FEATURES
The Souvenir
By Sheila O’Malley
In Joanna Hogg’s exquisite breakout, a film student’s unsentimental education in 1980s England becomes a rigorous work of elusive psychological portraiture. Plus: an interview with Hogg by Nicolas Rapold
Late Night
By Devika Girish
The workplace comedy brings Mindy Kaling’s disarming, observant eye to the story of a homogenous talk show and its unexpected new hire
50 Years of Film at Lincoln Center
The world-famous film organization—and longtime publisher of this magazine—celebrates its golden anniversary and brand-new moniker this year. We reminisce with the words of subversive pioneer Amos Vogel and selections from series past by a handful of Film Comment contributors
Becoming Us: The Violence of Assimilation
By Soraya Nadia McDonald
Jordan Peele’s latest cultural touchstone, Us, plumbs the depths of the fractured American experience, but is there hope within its horrors?
Asako I & II
By Andrew Chan
Japan’s most excitingly unpredictable filmmaker, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, takes a left turn into pop melodrama with his shimmering tale of doubled love and folly
Non-Fiction
By Aliza Ma
Olivier Assayas never stops thinking about how tomorrow affects today, proving it again with a deceptively light, idea-packed sexual roundelay set in the publishing world
Cinema Optics
By Nick Pinkerton
Everything you see in a movie goes through and is transformed by the properties of the lens—that enduring analog hero of filmmaking, and perhaps its most woefully misunderstood component
Roberto Gavaldón
By Imogen Sara Smith
The sumptuously moody melodramas of the Mexican auteur are back in full luster for new generations to rediscover—and rank alongside Hollywood’s best
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS
THE PRE-SHOW | News, views, conversations, and other things to get worked up about
News, Inspired: Pedro Almodóvar on Pain and Glory, Release Me: Lucio Castro’s End of the Century by Jordan Cronk, Directions: Tsai Ming-liang by Jonathan Romney, Restoration Row: Márta Mészáros’s Adoption and The Two of Them by Max Nelson
CRITICS’ CHOICE
Critics rate and comment on new releases
MAKE IT REAL | The wide, wide world of cinematic nonfiction
Three portraits of women by Eric Hynes
ART AND CRAFT | Filmmaking according to the makers
Editor Galut Alarcón on Raúl Ruiz’s The Wandering Soap Opera, as told to Manu Yáñez Murillo
FINEST HOUR | One actor, one performance
David Essex in That’ll Be the Day by Christina Newland
OFF THE PAGE | The art of getting from book to screen
Birdman and Raymond Carver by Nick Davis
PLAYING ALONG | Music and the movies
Michel Legrand and The Happy Ending by Michael Koresky
CURRENTS | New and important work plucked from festivals and elsewhere
Affonso Uchôa’s Seven Years in May by Abby Sun, Mark Jenkin’s Bait by Nicolas Rapold, Guillaume Brac’s Treasure Island by Jordan Cronk, Natalia Cabral & Oriol Estrada’s Miriam Lies by José Teodoro, Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell’s MS Slavic 7 by Devika Girish, Maíra Bühler’s Let It Burn by Nicolas Rapold
IN MEMORIAM | Remembering the cinéastes who have passed on
Agnès Varda by Kelley Conway & Carolee Schneemann by Melissa Ragona
THE BIG SCREEN | Reviews of notable new films opening in theaters (hopefully near you)
The Last Black Man in San Francisco by Stuart Klawans, Charlie Says by Madeline Whittle, Booksmart by Cassie da Costa, The Chambermaid by Lawrence Garcia, and more
Short Takes: Pasolini by Manu Yáñez Murillo, Too Late to Die Young by José Teodoro, Aniara by Nicolas Rapold, Wild Rose by Steven Mears, The Raft by Naomi Keenan O’Shea
HOME MOVIES | Cinema spun, streamed, and beamed
Anthony Asquith x 2 by Gina Telaroli, OVID.tv Streaming Service by Jordan Cronk, The Burial of Kojo by Robert Joseph Schneider, Jacques Perconte: “Corps” & “Paysages” by Vincent Warne, The Landlord by Ina Diane Archer, Stan & Ollie by Steven Mears, Taking Tiger Mountain Revisited by Maitland McDonagh, The Wild Frontier by Madeleine Collier, Wish List: So’s Your Old Man by Laura Kern
READINGS | Books about all aspects of filmmaking and film culture
What Is Japanese Cinema?: A History by Inuhiko Yomota, reviewed by Kazu Watanabe; A Life in the Movies: Stories from 50 Years in Hollywood by Irwin Winkler, reviewed by Glenn Kenny; Picture by Lillian Ross, reviewed by Farran Smith Nehme
GRAPHIC DETAIL | The art of the movie poster
The poster art of Osvaldo Venturi by Adrian Curry
