Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

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.

Video Essays

  • Raised in Fear: The Superdynamational Horrors of Ray Ha...
  • CANNES 2013: Jia Zhang-ke's A TOUCH OF SIN
  • CANNES 2013: Joel and Ethan Coen's INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
  • CANNES 2013: Images, Part 1
  • On an Animation of a Sentence by Nathan Englander

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

Press Play

OSCARS DEATH RACE: IN DARKNESS

Blogs
Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) is a sewer inspector in Nazi-occupied Lvov; he's also a thief, robbing abandoned houses to provide for his family, and he and his partner Szczepek (Krzysztof Skonieczny) hide the spoils in the watery catacombs beneath the city. One day in 1942, the burglars run into another group in the sewers: Jewish families who have dug down through the floor of an apartment in the ghetto, knowing that going literally underground is their only chance to survive. Socha agrees to help them, but only a dozen of them, and only for $500 a week.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • February 23, 2012 7:46 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Sarah D. Bunting, Oscars Death Race 2012, In Darkness

OSCARS DEATH RACE: MONSIEUR LAZHAR

Blogs
A teacher dies tragically, leaving her eleven- and twelve-year-old students variously bereft, disoriented, and determined not to react. Days later, Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) -- an émigré from Algeria with years of teaching experience who's trying to put a calamity of his own behind him -- presents himself as a replacement. His classroom style is different from what the kids have gotten used to; he prefers orderly rows of desks to the "team-building" semi-circle, and the school's administrator (Danielle Proulx) has to tell him that he can't just casually whap a misbehaving boy upside the head.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • February 22, 2012 7:46 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Sarah D. Bunting, Oscars Death Race 2012, Monsieur Lazhar

OSCARS DEATH RACE: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2

Blogs
I haven't had much to do with the "Harry Potter" series; maybe one of these days I'll get around to reading the books, but to date, I've seen the films nominated for Oscars during the Death Races, and that's about it. …Wait, I saw the first film on a plane and liked it fine.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • February 22, 2012 2:57 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Sarah D. Bunting, Oscars Death Race 2012, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2

'SHOULD WIN' VIDEO ESSAY SERIES: Best Picture TREE OF LIFE

Video
All of the 2011 Best Picture nominees have their merits, but one towers above the rest: "The Tree of Life," writer/director Terrence Malick's film about...well what is "The Tree of Life" about, anyway? For a free-associative non-linear movie that skips back and forth through time and space, and that includes a lengthy early section recounting the creation of the universe, the movie was a surprising commercial success, dominating discussion among cinephiles throughout a summer moviegoing season that is usually overshadowed by much louder, dumber movies. And at the center of the discussion were very basic questions about writing and direction – about storytelling generally – that cut to the heart of what movies are and what they can be.
Read More »
  • By Matt Zoller Seitz & Serena Bramble
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 12:13 PM
  • |
  • 26 Comments
More: Terrence Malick, Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Should Win, Academy Awards, Matthew Zoller Seitz, Serena Bramble, video essay

VIDEO ESSAY: Outstanding Collaborative Performance: The Fly (1986)

Video
David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of "The Fly" would have been a shoo-in for a theoretical best collaborative performance Oscar. What makes it truly special is its empathy for its arrogant scientist hero, Seth Brundle, who tests his revolutionary new matter transporter on himself and becomes genetically fused with a fly that was not supposed to be in the telepod with him. Jeff Goldblum’s performance as Seth Brundle is a nexus point for all the film’s creative elements: direction, writing, acting, makeup, optical effects, miniatures and puppetry. Goldblum’s work here brings everything together. It’s kind of a thespian telepod.
Read More »
  • By Matt Zoller Seitz and Steven Santos
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 9:40 AM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
More: Matthew Zoller Seitz, Steven Santos, video essay, The Fly, David Cronenberg

OSCARS DEATH RACE: TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Blogs
I had to watch the second "Transformers" for a previous Death Race iteration, so I thought I knew what to expect -- i.e., not much, but perhaps a faint hope that the formidable Julie White would return as Sam Witwicky's mom.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 7:41 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Oscars Death Race 2012, Sarah D. Bunting, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Michael Bay

VIDEO ESSAY And the Oscar for Outstanding Collaborative Performance goes to...

Video
Why hasn't Andy Serkis won an Oscar yet? Will his achievements as an actor ever be recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Should they be recognized? Is Serkis an actor, or is his physical performance in a CGI-assisted role just a rough guide for a movie's digital effects?
Read More »
  • By Matt Zoller Seitz & Steven Santos
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 7:39 AM
  • |
  • 11 Comments
More: Matthew Zoller Seitz, Best Collaborative Performance, Yoda, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Frank Oz, Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Fly, Adventures of Tintin, video essay, Steven Santos

FESTIVALS - Berlinale 2012 Final Report: The Tantalizing and the Taboo

Festivals
What does it take to get your film into a world class festival? That's the question asked with gleeful irreverence by "The Woman in the Septic Tank," which screened at the recently concluded 2012 Berlinale, one of the world's foremost festivals. This hilarious satire of international art filmmaking finds two aspiring auteurs sitting in a Manila café, jealously regarding a rival's Facebook photos taken at the Venice film fest. They vow to devise the ultimate movie to win festival audiences and prizes: a single mother of five suffering in the slums is forced to sell her son to a rich pedophile. But like Mel Brooks' "The Producers," the project gets out of hand, and before we know it we're watching a musical version with the pedophile singing "Is this the boy / who'll bring me endless hours of joy?" It's one of many delightful detours taken by these filmmakers seeking the road to art house glory.
Read More »
  • By Kevin B. Lee
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 6:46 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Berlinale, Kevin B. Lee

OSCARS DEATH RACE: RANGO

Blogs
The trailer for "Rango" made the movie look unappealing, and I didn't have high hopes when I threw it in the DVD player. Oops: it's awesome.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • February 21, 2012 6:22 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
More: Johnny Depp, Rango, Oscars Death Race 2012, Sarah D. Bunting

ADWEEK INTERVIEW: New York Magazine TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz takes a tough stand on reality TV shows

Blogs
I don’t feel like Indiana Jones in front of the boulder at New York magazine. Everything that happened at [ex-employer] Salon is like what happened on the island of Lost. There were people who would comment on everything. On one level it was terrifying, but it was kind of nice. There were people who cared about every little thing.
Read More »
  • By Adweek
  • |
  • February 20, 2012 9:48 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Interviews, Television, Matthew Zoller Seitz

Follow Us

Blog Roll

Most "Liked"

  • Raised in Fear: The Superdynamational ...
  • CANNES 2013: Jia Zhang-ke's A TOUCH ...
  • CANNES 2013: Joel and Ethan Coen's INSIDE ...
  • CANNES 2013: Images, Part 1
  • On an Animation of a Sentence by Nathan ...
  • CANNES 2013: Images: Part 2
  • CANNES 2013: James Gray's THE IMMIG ...
  • CANNES 2013: Nicholas Winding Refn's ...

Latest Tweets

Follow us

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories