Press Play

"The best video essay source on the web." (Roger Ebert) This is a web site built around original video essays and critical, personal writing about movies, TV, music, comics and whatever else interests its contributors. Co-founded by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine, and Ken Cancelosi, it is published by Seitz and Cancelosi and overseen by editor-in-chief Kevin B. Lee and managing editor Max Winter.

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ RECAP: LUCK: If Wishes Were Horses ...

Television

Before we delve into HBO's "Luck," I need to get some housekeeping out of the way. I wrote about it in a very general way for New York magazine, then asked to recap the first season for Vulture. "Luck" is a rare TV drama that benefits from wonky auteurist scrutiny, and that's how I'm going to approach it. I'm fascinated by series creator David Milch and have written extensively about his great western drama Deadwood for the Star-Ledger, The House Next Door, and Salon.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
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January 30, 2012 2:28 AM
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0 Comments

Awards

At first I couldn't understand how "A Cat In Paris" had nabbed an Animated Feature nomination with animation this crude. In fact, at first I couldn't understand "A Cat In Paris" period. For reasons that don't bear explaining, I watched it without subtitles, and my French doesn't go much farther than cheeses, swears, and synonyms for "hurry up."

By Sarah D. Bunting
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January 29, 2012 4:04 AM
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1 Comment

Television

"Spartacus" is back with a new Spartacus. Both the new actor and the revamped series take some getting used to. For the most part, the reincarnation works, in large part because this cable franchise doesn't have a pedigree to sully. The latest edition, "Spartacus: Vengeance," picks up where the original 2010 hit "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" left off, with the title character and his lusty band of former slaves afflicting their former Roman masters, and the Romans trying to contain the rebellion.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
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January 29, 2012 1:05 AM
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0 Comments

Festivals

This is the first of (hopefully) several dispatches from Press Play Editor Kevin B. Lee at the Rotterdam Film Festival. A full festival wrap-up with highlights will appear at RogerEbert.com.

By Kevin B. Lee
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January 27, 2012 9:57 AM
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0 Comments

PAUL ROWLANDS: Will the real Steven Soderbergh please stand up?

Blogs

Whenever friends ask for my opinion on Steven Soderbergh, I reply, "Which Soderbergh?'" Are they referring to the man who directs super-stylish, cool, intelligent entertainments such as the "Ocean's" trilogy (2001 - 2007) and "Out of Sight" (1998), "Traffic" (2000) and "Erin Brockovich" (2000), or the man who directed such idiosyncratic experimental features as "Schizopolis" (1996), "Full Frontal" (2002) and "Bubble" (2005)? On the surface, his career choices seem among the most perverse and erratic of any modern filmmaker. There aren't any other contemporary directors who are able or willing to switch from one genre and style of filmmaking to another and exhibit such different sensibilities. It is entirely possible to love one side of the man's professional identity, the entertainer -- a side currently represented by his bruising action picture "Haywire" (2012) - whilst remaining ambivalent about his other, equally important and equally characteristic side, the experimenter.

By Paul Rowlands
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January 27, 2012 7:00 AM
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1 Comment

Blogs

I wanted to love a movie that, in the first five minutes, had a teenage girl march up to a schoolmate and get right in his face all, "Give my boyfriend his money back or I'm-a have you killed." Ruthie (Chelsea Rendon) has gangster uncles, and she doesn't give a shit.

By Sarah D. Bunting
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January 27, 2012 4:15 AM
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3 Comments

Reviews

Few things bring out the worst tendencies of Hollywood than the genre mash-up, as evidenced by two of last year's worst films, "Cowboys vs. Aliens" and "Battle: Los Angeles" (aka "Independence Day" filmed as part Iraq War documentary, part video game). The "movie-x-meets-movie-y" mentality seems to inspire little more than z-level creativity in the land of big budgets and small minds. And yet, somehow the British have a better track record at bringing together disparate elements into a compelling whole. One of the best British crime movies, "The Lavender Hill Mob," is also one of their best comedies. Their most famous horror movie, "The Wicker Man," is actually a trifecta of horror, crime thriller and musical. And now there's Ben Wheatley's "Kill List," which takes seemingly familiar genre elements and offsets them in ways that can be confounding, but leave an unforgettable impact. And by impact, I'm not just talking about a scene involving a tied-up librarian and a hammer.

By Kevin B. Lee
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January 26, 2012 6:22 PM
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0 Comments

OSCARS DEATH RACE: WARRIOR

Blogs

"Warrior" is a lot of stories -- which is unfortunate, because it should have picked just one of them, or two, and we've seen pretty much all of them before regardless. Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy and his splendiferous saddle of neck muscles that has its own post office), a veteran whose departure from the armed forces is initially somewhat mysterious, returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh, looking to get back into mixed-martial arts. He's also looking to confront his estranged father and former coach, Paddy (Nick Nolte), about the crappy childhood he had to endure before Paddy got sober.

By Sarah D. Bunting
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January 26, 2012 8:33 AM
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3 Comments

Television

Pop culture serves to entertain, and reinforce cultural norms. Television shows have always done this; studying them, and their attitudes towards authority reveals a lot about America. One of the most well-received shows of the season is Showtime’s "Homeland." The series features a fine pedigree of actors, like Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, and was originally a show on Israeli television. While that may not sound exactly like the BBC, it still has the allure of the foreign-produced, which suggests a less provincial background.

By Pamela AuCoin
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January 26, 2012 6:05 AM
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6 Comments

Blogs

Hello, and welcome to the Oscars Death Race. I'm Sarah D. Bunting, the head rodeo clown at Tomato Nation; the Oscars Death Race is pretty much what it sounds like, a quixotic attempt to watch every single nominee in the Academy-Awards categories that appear on the broadcast. Why do I do this to myself? Well, the intellectual-glamour answer is that it's important for me as a writer, a storyteller, a citizen of filmmaking culture to testify to all of the work presented, good or bad. And I do believe that it's critical for someone, anyone to give a damn, or try to, about the lesser-lauded categories like Sound Editing and Live-Action Short.

By Sarah D. Bunting
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January 25, 2012 12:14 PM
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3 Comments

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