Center Stage

May 9, 2005 — Les Blank’s documentary examines the interaction of premodern tribal existence with European modernity, epitomized by a movie narrative about the invidious clash of brute nature and a singular ego bent on his own mission of cultural enlightenment.

May 9, 2005 — This seminal documentary conveys the particular seductiveness and resonance of the dream of going pro for two talented Chicago teenagers.

Nov 15, 2004 — Short Cuts is an L.A. jazz rhapsody that represents Robert Altman at an all-time personal peak—and it came at just the right time in his career.

Dec 30, 2003 — Akira Kurosawa was a man of his time, who participated fully in the artistic and intellectual world of Japan from the 1930s until his death in 1998. Although filmgoers may think of him in terms of the screen images he...

Nov 11, 2002 — Continued from Anatomy of a Love Festival - Part One The real turn-on, though, was the music—twenty-two hours of it, divided into solid chunks that usually ran more than thirty minutes. Friday night was the epitome of what San Francisco...

Dec 18, 1989 — When Tootsie opened in December, 1982, the ad copy read: “In the next 72 hours this desperate, unemployed actor will secretly audition for the female lead of a soap opera.”  That was the plot line to the movie even when...

May 1, 2020 — Everyone’s eager to make, show, and watch movies in theaters again. In the meantime, here’s plenty to see, hear, and read at home.

Jul 8, 2022 — This week: Juliette Binoche’s work with Krzysztof Kieślowski and Claire Denis, post-Berlin School German cinema, and Tom Cruise’s “immaculate superstardom.”

Jun 13, 2024 — Baker has selected seventeen films to screen in New York before her first feature opens next week.

May 18, 2018 — Critics split over this “urban western,” Garrone’s fourth film in competition.