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.

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

Death by Amnesia, or How French Cinema Culture Can Save Us All

Blogs

The reason I write about cinema at all is because, at the age of 15, my high school French teacher sent our class to an art theater to see Jean Cocteau’s "Beauty and the Beast."

By Ian Grey
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November 8, 2012 9:43 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

I strongly believe that if Georges Méliès were alive and had a song in his heart, one of his films would be on this list.

By Ian Grey
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July 20, 2012 10:01 AM
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3 Comments

Television

Tonight’s meh "True Blood" was proof double-O positive of the Law of Fives. Seriously, if physicists applied themselves, I trust they’d find the Law of Fives almost as immutable as the Law of Gravity, and not nearly as funny.

By Ian Grey
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July 16, 2012 8:29 AM
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3 Comments

Blogs

At some point, no matter how much you love something, you have to admit it’s ruined beyond repair, that it really is time to let it expire with whatever dignity it has left. That thing, currently, is the American theatrical movie-going experience, may it rest in peace, forever, quickly, soon.

By Ian Grey
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July 13, 2012 2:12 PM
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4 Comments

Television

It always sucks to be Lafayette. And lately, Nelsan Ellis’s acting has been suffering as he tries to carry this impossible weight.

By Ian Grey
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July 9, 2012 9:21 AM
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1 Comment

Blogs

There is a hunger out there that cannot be fed by smirks, poses, and irony. In art, in film, hell, in anything.

By Ian Grey
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July 6, 2012 8:58 AM
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0 Comments

Television

Alan Ball’s a believer. Now on his last season as the major domo of "True Blood," he continues to see no reason at all why Big Themes and literary stuff can’t coexist with camp, bodice ripper romance, Hammer gore camp and a Ken-Russell-esque free-for-all approach to fantastic filmmaking.

By Ian Grey
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July 2, 2012 12:37 AM
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8 Comments

Blogs

The American military has largely dealt with the sexual assault of more than 95,000 service members since 2006 by stonewalling, denial, blaming the victim, and worse, according to Kirby Dick’s horrific and essential new film, "The Silent War."

By Ian Grey
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June 29, 2012 9:00 AM
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1 Comment

Blogs

Anyone comparing the second season of "Teen Wolf" to "Buffy" either isn’t paying attention to the dark gem Jeff Davis’s show has become or doesn’t understand what Joss Whedon’s show used to be.

By Ian Grey
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June 22, 2012 9:29 AM
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0 Comments

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.