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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.

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CANNES 2013: An Interview with James Gray

Festivals

"Ewa is a survivor. I think she’s going to make it. I don’t think she’s going to live a perfect life or be able to forget what has happened to her, but I think she’s going to make it somehow. I don’t know if my other characters will make it."--James Gray on "The Immigrant"

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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June 3, 2013 12:27 PM
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2 Comments

Festivals

Crazy weather, lost luggage, a Final Destination-like near death experience, rampant larceny; Cannes 2013 was certainly a wild ride. Looking back over the last two weeks I can’t help but think this year’s festival will go down as one of the strangest ever. And I mean that in the best possible sense.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 29, 2013 8:25 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

Few films have captured the level of complex pragmatism it must take for a desperate person to survive in a completely new place with no support or ideological context. James Gray’s arresting period-piece melodrama "The Immigrant" achieves this feat.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 24, 2013 10:36 PM
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1 Comment

Festivals

In Nicolas Winding Refn’s "Only God Forgives," to witness God is to experience the devil.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 22, 2013 4:02 PM
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1 Comment

Festivals

After nearly four straight days of rain, sunshine has finally graced the Croissette. It’s glorious. Wardrobes have gotten significantly skimpier and smiles have broadened greatly, and everyone at Cannes seems to be settling in.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 21, 2013 1:44 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

Plenty of films exist about struggling young artists trying to be great and failing in the process. But Joel and Ethan Coen’s "Inside Llewyn Davis" is unique in focusing on a great struggling young artist resigned to the idea of his own impending failure.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 19, 2013 3:20 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

Thick grey clouds paint the coastal horizon, and rain keeps falling. Massive yachts bob up and down in the choppy water while scattering festival attendees take cover under umbrella canopies.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 18, 2013 7:39 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

Jia Zhang-ke sees modern day China as an expansive minefield of potential narratives, each one ready to trigger its own perspective on the countless institutional and societal issues that ultimately impact identity, gender roles, and economic expansion.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 17, 2013 12:04 PM
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0 Comments

Festivals

"I suffer from the fact that people have so many preconceptions about the kinds of movies I make," Brian De Palma lamented, "that they don't really look at what's on the screen."

By Simon Abrams
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September 13, 2012 9:46 AM
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0 Comments

Festivals

If it weren’t for 2007’s "Redacted," "Passion" would be a neat, coherent follow-up to both "Femme Fatale" and "The Black Dahlia" in Brian De Palma’s filmography, in addition to being a rehashing of many of the director’s themes and trademarks.