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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

  • VIDEO ESSAY: Wong Kar-Wai's Lust for Life
  • VIDEO ESSAY: Directed by De Palma
  • "The First, The Last, My Everything" : Tilda Swinton Da...
  • BADLANDS: Terrence Malick’s “early, funny film”
  • On an Animation of a Sentence by Nathan Englander

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Press Play

Cannes 2012: Sang-soo Im’s THE TASTE OF MONEY

Festivals
You have to really want to say “F*** you” to anyone watching your work to make a black comedy as rancid as "The Taste of Money."
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • May 26, 2012 7:53 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Cannes Film Festival, Simon Abrams, Im Sang-soo, The Taste of Money, Kang-woo Kim, Yoon-sik Baek, Maui Taylor, Hyo-jin Kim, Yeo-jong Yoon

CANNES 2012: Jeff Nichols' MUD

Festivals
Some film critics have described Jeff Nichols’s "Mud" as the perfect way to end Cannes 2012, a fun and accessible slice of cinematic Americana. But considering the film’s hammy sentimentality and bogus emotional connections, I can’t think of a more disappointing send off.
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  • By Glenn Heath Jr.
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  • May 26, 2012 3:33 PM
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  • 5 Comments
More: Cannes Film Festival, Glenn Heath Jr., Jeff Nichols, Mud, Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Michael Shannon, Sarah Paulson

CANNES 2012: David Cronenberg's COSMOPOLIS

Festivals
For a Cronenberg film, "Cosmopolis" is light on violence and body horror, but the director’s obsession with evolving ideas and tainted perspectives remains on full display.
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  • By Glenn Heath Jr.
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  • May 25, 2012 5:01 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Cannes Film Festival, Glenn Heath Jr., David Cronenberg, Cosmopolis, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton

CANNES 2012: Koji Wakamatsu’s 11/25: THE DAY HE CHOSE HIS OWN FATE

Festivals
Legacy is the thing in "11/25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate," Japanese guerilla filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu’s remarkable drama about the death of militant poet/novelist Yukio Mishima.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • May 25, 2012 4:37 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Cannes Film Festival, Simon Abrams, Kôji Wakamatsu, 11.25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate, Arata, Shinnosuke Mitsuhima, Yukio Mishima

VIDEO: The Magnificent Andersons

Video
Wes Anderson has established himself as an irreplaceable and elusive American storyteller. Yet, for a director who addresses such heavy themes in his work, Anderson himself remains an enigma.
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  • By Nelson Carvajal
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  • May 25, 2012 1:06 PM
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  • 3 Comments
More: Video, video essay, NELSON CARVAJAL

VIDEO - PLAY DIRTY with Alejandro Adams: NO BLADE OF GRASS

Video
Press Play introduces Play Dirty, a series in which filmmaker Alejandro Adams brings his unkempt insight and usual disregard for propriety to the video essay form, occasionally dragging along a guest to savage or praise a given film.
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  • By Alejandro Adams
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  • May 25, 2012 11:14 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Video, video essay

GREY MATTERS: The Way the World Ends

Blogs
In 2001 Steven Spielberg went apocalypse crazy and he never recovered.
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  • By Ian Grey
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  • May 25, 2012 12:32 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Ian Grey, Grey Matters, 4:44 Last Day on Earth, They Came Back , Melancholia, The Road, The Last Days of the World , Pandorum, Dollhouse, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles , Joss Whedon, Steven Spielberg

CANNES 2012: Carlos Reygadas' POST TENEBRAS LUX

Festivals
Narrative is the devil in Carlos Reygadas’s baffling and intoxicating "Post tenebras lux."
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  • By Glenn Heath Jr.
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  • May 24, 2012 12:31 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Cannes Film Festival, Glenn Heath Jr., Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux, Adolfo Jimenez Castro, Nathalia Acevedo, Willebaldo Torres

VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Jonathan Rosenbaum on SATANTANGO

Video
From a personal standpoint, it is fitting that the second video of this series, following the opening tribute to Roger Ebert, features Jonathan Rosenbaum. It was through Ebert that I discovered Rosenbaum's writing 14 years ago, when his weekly reviews for The Chicago Reader made Ebert's list of "20 Essential Movie Websites." Since then, no writer has done more to expand my knowledge and develop my sensibilities on film.
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  • By Jonathan Rosenbaum and Kevin B. Lee
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  • May 24, 2012 11:31 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Video, video essay, Sight & Sound Film Poll, SIGHT AND SOUND CRITICS' PICKS

CANNES 2012: Lee Daniels' THE PAPERBOY

Festivals
The best that can be said of Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy" is that it’s sometimes intentionally awful. More often than not, however, it’s just awful.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • May 24, 2012 9:53 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Cannes Film Festival, Simon Abrams, Lee Daniels, The Paperboy, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey, Macy Gray, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, Zac Efron

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