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Press Play

 "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.

Video Essays

  • Attention Red Wedding Crashers: Get a Grip, Sit Back, a...
  • BIG PRESS PLAY NEWS!
  • RAISED IN FEAR: Who Can Kill a Child?
  • RAISED IN FEAR: NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and the Horrors of ...
  • CANNES 2013: Images, Part III

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Press Play

FALLING SKIES RECAP 1: WORLDS APART and SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER

Television
Falling Skies is back for its second season with a two-hour premiere that, as is so often the case with "special premiere events" these days, is actually two episodes shown back-to-back. So, Episodes 2.01 Worlds Apart and 2.02 Shall We Gather at the River constitute our relaunch into the post-invasion world of Tom Mason and the Second Massachusetts. It was not perfect, but definitely was tightly constructed and presented some solid science fiction in a watchable two hours..
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  • By Deborah Lipp
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  • June 17, 2012 10:55 PM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Deborah Lipp, TV Reviews, Television, indieWIRE Video, TNT

TRUE BLOOD RECAP 2: AUTHORITY ALWAYS WINS

Television
You know the endlessly self-amused Nazi Christoph Waltz played in "Inglourious Basterds"? Well, someone over at "True Blood" casting found a prim-o Waltz-alike in the actor Christopher Heyerdahl.
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  • By Ian Grey
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  • June 17, 2012 9:55 PM
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  • 2 Comments
More: Ian Grey, True Blood, HBO , TV Reviews, Television, Christopher Meloni, Anna Paquin, indieWIRE Video

GREY MATTERS: Vidal Sassoon: In the Salon, In the Movies, In Life

Blogs
Vidal Sassoon did nothing less in his astonishing life than co-engineering the design and mindset of desire and freedom in fashion, cinema, and feminism—in ways that echo to this day.
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  • By Ian Grey
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  • June 15, 2012 9:00 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Ian Grey, Grey Matters, Vidal Sassoon, Mia Farrow, Jane Fonda, Klute, Alan J. Pakula, Roman Polanski, Bryan Ferry, GREY MATTERS (Ian Grey)

SIMON SAYS: Pure Ideas: Dropping Science (Fiction) with EXTRATERRESTRIAL Filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo

Blogs
Nacho Vigalondo’s films are about ideas.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 14, 2012 9:04 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, Nacho Vigalondo, Extraterrestrial, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

Art That Speaks to Everybody: A Father and Daughter Chat About E.T.

Blogs
[Editor's note: The following is an iChat between Press Play founder Matt Zoller Seitz and his daughter Hannah, a film student, about Steven Spielberg's "E.T.," which was released 30 years ago this week.]
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  • By Matt Zoller Seitz and Hannah Seitz
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  • June 14, 2012 9:00 AM
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  • 4 Comments
More: Matthew Zoller Seitz, Hannah Seitz, Steven Spielberg, indieWIRE Video

Five Great Moments of Dramatic Irony in MAD MEN

Television
Before postmodernist self-reference, there was dramatic irony: a little wink from the writer that acknowledges the audience. After five seasons of solid storytelling, here are five of "Mad Men"'s greatest moments in dramatic irony.
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  • By Olivia Collette
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  • June 14, 2012 8:55 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Television, Mad Men, Television, Olivia Collette, TV Videos

VIDEO ESSAY: A Death Foretold: Foreshadowing in MAD MEN

Television
"Mad Men"'s season-five death obsession dominated recaps and comments threads throughout the last 12 weeks—with good reason, as it happened.
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  • By Matt Zoller Seitz, Deborah Lipp, and Kevin B. Lee
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  • June 13, 2012 9:30 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: video essay, Matthew Zoller Seitz, Deborah Lipp, Kevin B. Lee, Mad Men, Television

VIDEO ESSAY: Cocaine du Cinema

Video
Cocaine’s presence in movies is a tricky object to dissect. Even with an awful, bloody contemporary history under its belt, cocaine seems to be the “cool” drug for modern cinematic heroes and heroines.
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  • By Nelson Carvajal
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  • June 13, 2012 8:55 AM
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  • 5 Comments
More: NELSON CARVAJAL, video essay, Video, Cocaine, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction, Corky Romano

VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Adrian Martin on Philippe Garrel's L'ENFANT SECRET

Video
When Adrian Martin visited Chicago last May, I made certain not to miss the opportunity to record him for this video series. What distinguishes Martin's scholarship for me is his passion for all that is improbable or even impossible about the cinema. That spirit can be sensed in Martin's love of Philippe Garrel and especially L'Enfant Secret, a chronicle of a tortured, fragile existence that embodies those qualities in its material properties: a film that at times "threatens to disintegrate."
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  • By Adrian Martin and Kevin B. Lee
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  • June 12, 2012 9:57 AM
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  • 3 Comments
More: Video, video essay, Sight & Sound Film Poll, SIGHT AND SOUND CRITICS' PICKS

CRUEL SUMMER: PURPLE RAIN (1984)

Blogs
Albert Magnoli’s "Purple Rain" is a one-of-a-kind mix of rock concert, intense drama, romance, and comedy. A star vehicle designed to showcase the talents of rock-fusion musician Prince, "Purple Rain" was that rare vanity project that worked.
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  • By Aaron Aradillas
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  • June 11, 2012 2:24 PM
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  • 2 Comments
More: Aaron Aradillas, Cruel Summer, Prince, Albert Magnoli, indieWIRE Video, CRUEL SUMMER (Aaron Aradillas)

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