Press Play

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. It is published by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine and overseen by editor-in-chief Kevin B. Lee.

Monthly Archives

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.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
|
May 22, 2012 12:25 AM
|
15 Comments

Blogs

The pictures may have gotten small, but Nicolas Cage is still BIG. More often than not, he acts in CAPS LOCK mode.

By Matt Zoller Seitz and Adam Lucas
|
April 24, 2012 10:30 AM
|
3 Comments

Video

This video essay by Richard Cruz collects Spike Lee's loopy, free-floating dolly shots into a music video. In the process, it makes them less jarring and problematic than they were when they first appeared in Lee's films. You know what I'm talking about: a shot where a major character is still, or perhaps moving subtly, while the background moves at an unrealistically fast speed or whirls wildly, creating the sense that the character is sort of hovering through the air, or perhaps moving along on a conveyor belt or turning on a merry-go-round.

By Matt Zoller Seitz & Richard Cruz
|
April 21, 2012 7:07 AM
|
26 Comments

Video

A sampling of exemplary works from the emerging genre of online video essays on cinema. What better way to kick off the series than with an opening credit sequence, unpacked in such a way that can only be done via video essay?

By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
|
March 19, 2012 12:05 PM
|
1 Comment

Television

Episode seven of "Luck" at first feels like a placeholder, until you look back over it and realize that the universe is reordering itself beneath the surface of things. In the pilot, most of the characters seemed detached from life, or isolated; but now, with just two episodes left to go until the end of the season, they've formed or deepened relationships. More importantly, given the show's seeming belief in kindness as good karma, a lot of the characters have taken responsibility for another human being or fellow creature.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
|
March 13, 2012 3:35 AM
|
0 Comments

Video

Analysis of the opening credits of the first season of "The Wire," exploring how the images highlight the overall themes of each season and offer predictive snippets of future plot twists.

By Andrew Dignan, Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz
|
March 11, 2012 1:40 PM
|
0 Comments

Television

HBO's "Game Change," about the making and unmaking of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential election, is basically that scene stretched out to feature length — an agonizing experience. You don't need to know the names of political consultants or remember every detail of the campaign to become immersed in it, because in its heart, it's about coming up against the limits of one's own competence. This harsh lesson is learned not by Palin, but by the people who submitted her as McCain's running mate, and by McCain himself, who unknowingly ceded the election the minute he added her to the ticket.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
|
March 9, 2012 11:35 PM
|
0 Comments

Television

About a third of the way through episode six of "Luck," a conversation between the horse trainer Turo Escalante and the veterinarian Jo is cut short by portents. A flock of birds erupts from behind, or within, the stands; silhouetted, they look like bats. The horses freak out. Then comes an earthquake. The walls tremble. The ground shakes. And then it's over.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
|
March 6, 2012 1:02 AM
|
0 Comments

Television

We head into "Mad Men’s" fifth season knowing nothing about it. The on-air promos recycle moments from past seasons, and the teaser art has been cryptic even by this show’s standards: an opening-credits-styled image of a falling man that could be hawking any season, and a photo of hero Don Draper staring at two mannequins — a clothed male and a naked female* — through a dress-shop window. Matthew Weiner, who banned advance screeners after a New York Times review revealed innocuous details from the season-four premiere, has dropped a cone of silence over the production. We have no idea if Don went through with plans to wed his young secretary, Megan; if Joan had Roger’s baby; or if the new agency is still in business. We don’t even know the year in which this season takes place, which at least would prepare us for the wingspan of Roger’s lapels.

By Matt Zoller Seitz
|
March 6, 2012 12:50 AM
|
1 Comment

Video

The practitioners of visual effects have a favorite phrase for what they do: the Invisible Art – effects that are imaginative, even astonishing, but that are ultimately there to sell a world, a character or a moment. Special makeup might be the best illustration of this principle. One of makeup's greatest triumphs is An American Werewolf in London, which in 1982 became the first film to win an Oscar for makeup in regular competition. Overseen by Rick Baker, who supervised all of the film's makeup effects, it shows a man changing into a werewolf in real time…right in front of your eyes. This sequence was the culmination of eight decades of movie makeup. And the film's Oscar represented a coming-out for a once-neglected aspect of filmmaking.

By Aaron Aradillas, Matt Zoller Seitz & Ken Cancelosi
|
February 24, 2012 1:15 PM
|
0 Comments

start
previous
1 - 10 of 41
next
end

Disney Magic Transforms Taxi Driver

Latest Tweets

"I think we are at a point where it is more important to think about how we watch films than about which films to watch" -@PressPlayIW
Posted 2 hours ago
RT @mant_a_tangi: @alsolikelife @PressPlayIW That's only bit of that movie I'm looking forward to. Not that I love watersports, but sure don't love Daniels.
Posted 3 hours ago
RT @nelsoncarvajal: VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Jonathan Rosenbaum on SATANTANGO via @PressPlayIW http://t.co/2rMs9zGr
Posted 5 hours ago
VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Jonathan Rosenbaum on SATANTANGO via @PressPlayIW http://t.co/2rMs9zGr
Posted 5 hours ago

Blog Roll

Most "Liked"

GREY MATTERS: Black Widow Spins Webs ...

like

1121
CANNES 2012: ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA ...

like

228
VIDEO ESSAY: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, The ...

like

202
VIDEO ESSAY: Where Experiment Meets ...

like

176
VIDEO: All the Animals Come Out at Night: ...

like

164

VIDEO ESSAY - The Sight and Sound Film ...

like

150
VIDEO ESSAY: Depp Shadows: Tim Burton's ...

like

136
MAD MEN RECAP 7: LADY LAZARUS

like

69
CANNES 2012: Apichatpong Weerasethakul's ...

like

63
CRUEL SUMMER: 1980: THE BLUES BROTH ...

like

59

Press Play