Talk About Work

Feb 5, 2014 — Performances We don’t often talk about documentaries as featuring performances. But consider the highly performative people at the centers of Grey Gardens, General Idi Amin Dada, and last year’s The Act of Killing, or even the seemingly more modest souls...

Jan 8, 2013 — 01   Because it’s the purest American road movie ever.  02   Because it’s like a drive-in movie directed by a French new wave director.  03   Because the only thing that can get between a boy and his car obsession is a...

Mar 27, 2012 — The mysterious letter was signed “Joe.” David Lean’s lawyer had sent me a batch of old correspondence. Struggling with a biography of Lean, I was desperate for any leads, and this one seemed worth following up. But how does one...

Jan 11, 2006 — The typical midlife crisis, to which we all fall victim in some major or minor degree, came to Fellini with a slight delay. On the twentieth of January, 1960, the day of his fortieth birthday, he was, in fact, too...

Dec 12, 2023 — Channel Calendars Kick off the new year with a new favorite movie! There’s plenty to choose from in January, including a heap of catnip for fans of film felines, a spotlight on classic screen siren Ava Gardner, the gripping New...

Apr 15, 2020 — While three parallel programs have cancelled, Cannes still holds out hope for a 2020 edition. Here’s the latest on how the virus is affecting cinema.

Dec 21, 2016 — Garrett Brown in our kitchen reenacting a Steadicam-shot scene from Blow Out In 1975, the cameraman Garrett Brown revolutionized filmmaking technology with the Steadicam, an invention that brought together the agility and immediacy of a handheld camera with the smoothness and...

Feb 25, 2021 — Studio Visits Born and raised in Ecuador, Juan Miguel Marin didn’t always know that he would build a life in art. As a child he was more interested in music and sports, though he was exposed to painting through the...

Nov 25, 2019 — The filmmaker, critic, and professor’s passion for cinema was contagious.

Jun 12, 2019 — One Scene One of the most talked-about movies at this year’s Sundance, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is both a rhapsodic portrait of first-time director Joe Talbot’s native city and a mournful look at how gentrification, income inequality,...