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 "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
  • VIDEO ESSAY: Wong Kar-Wai's Lust for Life

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Press Play

GREY MATTERS: Chaos Is Here To Stay

Blogs
When a movie turns into the biggest film that isn’t a sequel or a remake in Earth’s history, you can bet that Hollywood is going to figure out what made that film such a billion dollar baby. That movie is Gary Ross’s "The Hunger Games," and the most easily utilized element of that film is something not much loved around here—chaos cinema.
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  • By Ian Grey
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  • March 30, 2012 9:19 AM
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  • 4 Comments
More: Ian Grey, Chaos Cinema, Matthias Stork, CHAOS CINEMA

VIDEO - Motion Studies #8: Following

From now through April, the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival will present "Film Studies in Motion", a Web Series curated by Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee. This series, available on the festival's website and Facebook page, presents weekly selections of analytical video essays on the web, in preparation for Pantenberg and Lee's presentation  "Whatever happened to Bildungsauftrag? – Teaching cinema on TV and the Web", scheduled for April 28 at the festival.
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 30, 2012 8:19 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS

SIMON SAYS: LOVE IN THE BUFF Redeems China Lion

Blogs
For a few months now, China Lion Entertainment has been better in theory than in practice. Until this week and with the notable exceptions of some interesting but inconsistent melodramas like "Aftershock" and "Love in Space," China Lion had yet to release a film worth recommending without serious reservations.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • March 29, 2012 8:32 AM
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  • 4 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, China Lion, Love in the Buff, Ho-cheung Pang, Edmond Pang, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

VIDEO - Motion Studies #7: Low Budget Eye Candy

Video
Even George Lucas started out as a resourceful low-budget filmmaker, as detailed in this video essay manifesto on DIY film production.
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 29, 2012 7:57 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Motion Studies, video essay, MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS

VIDEO ESSAY: GALLO(W)S OF PUNISHMENT

Video
There is hardly a more polarizing figure in the independent film scene than Vincent Gallo. He once called Roger Ebert a “fat pig with the physique of a slave trader” after Ebert blasted the Cannes debut of his sophomore directorial effort, "The Brown Bunny."
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  • By Nelson Carvajal
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  • March 28, 2012 11:58 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: NELSON CARVAJAL, Vincent Gallo, The Brown Bunny

VIDEO - Motion Studies #6: Chaos Cinema Part 1

Video
This popular video, first featured on Press Play, explores how chaos reigns in the techniques used to make contemporary action films.
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 28, 2012 8:36 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Motion Studies, MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS, CHAOS CINEMA

TRAILER MIX: SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

Blogs
If "Snow White and the Huntsman" initially seemed like yet more fairy tale fodder (another film to push Hollywood's fantasy trend from comic books to storybooks), then the second trailer promotes the movie as a formidable CG spectacle, serving as a veritable effects reel for awards consideration.
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  • By R. Kurt Osenlund
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  • March 27, 2012 9:22 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: R. Kurt Osenlund

VIDEO - Motion Studies #5: Variation on a Sunbeam

Video
A 12 minute D.W. Griffith short is dissected and rearranged into multiple spaces playing out in real time, providing a revelatory view of Griffith's approach to storytelling and space.
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 27, 2012 8:30 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: video essay, Motion Studies, MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS

THE HUNGER GAMES: The Conversation

Blogs
Now that "The Hunger Games," the new film adaptation of the first book in Suzanne Collins's hyper-popular young adult book series, has raked in $68 million dollars on its opening day alone, it seems especially prudent to take a somewhat harder look at the film, both as a stand-alone work and as an adaptation.
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  • By Simon Abrams and Ian Grey
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  • March 26, 2012 9:46 AM
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  • 3 Comments
More: The Hunger Games, Simon Abrams, Ian Grey

MAD MEN RECAP 1: A LITTLE KISS

Blogs
Megan knows about Dick Whitman.
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  • By Deborah Lipp
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  • March 25, 2012 10:58 PM
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  • 24 Comments
More: Television, Mad Men, MAD MEN Recaps (Deborah Lipp)

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