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"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.

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CANNES 2013: Nicholas Winding Refn's ONLY GOD FORGIVES

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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0 Comments

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

Read our critics' personal predictions of who SHOULD win the awards, and who WILL win the awards, at Cannes 2012...

By Glenn Heath Jr. & Simon Abrams
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May 27, 2012 1:31 PM
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3 Comments

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."

By Simon Abrams
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May 26, 2012 7:53 PM
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1 Comment

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.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 26, 2012 3:33 PM
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5 Comments

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.

By Glenn Heath Jr.
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May 25, 2012 5:01 PM
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1 Comment

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.