Michael Sragow

Deep Focus: Queen & Country

By Michael Sragow

February 19, 2015

John Boorman's follow-up to Hope and Glory is the best and brightest of service comedies

Interview: Joe Dante (Part Two)

By Michael Sragow

February 18, 2015

Continuation of the id: a discussion of the (literal) scene-chewing on display in Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Interview: Joe Dante (Part One)

By Michael Sragow

February 17, 2015

From Reagan to Disney: part one of an extended interview with the director of Gremlins—screening in its rare preview cut in Film Comment Selects

Deep Focus: Kingsman: The Secret Service

By Michael Sragow

February 11, 2015

Breaking lad: the super-spy comic-book adaptation starring Colin Firth does not take the gentlemanly tack

Interview: Dan Gilroy

By Michael Sragow

February 10, 2015

Killer ratings: the writer-director of Nightcrawler talks about creating a tabloid-newsman character driven by animal instinct and utterly focused on the bottom line

Deep Focus: The Voices

By Michael Sragow

February 5, 2015

The artist and director of Persepolis teams up with Ryan Reynolds for a curious portrait of a schizophrenic factory worker

Deep Focus: Timbuktu

By Michael Sragow

January 29, 2015

Abderrahmane Sissako’s understated, humanist drama matches its emotional complexities with exquisite visuals

Deep Focus: The Humbling

By Michael Sragow

January 21, 2015

Always on: Al Pacino's bravura performance as an actor of a certain age fuels the offbeat humor in Barry Levinson's Philip Roth adaptation

Deep Focus: Blackhat

By Michael Sragow

January 15, 2015

Low resolution: Michael Mann's hacker action film fails to bring its globe-trotting characters to life

Deep Focus: Predestination

By Michael Sragow

January 8, 2015

Peter and Michael Spierig's adaptation of a Robert Heinlein short story matches spectacle with nimble emotionality

Deep Focus: The Interview

By Michael Sragow

December 30, 2014

Going rogue: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's buddy comedy has all the potty-mouthed raunch you might expect—but who is its real star?

Deep Focus: Selma

By Michael Sragow

December 29, 2014

The more things change: Ava DuVernay offers a sometimes indirect portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. at a crucial moment

Deep Focus: The Hobbit: The Battle of the 5 Armies

By Michael Sragow

December 17, 2014

Peter Jackson's 10-year quest to adapt Tolkein's Middle Earth books concludes with lyrical grandeur

Interview: Matt Reeves

By Michael Sragow

December 17, 2014

Evolution meets revolution: a look back at Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with its human director

Deep Focus: Top Five

By Michael Sragow

December 10, 2014

Maximum charisma: Chris Rock's meditation on black celebrity confirms the virtuoso comic's strength as a filmmaker

Deep Focus: Unbroken

By Michael Sragow

December 3, 2014

Angelina Jolie's portrait of emotional and physical endurance aims for the epic but falls into hagiography

Deep Focus: The Imitation Game

By Michael Sragow

November 26, 2014

Secret life: Morten Tyldum's multilayered film about Alan Turning is a superbly, and subtly, wrought accomplishment

Deep Focus: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1

By Michael Sragow

November 20, 2014

Working-class hero: the first half of The Hunger Games finale is driven by performances rather than explosions

Deep Focus: The Homesman

By Michael Sragow

November 13, 2014

The mission: Tommy Lee Jones's Western with Hilary Swank is a story of grit that looks the part, but is it true to all its characters?

Deep Focus: Big Hero 6

By Michael Sragow

November 6, 2014

A boy and his bot: our weekly West Coast critic peers into Disney's latest CG animated wonderland in his debut column!