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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

VIDEO ESSAY: The Miike Mutations

Video
With Takashi Miike's new film Lesson of the Evil blasting through the Roma International Film Festival, here's a video essay look at some of his past work, focusing on his consistent pattern of using existing material from a stunning variety of sources (manga, video games, theater) as a springboard for his innovative filmmaking.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • November 12, 2012 1:28 PM
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  • 1 Comment

VIDEO: Will Abraham Lincoln Pull a "Spielberg Face?"

Video
With Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated Lincoln opening this weekend, it's a fitting occasion to revisit this viral video essay by Press Play's Kevin B. Lee. Let's start placing odds: how many Spielberg Faces will Daniel Day-Lewis pull as Honest Abe?
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • November 9, 2012 3:48 PM
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  • 0 Comments

VIDEO ESSAY: Abraham Lincoln in Movies and TV (1915-2012)

Video
From D.W. Griffith to Steven Spielberg, from Shirley Temple to Bill & Ted, four score and seventeen years of Abraham Lincoln in pop culture finds the legend very much alive.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • November 7, 2012 12:05 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Lincoln

VIDEO ESSAY: Growing up a Bond Girl

Video
I am a woman, a feminist, and a hardcore James Bond fan; I've even written a book on the Bond movies. But when I meet fellow fans, they are often startled that a woman is among them.
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  • By Deborah Lipp and Kevin B. Lee
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  • October 30, 2012 8:01 AM
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  • 14 Comments
More: Deborah Lipp, Kevin B. Lee, Video, video essay

VIDEO ESSAY: Gliding Over All: The Cinematography of Breaking Bad, Season 4

Video
Hollywood can keep its 3D, its CGI and whatever Dolby Surround version they’re up to now. For a contemporary cinematic experience as visceral and visually arresting as "Breaking Bad," audiences must look abroad, to Gaspar Noé’s "Enter the Void," or further, to films coming out of Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.
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  • By Dave Bunting, Jr. and Gary Sullivan
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  • October 25, 2012 8:45 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Breaking Bad, Dave Bunting, Jr., Gary Sullivan, Vince Gilligan, Video, video essay

PRESS PLAY THEATER: Preston Miller's GOD'S LAND (2010)

Video
This is Press Play Theater, a streaming video feature that showcases notable work by independent filmmakers in one-week exclusive runs. Our debut offering is God’s Land, the second feature by Long Island-based director Preston Miller.
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  • By Preston Miller
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  • October 19, 2012 11:43 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Press Play Theater, Preston Miller, Matt Zoller Seitz, God's Land, Video

VIDEO ESSAY: ON THE Q.T.: Chapter 2: PULP FICTION (The Cool)

Video
Quentin Tarantino’s films treat talk as action; torrents of words spill out of his characters' mouths, defining and redefining them, in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world.
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  • By Peter Labuza and Matt Zoller Seitz
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  • October 19, 2012 11:14 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Peter Labuza, Matt Zoller Seitz, Quentin Tarantino, Video, video essay, Pulp Fiction

VIDEO: 100 Masters of Animated Short Films

Video
From Winsor McCay to the Brothers Quay and 98 other outstanding artists - how many can you name?
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • October 17, 2012 10:55 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Animation

In Remembrance of Harris Savides: 1957-2012

Blogs
Cinematographer Harris Savides, who died yesterday at 54, was a poet of light. He shot some of the stylistically striking movies of the last two decades.
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  • By Nelson Carvajal and Matt Zoller Seitz
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  • October 12, 2012 11:41 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: NELSON CARVAJAL, Matt Zoller Seitz, Harris Savides, Video, video essay

VIDEO ESSAY: The Portuguese Process - Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes

Video
Portugal’s Miguel Gomes is a young director on the rise. This video links his film OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST with countryman Pedro Costa’s NE CHANGE RIEN, two films that explore the musical mysteries behind the creative process.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • October 10, 2012 1:06 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Tabu, video essay

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