Michael Sragow

Deep Focus: Wakefield and Hounds of Love

By Michael Sragow

May 18, 2017

Air-conditioned nightmares: two very different films that touch upon the terror of suburbia

Deep Focus: Leon Morin, Priest

By Michael Sragow

May 11, 2017

Religious conviction: Jean-Pierre Melville’s unsettling, occupation-set drama gave Emmanuelle Riva one of her most complicated roles

Deep Focus: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

By Michael Sragow

May 4, 2017

No more goofing around: James Gunn's sequel tries for pathos and loses that wacky intergalactic charm

Deep Focus: One Week and a Day

By Michael Sragow

April 27, 2017

Life goes on: a droll look at mourning the loss of a son is anchored by a funny but nuanced central performance

Deep Focus: Obit

By Michael Sragow

April 20, 2017

Rest in print: Vanessa Gould’s portrait of the New York Times obituary team reveals the creativity behind memorial-making

Deep Focus: My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea

By Michael Sragow

April 13, 2017

Smells like teen spirit: Dash Shaw's delightful animation plays with high school dynamics and disaster movie clichés

Deep Focus: Graduation

By Michael Sragow

April 6, 2017

Life during normalization: Romanian filmmaker Christian Mungiu charts a father's slide through bureaucracy during a family crisis

Deep Focus: An Interview with Walter Hill

By Michael Sragow

April 3, 2017

Pulp fiction: the seasoned action director reflects upon his latest, The Assignment

Deep Focus: T2 Trainspotting

By Michael Sragow

March 23, 2017

Choose life (again): Danny Boyle's sequel to the seminal Gen X indie probes the complex relationships and wounds from the original

Deep Focus: Beauty and the Beast

By Michael Sragow

March 16, 2017

Pretty ugly: Disney's overstuffed live-action update falls short of the charms and the ambitions of the original

Deep Focus: Kong: Skull Island

By Michael Sragow

March 9, 2017

Not-so-great ape: the biggest star in movies is robbed of his lunkhead charms in this latest go-round

Deep Focus: Lovesong

By Michael Sragow

March 2, 2017

The heart grows fonder: So Yong Kim's low-key drama explores the complexities of female relationships and desire

Deep Focus: My Life as a Zucchini

By Michael Sragow

February 23, 2017

The kids aren't all right: with a cute and evocative animation style, Claude Barras balances the difficulties and sweetness of childhood

Deep Focus: The Lego Batman Movie

By Michael Sragow

February 9, 2017

Toy soldiers: a loopy franchise can't sustain its breakneck antics and self-reflexive humor, but is there something to its bizarroworld?

Deep Focus: Dark Night

By Michael Sragow

February 2, 2017

The more you know: Tim Sutton's bloodless reimagining of the Aurora theater shooting has its mind already made up about America

Deep Focus: Gold

By Michael Sragow

January 26, 2017

Willy Loman in Indonesia: Matthew McConaughey can’t fill the gaps in a movie that struggles to bridge hard-edged comedy-drama and high adventure

Deep Focus: Panique

By Michael Sragow

January 19, 2017

Of femme fatales and killers: Julien Duvivier’s thrilling and visually engrossing adaptation of a Georges Simenon suspense novel shines in a new restoration

Deep Focus: The Marseille Trilogy

By Michael Sragow

January 5, 2017

Marcel Pagnol's 1930s suite of interlaced character studies returns to the screen in a new restoration

Deep Focus: Hidden Figures

By Michael Sragow

December 29, 2016

Strength in numbers: formidable actresses shine in this rousing story about excelling at NASA in the 1960s in the face of adversity

Deep Focus: A Monster Calls

By Michael Sragow

December 22, 2016

Fractured fairy tales: J.A. Bayona’s adaptation of a fantasy YA novel expresses some complicated emotional truths