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.

THE REGULARS

Monthly Archives

VIDEO ESSAY: BEAVER'S LODGE: EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE

Video

"Emperor of the North Pole" is a favorite of mine, an exciting film as tough as old leather and as harsh as the era it depicts.

By Jim Beaver
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July 11, 2012 12:58 AM
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22 Comments

Video

When director Christopher Nolan first conceived of his Batman film trilogy, the challenge was revitalizing a hero who had previously been buried in cinematic fantasy shtick—a de-evolution that started with Tim Burton’s promising "Batman" and ended with Joel Schumacher’s laughably bad "Batman & Robin."

By Nelson Carvajal
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July 10, 2012 9:34 AM
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8 Comments

Blogs

Children of the 80's and 90's remember this series with a fondness bordering on the familial.

By John Keefer
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July 5, 2012 8:51 AM
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1 Comment

Video

What is it that makes Putty Hill one of the more striking American independent films of recent years? Is it the genuine working class Baltimore setting, where director Matt Porterfield grew up and still lives today? Is it the cinematography by Jeremy Saulnier? Is it the ensemble of nonprofessional actors who give the film a genuine, unaffected sense of character? Or is it the questions?

By Kevin B. Lee
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June 26, 2012 1:03 PM
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0 Comments

Video

Press Play launches its new director series "On the Q.T.," about Quentin Tarantino, with a look at his debut "Reservoir Dogs" (1992). Although it earned plenty of acclaim, the film also sparked two kinds of controversy.

By Aaron Aradillas, Matt Zoller Seitz & Ken Cancelosi
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June 20, 2012 8:58 AM
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5 Comments

Video

Arguably the greatest film ever made in Latin America, HOUR OF THE FURNACES makes a compelling case for the political film - and the politics of filmmaking - when considering the greatest films of all time.

By Nicole Brenez and Kevin B. Lee
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June 19, 2012 11:49 AM
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0 Comments

Television

"Mad Men"'s season-five death obsession dominated recaps and comments threads throughout the last 12 weeks—with good reason, as it happened.

By Matt Zoller Seitz, Deborah Lipp, and Kevin B. Lee
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June 13, 2012 9:30 AM
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1 Comment

Video

Cocaine’s presence in movies is a tricky object to dissect. Even with an awful, bloody contemporary history under its belt, cocaine seems to be the “cool” drug for modern cinematic heroes and heroines.

By Nelson Carvajal
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June 13, 2012 8:55 AM
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5 Comments

Video

When Adrian Martin visited Chicago last May, I made certain not to miss the opportunity to record him for this video series. What distinguishes Martin's scholarship for me is his passion for all that is improbable or even impossible about the cinema. That spirit can be sensed in Martin's love of Philippe Garrel and especially L'Enfant Secret, a chronicle of a tortured, fragile existence that embodies those qualities in its material properties: a film that at times "threatens to disintegrate."

By Adrian Martin and Kevin B. Lee
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June 12, 2012 9:57 AM
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3 Comments

Video

It's perhaps either a fitting coincidence or a realization of my own 20-something existential crisis that the making of this "True Blood" montage came shortly after I completed my video contemplation of the world of "Mad Men"'s Don Draper.

By Serena Bramble
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June 8, 2012 9:00 AM
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2 Comments

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