Industrial strength: the new mega-sequel struggles with both the loss of its predecessor’s leading man and the roteness that afflicts any entry in the self-perpetuating Marvel Cinematic Universe
Against interpretation: filmmaker Radu Jude and critic Giovanni Marchini Camia join to discuss the continuing significance of the films and writing of Pier Paolo Pasolini
Institutional critique: the great director, known for his nonfiction work, dissects married life in his new narrative feature based on the journals of Sophia Tolstoy
Police stories: scholar Pooja Rangan and filmmaker Brett Story join to discuss “Watch the Cops: Policing New York in the Movies,” their recent series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Face the past: The Tamil filmmaker’s latest is an intricate, star-studded period epic, and yet another triumph in an extensive filmography characterized by a masterful blending of convention, innovation, and integrity
Fictional characters: Hong Sangsoo’s latest, The Novelist’s Film, is a work of deceptive minimalism, inflected with themes of aging, mortality, and the high stakes of art-making
Boo-ster shots: Kelli Weston and Steven Mears join to discuss a pair of just-out-of-season movies—slasher flick Alice, Sweet Alice and classic ghost story The Innocents
Old school: the great action director talks about his latest, and the way in which the “elegant simplicity” of the western provides “primal fodder for a filmmaker”
The good old days: in Armageddon Time, James Gray offers a new, messily autobiographical spin on his career-long preoccupation with the complexities of family and the quest for autonomy
