Back in Action

May 17, 2022 — Juzo Itami’s tragicomic directorial debut has scandalous fun with the Japanese traditions governing death.

May 17, 2021 — Koresky and his mother revisit ten films from the 1980s, a decade abundant with vital performances from female stars.

Feb 16, 2021 — “Me myself, I prefer literature,” the Senegalese author-filmmaker Ousmane Sembène tells a group of African students in the 1994 documentary Sembène: The Making of African Cinema. “But in our time, literature is a luxury.” Sembène’s historical conjuncture—Africa’s putative transition from...

Sep 4, 2020 — Black directors recommend films that have had an impact on their work. Also this week: Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker, Yasuzo Masumura, Takashi Miike, and Alan Clarke.

Jun 30, 2020 — Come and See (1985) is one of those films whose authority is established from its opening moments. Out in the open air, an elderly peasant dressed in a soft-peaked beret is volleying a mixture of threats and imprecations into some...

Dec 27, 2019 — This week’s highlights stretch from the earliest animated shorts through the best of 1929 and 2019 to Godard’s next project.

Oct 24, 2019 — With deafening footfalls and an earsplitting roar, Gojira, known in the West as Godzilla, first thundered into Japan’s movie houses on November 3, 1954. Six and a half decades later, the monster presides over an international entertainment franchise, having starred...

Jul 17, 2019 — The program of more than three hundred films includes new work by Pedro Costa, Koji Fukada, and Jeanne Balibar.

Jul 1, 2019 — Truffaut, Melville, and Jean Epstein open this month’s round of reviews and discussions of the latest noteworthy publications.

Mar 22, 2019 — This week spotlights George Cukor, Chantal Akerman, Straub-Huillet, Antonioni, and the feud between Clint Eastwood and Pauline Kael.