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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.

Video Essays

  • 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
  • VIDEO ESSAY: Wong Kar-Wai's Lust for Life

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SIMON SAYS: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ON VIOLENCE, HUMOR, AND IDENTITY

Blogs
"Human nature is violent," William Friedkin tells me, going on to say that he also likes Immanuel Kant's phrase "the crooked timber of humanity." As an artist, Friedkin is as blunt, matter-of-fact and masterfully cynical as his initial statement suggests.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • July 26, 2012 9:54 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams), Simon Says, William Friedkin, Killer Joe

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, But Not Quite High Enough

Blogs
"The Dark Knight Rises" is a half-baked success, a finale whose ambitions ultimately exceed the Nolan brothers' abilities.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • July 20, 2012 9:39 AM
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  • 5 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams), The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman

TEN BAT-TAKES: THE TEN BEST INTERPRETATIONS OF BATMAN

Blogs
No matter how much Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego have changed over the decades, Batman's various incarnations are all related.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • July 19, 2012 9:38 AM
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  • 5 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams), Simon Says, Batman, Batman: The Animated Series, Frank Miller, Tim Burton

SIMON SAYS: Could TRISHNA Really Be a Michael Winterbottom Film?

Blogs
If you sat down to watch "Trishna," a modern-day adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" reset in contemporary India, and didn't already know that it was directed by Michael Winterbottom, you probably couldn't tell.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • July 12, 2012 9:16 AM
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  • 2 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams), Simon Says, Michael Winterbottom, Trishna, Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed

SIMON SAYS: Local Heroes: The New York Asian Film Festival Strikes Again (And Again, And Again)

Blogs
The New York Asian Film Festival, now a pop culture institution unto itself, started eleven years ago.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • July 5, 2012 8:56 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams), New York Asian Film Festival, Festivals, Oldboy, Love in the Buff, The Sword Identity, Edmond Pang, Haofeng Xu

SIMON SAYS: MAGIC MIKE and the Camera

Blogs
Steven Soderbergh's recent use of digital photography in "Contagion" (2011) and "The Girlfriend Experience" (2009) has a painterly quality. In "Magic Mike," Soderbergh's visual flourishes establish concerns better than anything his characters say.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 28, 2012 9:17 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Simon Says, Simon Abrams, Steven Soderbergh, Magic Mike, Channing Tatum, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

SIMON SAYS: The Roberto Benigni Problem

Blogs
The imminent release of "To Rome with Love," the latest movie directed and written by Woody Allen, should have you wondering the following: what exactly do people see in Roberto Benigni, and why has his career sustained itself for as long as it has?
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 21, 2012 9:24 AM
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  • 2 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, Roberto Benigni, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

SIMON SAYS: Pure Ideas: Dropping Science (Fiction) with EXTRATERRESTRIAL Filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo

Blogs
Nacho Vigalondo’s films are about ideas.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 14, 2012 9:04 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, Nacho Vigalondo, Extraterrestrial, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

SIMON SAYS: Trying Harder: What PROMETHEUS Gets Right

Blogs
One character in Prometheus sums up why Ridley Scott's return to his 1979 science fiction milestone is as refreshing as it is, in just two words: "Try harder."
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 7, 2012 8:55 AM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Simon Says, Simon Abrams, Prometheus, Ridley Scott, Alien, Sigourney Weaver, Noomi Rapace, Winona Ryder, Ian Holm, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

SIMON SAYS: White Men Can't Ninja

Blogs
In 1981, producer-cum-director Menahem Golan was supposed to direct Charles Bronson in "Death Wish 2." But, as the apocryphal story goes, Bronson didn't want Golan at the helm. So Golan directed "Enter the Ninja"—a movie which, oddly enough, has remote ties to the spaghetti western genre.
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  • By Simon Abrams
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  • June 1, 2012 9:29 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Simon Abrams, Simon Says, Menahem Golan, Enter the Ninja, Franco Nero, Charles Bronson, Richard Harrison, Sergio Corbucci, SIMON SAYS (Simon Abrams)

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