Sign up for the Film Comment Letter today to get original film writing delivered to your inbox every week! >>

Published by Film at Lincoln Center

Laura Kern

Scare Tactics: Cruel to Be Kind

By Laura Kern
September 13, 2018
In Hold the Dark, menace maven Jeremy Saulnier sends another hapless soul to hell and back

Wish List: Victory

By Laura Kern
July 18, 2018

 

The skeptic hero of Joseph Conrad’s Victory is embodied in John Cromwell’s fascinating 1940 screen adaptation by a typically distinguished yet unusually mustached Fredric March (though he appears clean-shaven in the film’s promotional materials). Forever spewing biting quips about…

Scare Tactics: Senseless Violence

By Laura Kern
May 2, 2018
The loss of hearing or sight (or more) can trigger the ever-potent drama of survival against the odds

Killing It

By Laura Kern
January 3, 2018
In a terrifying world, a reinvigorated horror genre might be our best source of hope (and fear)

Short Take: The Commune

By Laura Kern
May 3, 2017
(Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, Magnolia Pictures, Opens May 19)

Sundance Dispatch

By Laura Kern
January 26, 2017
Up to the task: Amanda Kernell’s Sami Blood and Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome put iron-willed struggles front and center

Notebook: 20th Century Women

By Laura Kern
January 11, 2017
Annette Bening ascends to new heights of greatness in Mike Mills’s subtle, very personal portrait of a family and an era on the verge

Scare Tactics: House of Pain

By Laura Kern
September 6, 2016
Fede Alvarez’s home-invasion film Don’t Breathe is driven by pulse-pounding shocks—and serious talent

Short Takes: Into the Forest

By Laura Kern
July 5, 2016
(Patricia Rozema, Canada, 2015)

Father’s Day Special: Bad Dads

By Laura Kern
June 17, 2016
Honor thy father? An unsentimental look at some of cinema's worst patriarchs

The Miracle of Life

By Laura Kern
May 3, 2016
With Evolution, Lucile Hadzihalilovic dives deep into the murky (and dangerous) waters of maturing and achieving self-knowledge

Night Shift

By Laura Kern
March 3, 2016
At Sundance, the old hiding places for fresh work came up short

Festivals: Thessaloniki

By Laura Kern
December 9, 2015
Unlikely and morally gray protagonists came into the fore at this year's egalitarian, enthusiastically attended fest

Short Takes: The Final Girls

By Laura Kern
September 3, 2015
(Todd Strauss-Schulson, U.S., 2015)

Slumming It

By Laura Kern
June 30, 2015
Days and Nights in the Market

Short Takes: Southpaw

By Laura Kern
June 30, 2015
(Antoine Fuqua, U.S., 2015)

Easy Does It

By Laura Kern
February 27, 2015
In the annual Sundance battle between darkness and light, the feel-good films felt best

Short Takes: The Salvation

By Laura Kern
February 26, 2015
(Kristian Levring, Denmark/U.K./South Africa, 2014)

Enigmas

By Laura Kern
October 1, 2014
The remarkable story of a codebreaking genius who helped win World War II, but was undone when his private life was decrypted

Short Takes: The Messenger

By Laura Kern
September 29, 2014
(Oren Moverman, U.S., 2009)