Press Play

"The best video essay source on the web." (Roger Ebert) This web site is built on a mix of original video essays and critical, personal writing about film, TV, and their connection to broader cultural concerns. Co-founded by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine, and Ken Cancelosi, it is overseen by Editor-in-Chief Max Winter.

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

You Are What You Play With: How SESAME STREET and Legos Generated a Generation

Blogs

For a man or woman of a certain age, it's hard to imagine a single commercial or non-profit venture having had more of an impact on one's psychological maturation than Legos or "Sesame Street." Yet even today's youth might say the same thing.

By Seth Abramson
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June 18, 2013 8:35 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

Maybe when we say that an actor “just plays him/herself,” what we mean to say is that an actor has grown (perhaps too) comfortable in their craft. And under this description fall many renowned older actors: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Christopher Walken and, not least of these, Alan Arkin.

By Lincoln Flynn
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June 14, 2013 8:37 AM
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2 Comments

Blogs

Most potential viewers would expect a film made in 1971 with the title "Let’s Scare Jessica to Death" to be a teen slasher picture, but in fact, it is a subtle, moody piece of cinema that explores the fragility of the mind and the persistence of the past, achieving moments of rich psychological insight.

By Jed Mayer
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June 13, 2013 8:30 AM
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0 Comments

Television

Don't hate George R.R. Martin for taking from you what you love, “Game of Thrones” viewers, thank him. Don't hate "Game of Thrones" for bending the conventions of fantasy to make you feel something real in real-time, be grateful for it.

By Seth Abramson
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June 7, 2013 9:11 AM
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5 Comments

BIG PRESS PLAY NEWS!

Some big changes are happening at Press Play!

By Press Play Staff
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June 4, 2013 12:48 PM
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1 Comment

The Dangers of An Empty Suit: Marvel Comics’ War on War Continues

Blogs

The Iron Man films have always been conspicuously anti-war—Stark removes his privately-funded R&D enterprise from U.S. Defense Department involvement in the first entry in the now-trilogy—but "Iron Man 3" is a uniquely instructive exemplar of Marvel’s war on war by way of Hollywood.

By Seth Abramson
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June 4, 2013 8:45 AM
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1 Comment

Festivals

"Ewa is a survivor. I think she’s going to make it. I don’t think she’s going to live a perfect life or be able to forget what has happened to her, but I think she’s going to make it somehow. I don’t know if my other characters will make it."--James Gray on "The Immigrant"

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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June 3, 2013 12:27 PM
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2 Comments

Blogs

The most harrowing film ever made about childhood opens with a lullaby that is anything but soothing: “The hunter in the night / Fills your childish heart with fright / Fear is only a dream / So dream, little one, dream.”

By Jed Mayer
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May 31, 2013 8:45 AM
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2 Comments

Festivals

Crazy weather, lost luggage, a Final Destination-like near death experience, rampant larceny; Cannes 2013 was certainly a wild ride. Looking back over the last two weeks I can’t help but think this year’s festival will go down as one of the strangest ever. And I mean that in the best possible sense.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 29, 2013 8:25 PM
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0 Comments

Blogs

Who Can Kill a Child (1976) is a relatively obscure Spanish horror film directed by Narcisco Ibanez Serrador, but it should be much better known, and not only by people like me, sick of having to pretend to be awed by how wonderful children are.