The Film Comment Letter

Cannes 2021: The First Days

July 12, 2021

So may we start: the festival's much-awaited 2021 edition featured a feast of opening premieres, from Leos Carax, Joanna Hogg, Mark Cousins, and more

Film Comment Recommends: Summer of Soul

By Devika Girish

July 6, 2021

The pleasure of this archival concert film is in watching a symphony of performance and reception, call-and-response

Film Comment Recommends: Spring Blossom

By Devika Girish

July 6, 2021

Suzanne Lindon’s debut captures the thrill of first passion and heartbreak, but without sordid clichés

Close to Life

By Blair McClendon

July 5, 2021

Time regained: a revelatory exhibition pulls together a series of performances and film work from the multi-talented artist Bill Gunn

Richard Rush and The Stunt Man

By Michael Sragow

June 28, 2021

Man on wire: no director ever lived up to his last name better than Rush did in the Peter O’Toole-starring The Stunt Man

Last Exit

By Kelli Weston

June 28, 2021

Magic kingdom: Zola is an effortlessly funny and dark fable of a Black woman seeking escape from life’s monotony

Film Comment Recommends: The Power of Kangwon Province

By Clinton Krute

June 21, 2021

Bridge over troubled water: Hong Sangsoo’s second movie employs a bravura narrative structure that elucidates the solipsistic lives of its protagonists

A Year on the Couch

By Jonathan Romney

June 21, 2021

Primal screen therapy: during the COVID-era, television series provided a coherent purposefulness that was otherwise missing from everyday life

Hiding in Plain Sight

By Mayukh Sen

June 21, 2021

Out of the past: Merle Oberon endures in public memory because of the secrets she had to hide, but her work deserves reassessment

Film Comment Recommends: Slow Machine

By Tyler Wilson

June 14, 2021

This mortal coil: the new microbudget “thriller” is a shape-shifting fever dream of a film