are met with both wild enthusiasm and serious reservations.

Jul 25, 2024 — Claude Chabrol, Bong Joon Ho, Ann Hui, Anna Cobb, and Wei Shujun are among the names that have come up this week.

Mar 25, 2024 — What makes a “bad” movie anyway? By surveying the bombs, disasters, and secret masterpieces (dis)honored at the Golden Raspberry Awards, we can learn much about American cinema’s prevailing standards of taste.