Subscribe to Film Comment today . One of the highlights of this year’s New York Film Festival is the latest feature by the nonfiction master Gianfranco Rosi, known for documentaries like Sacro GRA (2013), Fire at Sea (2016), and Notturno (2020), which paint both lyrical and urgent portraits of places that function as thresholds—between land and water, life and death, heaven and hell. His new cinematic essay, Below the Clouds, brings that approach to the Italian city of Naples. Shot in ethereal b...
Oct 07, 2025•30 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Three films in this year’s NYFF lineup explore the intersections of quotidian life and the arts, following artists whose efforts to make time and space for their creative passions are thwarted or frustrated by the grind of the everyday. In Kent Jones’s Late Fame, adapted from an Arthur Schnitzler novella, a once-upon-a-time New York poet (and now a postal worker) is intoxicated by the sudden attentions of a coterie of twentysomething wannabe poets. In Kelly Reic...
Oct 02, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . “That’s the majesty of rock / The mystery of roll / The darning of the sock / The scoring of the goal / The farmer takes a wife / The barber takes a pole / We’re in this together…and ever.” These lyrics ring as true today as they did back in 1992, when Spinal Tap penned them for their song “The Majesty of Rock,” from the classic album Break Like the Wind. Centering around the core trio of frontman David St. Hubbins, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, and bassist Derek...
Sep 11, 2025•27 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year. This year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our sixth episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics Guy Lodge and and Öykü Sofuoğlu to discuss some recent festival premieres, including Pietr...
Sep 05, 2025•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week, Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year. This year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our fifth episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics Savina Petkova and Jordan Mintzer to discuss Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine (3:00), L...
Sep 04, 2025•49 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year. This year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our fourth episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics Bilge Ebiri and Jonathan Romney to talk about some recent premieres, including Jim Jarmusc...
Sep 03, 2025•55 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week and next, Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year. This year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our second episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics Joseph Fahim and Öykü Sofuoğlu to talk about some recent premieres, including Gu...
Sep 01, 2025•51 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week and next, Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year. This year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our second episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited critics Tim Grierson and Katie McCabe to talk about recent festival premieres, including...
Aug 30, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . This week and next, Film Comment is reporting from the picturesque shores of the Lido, where the Venice Film Festival takes place each year, and this year's edition features new films by many major auteurs, including Noah Baumbach, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, and more. For our first episode from the city of canals, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited FC contributors and Venice veterans Jonathan Romney and Jordan Cronk to talk about wh...
Aug 29, 2025•55 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . The Locarno Film Festival takes place every August in the Swiss town of Locarno, at the base of the Alps, with a robust mix of new discoveries, repertory selections, and premieres of films by major auteurs. Film Comment was on the ground this year, combing through the lineup for highlights, and this episode—featuring critics and programmers Inney Prakash and Cici Peng in conversation with FC Editor Devika Girish—covers some of the notable titles: Radu Jude's Dra...
Aug 22, 2025•46 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish moderated a conversation between the filmmakers Miguel Gomes and Alexandre Koberidze. The talk took place as part of the Future of Reality conference at the festival, organized by Locarno Factory and Università della Svizzera italiana, and the subject of the conversation was “the reality of the film set.” What is the daily experience behind making transcendent cinema? What are the tactical a...
Aug 19, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Today’s episode is an entry in our regular Rep Report series, where we survey the best and most interesting offerings at repertory theaters in New York City. This month and next, the rep calendar is particularly packed with gems, so Film Comment Editor Devika Girish invited filmmaker, critic, and archivist Gina Telaroli, film scholar Benjamin Crais, and Film Comment’s Assistant Editor Michael Blair to spotlight some of the unmissable series on view right now or ...
Jul 30, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . From July 4 to July 8, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish presented a series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music called Let Them Cook: Cinema of the Rice Cooker, which spotlit movies where the humble household appliance takes on a poetics and pragmatism uniquely suited to the screen. Some of the films in the series included Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light (2024), Claire Denis’s 35 Shots of Rum (2008), Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000), Raymond Yip's...
Jul 15, 2025•45 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . It’s officially summertime, and with the AC blasting in multiplexes around the globe, Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited two fellow respite seekers, critics Alana Pockros and Adam Nayman, to chat about some of the buzziest new releases in circulation. The group begins with a deep dive into Celine Song’s romantic comedy Materialists (2:50) before turning to Eva Victor’s Sundance sensation Sorry, Baby (25:25); the racing blockbuster F1 (4...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Earlier this month, Film Comment hosted the author Malcolm Harris for a special event celebrating the launch of his latest book, What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis—an invigorating analysis of climate change and the collective solutions required to rescue humanity from it. In addition to being a trenchant public intellectual, Harris is also a dedicated cinephile who often uses movies to make sense of politics and history—something we explored o...
Jun 25, 2025•43 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . One of our favorite movies of 2025 so far is Sarah Friedland's debut feature Familiar Touch, which opens in theaters in New York on Friday, June 20. The film follows an octogenarian with dementia, played by Kathleen Chalfant, as she settles into her new life in a nursing home. It’s a delicate, touching, and surprising work that evades clichéd depictions of elderly people—thanks in part to the collaborative process through which it was made. The film was shot in ...
Jun 18, 2025•37 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . For the last two weeks, our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been reporting from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. Before the festival wrapped on May 24, Film Comment partnered with Cannes Docs, the nonfiction-focused section of the Marché du film, on a panel titled “The Voice of Documentary.” Moderated by FC Editor Devika Girish, the panel convened three practitioners of radical...
Jun 04, 2025•55 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 is wrapping up this weekend—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For our ninth episode from the sunny shores of southern France, all-star critics Justin Chang, Tim Grierson, and Allison Willmore join Editor Devika Girish for our final on-the-ground panel conversation from this...
May 25, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fifth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Abby S...
May 23, 2025•58 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 is in full swing—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year’s festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our seventh episode from the film world's grandest event, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is join...
May 22, 2025•38 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year’s festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our sixth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics and FC...
May 21, 2025•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fifth episode from the French Riviera, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critic Kong Ri...
May 20, 2025•40 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our fourth episode from the sunny shores of southern France, Film Comment contrib...
May 19, 2025•56 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our third episode from the sunny shores of southern France, Film Comment contribu...
May 17, 2025•53 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has arrived—and you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Ducournau, Wes Anderson, and many more. For our second Podcast from the French Riviera, Isabel Stevens and Thomas Flew from S...
May 16, 2025•43 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Cannes 2025 has at last arrived—and while news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood your feed, you can count on our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors to cut through the noise with thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and Podcasts. This year's festival is packed with exciting premieres, including new films from Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Spike Lee, Bi Gan, Julia Duc...
May 15, 2025•42 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Legendary American scholar and critic Tom Gunning has changed the way we think about film history and the future of the medium, profoundly influencing generations of academics, artists, and cinephiles. On Sunday, April 27, Devika Girish and Clinton Krute hosted a live conversation with Gunning and curator David Schwartz at the Museum of the Moving Image, following a screening of Hal Hartley’s Flirt (1995), an experimental narrative of love and loss set in three ...
May 02, 2025•57 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a singularly ambitious horror film set in 1930s Mississippi, is currently setting theaters ablaze (in an array of formats and aspect ratios to boot). The film stars Coogler mainstay Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as a pair of badass twins returning to their rural hometown of Clarksdale to build a blues joint—with performers whose talents are powerful enough to summon some unwanted spirits. To talk about this fascinating film—which weave...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . A new film by David Cronenberg is always a major event for all of us at Film Comment, especially after his 2022 opus Crimes of the Future was voted the Best Film of the Year by our contributors. So with Cronenberg’s latest, The Shrouds, opening in cinemas this weekend, we invited this singular auteur to talk about his strange and thrilling new movie. Like much of Cronenberg’s work, The Shrouds is obsessed with sex and death, body and technology. But it’s also fu...
Apr 15, 2025•39 min•Ep. 1
Subscribe to Film Comment today . Spring is finally in the air, and, for New York City cinephiles, that means it’s time for another edition of New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase for standout works by emerging filmmakers co-hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. The festival is always a reliable sign of trends to come and talents to look out for—past editions have featured early films by Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, and Kelly Reichardt, among others. This year’s...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 1
