Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

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

  • BADLANDS: Terrence Malick’s “early, funny film”
  • Raised in Fear: The Superdynamational Horrors of Ray Ha...
  • CANNES 2013: Jia Zhang-ke's A TOUCH OF SIN
  • CANNES 2013: Joel and Ethan Coen's INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
  • CANNES 2013: Images, Part 1

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

Press Play

VIDEO ESSAY: Siskel and Ebert: Screen Fighting Men

News
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were journalists, film reviewers, TV personalities and friends. They disliked each other and loved each other. They needled each other on the air and put on a great show, but it was always in the service of film criticism and education, a means of exciting viewers and drawing them in.
Read More »
  • By Ken Cancelosi
  • |
  • April 5, 2013 12:01 PM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
More: Roger Ebert (1942-2013), Ken Cancelosi, video essay, Video

For the love of Yul, please re-cast the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN remake

News
So apparently Tom Cruise is going to "star" in a remake of The Magnificent Seven, which itself is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. What does "star" mean? The Variety story doesn't say. But you have to wonder whose shoes is he going to fill, or try to fill. Yul Brynner's? Steve McQueen's? Charles Bronson's? James Coburn's? I can't get my mind around any of those possibilities -- not just because John Sturges' first remake is still vivid in my mind, but because Cruise basically played man-boys until he was pushing 40, and it wasn't until very recently that I got used to the idea of him playing a character with any gravitas at all.
Read More »
  • By Matt Zoller Seitz
  • |
  • May 22, 2012 12:25 AM
  • |
  • 16 Comments
More: Yul Brynner, Tom Cruise, Matthew Zoller Seitz, Magnificent Seven

TRAILER WATCH - Marvel's THE AVENGERS: Just Another Superhero Movie?

News
Matt Zoller Seitz: Have you heard there's a new Avengers trailer? All those great Marvel superheroes are in one trailer, just like in the comics! And Iron Man is there, and Thor, and .... sorry, I just can't get excited about this. As you might have heard, I'm sick unto death of superhero movies. Sick, sick, sick. I can't remember the last time I saw a big budget version that really departed from formula, in terms of either subject matter or tone -- Superman Returns is one, and that came out five years ago and flopped; anybody who wants to watch a quixotic defense of it can click here.
Read More »
  • By Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams
  • |
  • March 6, 2012 11:22 AM
  • |
  • 8 Comments
More: Matt Zoller Seitz

CHAPTER ART: MAGIC AND LIGHT: THE FILMS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG debuted Dec. 15

News
It's almost here! Press Play's first video essay series in direct partnership with IndieWire: "Magic and Light: The Films of Steven Spielberg." On Dec. 15, 2011 on this blog, this series will examine facets of Spielberg's movie career, including his stylistic evolution as a director, his depiction of violence, his interest in communication and language, his portrayal of authority and evil, and the importance of father figures -- both present and absent -- throughout his work.
Read More »
  • By Press Play Staff
  • |
  • December 14, 2011 5:24 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Matt Zoller Seitz, Aaron Aradillas, Serena Bramble, Steven Santos, Steven Spielberg, Jose Gallegos, Ali Arikan

The Art of MAGIC & LIGHT: THE FILMS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG

News
MAGIC & LIGHT: THE FILMS OF STEVEN SPIELBERG premieres Dec. 15 at Press Play. Check out these eye-popping title cards. As they used to say of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS trading cards back in the '70s, collect them all!
Read More »
  • By Boke Yuzgen
  • |
  • December 13, 2011 6:52 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Steven Santos, Matt Zoller Seitz, Jose Gallegos, Serena Bramble, Steven Spielberg, Richard Seitz, Ali Arikan

Are We Penn State

News
This is from one of Joe Posnanski's's recent blog entries on the Penn State contretemps. Joe Posnanski, in case you don't know the name, is a "sportswriter," but really he's a writer straight ahead, a very good one who can probably make you care about whatever sport he's addressing even if you thought you couldn't. He also has a fun podcast, The Sports Poscast, on which Parks & Rec's Michael "Ken Tremendous" Schur frequently guests, but Posnanski hasn't done many episodes lately because he went to State College, PA to write a book about Joe Paterno. Several times over the last few days, I wondered in passing how he would handle that, how he was doing, whether he was sitting on the edge of the bed and just kind of staring into his lap. I wondered how I would handle that, in his position, having to incorporate ongoing history into a planned biography.
Read More »
  • By Sarah D. Bunting
  • |
  • November 12, 2011 11:50 PM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
More: Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, Penn State

Follow Us

Blog Roll

Most "Liked"

  • BADLANDS: Terrence Malick’s “early, ...
  • Raised in Fear: The Superdynamational ...
  • CANNES 2013: Jia Zhang-ke's A TOUCH ...
  • CANNES 2013: Joel and Ethan Coen's INSIDE ...
  • CANNES 2013: Images, Part 1
  • VIDEO ESSAY: Wong Kar-Wai's Lust for ...
  • VIDEO ESSAY: Directed by De Palma
  • "The First, The Last, My Everything" ...
  • On an Animation of a Sentence by Nathan ...

Latest Tweets

Follow us

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories