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"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

MAD MEN RECAP 6: AT THE CODFISH BALL

Television

"It’s the future. It’s all I ever wanted."

By Deborah Lipp
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April 30, 2012 1:33 AM
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16 Comments

Television

Remember those Cosmo-ish "Which Sex & the City character are you?" quizzes that every single editorial outlet featured during that show's run? Of course you couldn't take the results seriously; you can't "be" one of those people, because those people weren't people. They were slices of people, meant to illustrate (and easier to write than) the composite, contradictory whole.

By Sarah D. Bunting
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April 29, 2012 10:55 PM
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8 Comments

Television

One of the most appealing things about "Game Of Thrones" as a fantasy narrative is the lack of magic at the core of its story.

By Rowan Kaiser
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April 29, 2012 9:55 PM
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6 Comments

Video

In an age of redundant remakes ("Total Recall," "Fright Night"), attempted revamps ("21 Jump Street," "The Three Stooges") and even 3D re-launchings ("Titanic 3D," "Star Wars: Episode 1 - 3D") of past Hollywood fare, it’s easy to become disheartened at the current state of film and television.

By Nelson Carvajal
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April 27, 2012 9:31 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

Person of Interest isn’t the sole new scripted television show in the Top Five because it’s a gold standard procedural mystery. Or because it’s a terrific grown-up look at living with regret that also finds time to explore post 9-11 hot topics of class and morality in the New Depression.

By Ian Grey
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April 27, 2012 8:55 AM
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3 Comments

Video

This first part of an hour long video essay spins an elaborate tale of a lifelong obsession with Hitchcock's masterpiece.

By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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April 26, 2012 12:21 PM
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0 Comments

Blogs

I often wonder if there is such a thing as a productively awful film.

By Simon Abrams
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April 26, 2012 8:59 AM
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0 Comments

Video

A viral sensation, this fanboy parody uses a multi-layered arsenal of disarming rhetoric, satirizing film geek analysis as a way to make its underlying film geek analysis palatable to a wide audience.

By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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April 25, 2012 11:56 AM
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0 Comments

Video

The Terrorizers is not just a postmodern film, but "the postmodern film."

By The Seventh Art
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April 25, 2012 9:09 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

That "No Country For Old Men" constitutes one of Cormac McCarthy’s “lesser” works probably says more about McCarthy’s genius than it does about the book’s individual strengths or weaknesses.