Subscribe to Film Comment today . It’s January, which means it’s time once again to see some movies in the snowy wilderness of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Once again, the Film Comment Podcast will be on the scene, recording regular episodes, with the latest on the festival, the movies, and the filmmakers. We’re kicking things off with a preview of the 2020 edition’s offerings, talking about the movies we’re most looking forward to, and providing some context to the festival an...
Jan 22, 2020•41 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the 2010s and asking some questions as part of our Decade Project. What were the key movies of the decade, which filmmakers were doing innovative work, and what were the major shifts and big issues in the artform and the industry? We brought our discussion of the decade to our latest Film Comment Talk at Film at Lincoln Center. Joining Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold for our discussion were Ashley Clark, Director o...
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Vitalina Varela, the beautiful new film from Pedro Costa, is the cover of our January-February issue. Jordan Cronk spoke with Costa about the film’s story of a Cape Verdean woman named Vitalina who comes back to Lisbon for the funeral of her estranged husband. As Cronk put it in his feature: “Costa has been developing his approach into a new kind of dramatic portraiture . . . He has become a touchstone for an entire movement of contemporary art cinema ranging fr...
Jan 15, 2020•34 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Throughout her pioneering career, Agnès Varda has inspired countless filmmakers with her work and her groundbreaking career and style. At Film Comment, we leapt at the opportunity to put her on the cover when Faces Places was released. More recently, to celebrate the final weekend of the Varda retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, Film Comment presented a conversation with another generation of filmmakers in honor of Varda. They talked about what Varda has me...
Jan 10, 2020•55 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Uncut Gems, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, and starring Adam Sandler, is a full-throttle portrait of a diamond dealer in New York’s Diamond District. It’s been a wild success since it opened in December, and in our November-December issue, Michael Koresky wrote about the movie, praising how the Safdie brothers “capture the bustle and pace of rapid-fire economic exchange, filtering it through an increasingly panicky wild ride.” The neighborhoods of New York a...
Jan 08, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Little Women is without question one of the best movies of the recently-ended year, and it’s a wonderful triumph for director Greta Gerwig. That’s why we put it on the cover of our November-December issue, featuring Gerwig’s delightful interview by Devika Girish. But there’s even more to say about the movie and its intelligent, complex, and visually rich adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel. So Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with Devika ...
Jan 02, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Welcome to another episode in our Decade Project series where we look back at the past 10 years and talk about our favorite filmmakers, major changes and trends, and the movies that made a difference. This week, we’re talking about acting and performance in the 2010s—actors that made their mark, and tendencies we’ve noticed. Joining Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold are Michael Koresky, Film Comment regular, and Shonni Enelow, a Fordham professor and F...
Dec 18, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . With the 2010s on the way out, we thought that this very recent history could use a road map. Each installment of the Decade Project will look at key developments, pivotal movies, groundbreaking film artists, and so on. This week, we’re looking at filmmakers but specifically everyone but the director. We’re as guilty as anyone of referring to movies in terms of their directors. So we wanted to look back and choose a few favorite cinematographers, and editors, an...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . It’s that time of year again! Film Comment has made a list and we’ve checked it twice: the best films of 2019, chosen through a poll of our contributing writers. And according to our new annual tradition, we announced the results live at a special Film Comment Talk. This year, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold was joined to unveil and discuss the films by Amy Taubin, longtime contributing editor at Film Comment; Soraya Nadia Macdonald, who writes for T...
Dec 11, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . By any measure, the 2010s have been a confusing and turbulent and also exciting time. That goes for both movies and the world at large, and that’s saying a lot after the 2000s. At Film Comment, part of our goal is to offer a critical chronicle of the movies as they’re happening, putting things in historical perspective, pointing out the bold and the beautiful in the art and craft of film, and hopefully offering an insight or two along the way. That’s often harde...
Dec 04, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman has been out in theaters since the beginning of November, which you probably know unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (or were buried under Giants Stadium). Scorsese’s story follows the life of mob fixer Frank Sheeran and his close relationship with mob boss Russell Bufalino and Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters leader. The movie’s release is the perfect time to talk about Scorsese and his work, and explore exactly where The I...
Nov 27, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . It’s a busy couple of months for moviegoers as hits from festivals make their way into cinemas. That means it’s time for another New Releases episode, where talk about some highly anticipated titles. Film Comment Editor-in Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined by Devika Girish, assistant editor at FC, and Michael Gillespie, Associate Professor of Film at The City College of New York. Among the movies discussed are Atlantics, The Irishman, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire...
Nov 22, 2019•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Dark Waters is the new film from Todd Haynes, and it’s a change of pace from his last feature, Wonderstruck, and much of his work generally. Dark Waters is a whistleblower drama about Rob Billott, a lawyer who began investigating the chemical company DuPont, which his own firm was doing business with. To discuss the movie, contributing editor Amy Taubin sat down with Haynes for an extended interview. They cover the challenges of making political work today, the ...
Nov 20, 2019•52 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Some of the most exciting movies being made today are tackling class tensions and the role of work in our lives. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, our cover story last issue, is one major example, with its twisty upstairs-downstairs thriller set-up. But many other films have been taking up the subjects of work and class in a variety of different ways: Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, Stephen Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Martin Scorsese’s The Ir...
Nov 13, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week we celebrate two different strands of Indian cinema, looking at the past and the vibrant present. First, we look at the landmark Film at Lincoln Center retrospective for Ritwik Ghatak, director of The Cloud-Capped Star, A River Called Titas, and other films. For that part of the discussion, we’ll be joined by two of the series' programmers, Moinak Biswas and former Film at Lincoln Center director of programming Richard Peña. For the second half of the ...
Nov 06, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Horror movies are the usual choice for Halloween viewing. But we here at Film Comment got to wondering: what are the scariest movies that are not horror films? There are many ways a movie can get under your skin, and it’s not always through gore or the supernatural. To discuss this notion, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold got together with Film Comment regular Michael Koresky and Ashley Clark, senior repertory programmer at BAM. Each chose one or two movies (in...
Oct 30, 2019•57 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The Lighthouse is the mind-bending new movie out from Robert Eggers, a director who’s making a career out of revisiting America’s primal past in vividly imagined period films. In 2015, Eggers won the Best Directing Award at Sundance for The Witch, a chilling piece of horror set in a colonial New England settlement. In The Lighthouse, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as two lighthouse keepers, a grizzled old-timer and his new apprentice, in 19th century Mai...
Oct 23, 2019•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . At Film Comment, we love it when we get behind a movie and then see other movie-goers share the love. Parasite, the funny and fierce thriller from Bong Joon Ho, was on the cover of our September-October issue, but wasn't released in theaters until mid-October. But what a release! Audiences are packing the theaters. To talk about the movie’s appeal and Bong’s masterful filmmaking, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with contributing editor Amy Taubin, who...
Oct 16, 2019•51 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Mister America is the new film starring Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington. It’s a documentary-style satire about an first-time political candidate named Tim Heidecker, that is, the character Heidecker has played for years now alongside Turkington as part of their movie show On Cinema at the Cinema. In case you don’t already know, Heidecker and Turkington have created an incredible comedic universe involving their two movie-guy characters which spans a vanity sp...
Oct 15, 2019•24 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . For the festival’s final week, contributing critics and editors gather together for a spirited discussion with Film Comment‘s Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold about the movies they’ve seen in the NYFF57 lineup. Panelists include programmer and FC contributing editor Nellie Killian; Michael Koresky of Film Comment and Reverse Shot; Amy Taubin of Film Comment and Artforum; and critic Phoebe Chen. The panel discusses Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Bertr...
Oct 11, 2019•49 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Every year at the New York Film Festival, Film Comment brings together a group of intrepid filmmakers whose work is screening in the festival. It’s a rare chance to share stories about the art, craft, and angst of filmmaking, and to compare notes on inspirations and what makes a good collaboration. This year, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief spoke with an all-star lineup of filmmakers from across the festival: Pietro Marcello, director of Martin Eden, Corneliu Porum...
Oct 09, 2019•54 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The new film Bacurau centers upon the residents of a remote Brazilian village who gradually discover that they’re being hunted by a group of Western tourists. Part class-warfare satire, part thriller, the movie gripped audiences at the New York Film Festival and it marks a major achievement by its directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles. In this episode, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold joins FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish in a conversation wit...
Oct 07, 2019•39 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Think of it as a festival within the festival: every year, the annual Projections program brings the latest and greatest of experimental film to the New York Film Festival. Projections is a crucial and consistently popular snapshot of the boundary pushing part of cinema that is embedded in the DNA of the New York Film Festival, by way of co-founder Amos Vogel. To navigate this year’s rich offerings, I brought together two leading critics in the field: Ed Halter,...
Oct 04, 2019•52 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Every year at the New York Film Festival, Film Comment puts on a slate of special events, including public talks and a screening presentation. Our first NYFF talk this year was titled State of the Nation, a wide-ranging conversation about the complex interplay between politics and cinema. How do filmmakers grapple with the challenge of portraying current events and recent history on screen? And how successfully are movies reflecting the political complexities of...
Oct 02, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The New York Film Festival is here! And there’s a lot to talk about. Film Comment will have three onstage talks during the festival, as well as special screenings of the much-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire. But first we wanted to dip our toe into the lineup by talking with two recent guests at Film at Lincoln Center: Ashley Clark, Senior repertory and specialty film programmer at BAM; and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief N...
Sep 25, 2019•39 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . One of the highlights of the fall, and this year’s New York Film Festival, is the new film by Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory. Our new September-October issue features an essay by Michael Koresky about the film and it’s fearless autobiographical story. Koresky writes, “There has been no clearer onscreen representation of the filmmaker’s essence than the main character of Pain and Glory, played with exquisite middle-aged restraint by Almodóvar’s longtime muse, An...
Sep 18, 2019•38 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . For our third roundup of all the on-screen goings-n at TIFF 2019, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sits down with critic and FC contributor Michael Koresky and Justin Chang, film critic for the Los Angeles Times, to discuss Waves, Jojo Rabbit, Africa, Two of Us, Uncut Gems, Marriage Story, Saturday Fiction, Color Out of Space,and others.
Sep 13, 2019•41 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . For our second dispatch from the not-yet-frozen tundra of Toronto, Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold welcomes back Devika Girish (FC Assistant Editor) and programmer and critic Abby Sun for a rundown of highlights, including Lina from Lima, Just Mercy, Synonyms, Terminal Sud, Blood Quantum, and Simple Women.
Sep 11, 2019•48 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . After a whirlwind tour of Venice (don't forget to check out those episodes!), we dive right into the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sits down with guests Devika Girish (Assistant Editor at Film Comment), Jessica Green (programmer and Artistic Director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society) and Eric Hynes (curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image)to discuss some highlights from the festival, includ...
Sep 09, 2019•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . In our third and final dispatch from the Venice Film Festival, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold is joined by Jay Weissberg, film critic for Variety, and Christina Newland, writer for Sight & Sound and Little White Lies. They discuss a packed line-up of films: Olivier Assayas's Wasp Network, Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden, David Michôd's The King, Pablo Larraín's Ema, Roy Andersson's About Endlessness, and some picks from the festival's sidebar sections....
Sep 05, 2019•45 min•Ep. 1
