Film

Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in PASSING

What “Passing” Can Still Teach Us About Identity What “Passing” Can Still Teach Us About Identity

A film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novel dramatizes the mercurial and sometimes dangerous consequences of a person's performance of self in the public.

Nov 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

Gessica Geneus

On Film, a Window Into Haiti On Film, a Window Into Haiti

Gessica Généus discusses Freda, the first movie by a female Haitian director to be nominated for an award at Cannes.

Nov 3, 2021 / Q&A / Clair MacDougall

Mike Nichols and Elaine May, 1961.

Why Mike Nichols Was the Egalitarian Auteur Why Mike Nichols Was the Egalitarian Auteur

Mark Harris’s biography of the filmmaker shows that one cannot be an auteur without some help.

Nov 3, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lindsay Zoladz

The Grotesque and Sublime Transformations of “Titane”

The Grotesque and Sublime Transformations of “Titane” The Grotesque and Sublime Transformations of “Titane”

Julia Ducournau’s surreal horror film is a harrowing exploration of the body and technology.

Oct 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Phoebe Chen

Adam Curtis’s Modern Discontents

Adam Curtis’s Modern Discontents Adam Curtis’s Modern Discontents

In his new eight-hour epic, the British filmmaker offers a globe-trotting chronicle of our times. 

Aug 24, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kevin Lozano

ZOLA

“Zola” and the Limits of the Internet Movie “Zola” and the Limits of the Internet Movie

An adaptation of a viral Twitter thread only scratches the surface of how film storytelling might intersect with life online.

Aug 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

Bourdain’s Wake

Bourdain’s Wake Bourdain’s Wake

How to tell the story of Anthony Bourdain? 

Aug 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary Summer of Soul, revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.

Jul 29, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

Barry Jenkins’s American Saga

Barry Jenkins’s American Saga Barry Jenkins’s American Saga

In The Underground Railroad, Jenkins focuses how people survived slavery rather than on its brutality.

Jul 27, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Gattaca

Which Is the More Prescient Dystopia? ‘Gattaca’ or ‘Parable of the Sower’ Which Is the More Prescient Dystopia? ‘Gattaca’ or ‘Parable of the Sower’

Is it the 1997 film starring Ethan Hawke or is it Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel?

Jul 16, 2021 / The Debate / David M. Perry and Niela Orr

x