The Conversation: Introduction and Mike Nichols’ ‘The Graduate’
A conversation on cinema between film critics Drew Morton, Landon Palmer and Justine A. Smith.
Sheffield Doc/Fest Review: Tatiana Huezo’s ‘Tempestad’
“Tatiana Huezo and cinematographer Ernesto Pardo have struck a balance between natural beauty and human squalor in a way that mirrors how Mexican citizens have had to live with the ever-present possibility of life-ending terror.”
Sheffield Doc/Fest Day Four: Sir David Attenborough Q and A
“At a festival dedicated to the documentary, the opportunity to meet a true giant of the field was an unmissable, and indeed, unforgettable experience.”
Sheffield Doc/Fest Day Three: Grey Skies, Surprise Guests and Uncle Howard
“Legacy can be a tricky topic for any perspective documentarian to cover, but when that legacy belongs to a close family member, and one who was himself a documentarian, it feels almost necessary.”
Sheffield Doc/Fest Day Two: Politics and ‘Pickle’
“Nothing mixes quite like politics and a funny name.”
Sheffield Doc/Fest Day One: Remembering Chantal Akerman
“The 2016 iteration of the Sheffield Doc Fest boasts a film lineup consisting of 29 world, 20 European and 14 international premiers, alongside an international contingent of buyers and programmers hunting for the best of the best.”
The Feminine Grotesque #10: Genre Is a Woman and She Has Fangs – On ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’
“After viewing ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ for the first time, I wondered, ‘Doesn’t a woman have to be at least a little bit monstrous to survive?'”
We Failed This Film: Lexi Alexander’s ‘Punisher: War Zone’ (2008)
A Series by Dylan Moses Griffin
Of Love and Other Demons: ‘Sweetie’ (Jane Campion, 1989)
A Weekly Column on Love and Erotica in Cinema by Justine A. Smith
‘Candyman’ or (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Say Farewell to the Flesh)
“As an adult viewer with a wider range of experiences and reference points than my pubescent self (this is what I tell myself anyway), what engages me most about ‘Candyman’ now is the themes on the fringes of the urban legend focus.”
Studio Ghibli Forever: An Initiation – ‘Grave of the Fireflies’
“A gripping drama whose defiant youths refuse to bow to war, hunger and indifference, Grave of the Fireflies is a film for children to learn the harsh realities of life so that they can do all in their power to prevent the cycle from continuing.”
Moving Picture: ‘Frances Ha’ and Me
An Essay by Kyle Turner
A Cinema of Relics: ‘The Phantom’ at 20
“Call it the Silver Age of Comic Book Movies.”
Why Criticism: Writing about Acting and Performance in 2016
A Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
Review: Corbin Bernsen’s ‘Christian Mingle’
“Like a lot of reality television, ‘Christian Mingle’ is funny for hateful reasoning that displays damaging, scary facets of our culture.”
The Boundaries of Intimacy Are Explored in Porn-Based Dramas ‘After Eden’ and ‘Malgré la nuit’
“In the end, the two films are essentially stories about connections with others, with life itself and ourselves.”
Review: Hong-jin Na’s ‘The Wailing’
“It’s a film that doesn’t so much scare as it harrows, boring deep into the psyche.”
Vague Visages on Agnès Varda’s 88th: ‘Vagabond’
“People often fear or misrepresent what they don’t understand.”
Demon in Utero Pregnancy: ‘Shelley’ Opens Transilvania Film Festival
“With clear references to the cult horror ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, ‘Shelley’ explores the theme of pregnancy as an invasion.”
The Uneasy Allegiances of Nicholas Ray’s ‘In a Lonely Place’
“‘In a Lonely Place’ finds Nicholas Ray still the relative newcomer to the Hollywood studio scene, yet he is already displaying subversive evidence of instilling in his work representative preoccupations.”