September-October 2018 | Film Comment

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September-October 2018

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Eat Me: Caniba

In Caniba, close encounters with a cannibal and his brother lead filmmakers Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor into new realms of power, fear, and desire

by Abby Sun

Eat Me: Caniba

The Paragon of Animals: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

With their multi-part yarn The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the Coen Brothers mosey on back to the Old West to survey the eternal disappointment that is man

by Michael Koresky

The Paragon of Animals: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

In Memoriam: Kira Muratova

The Ukrainian filmmaker summoned forth an explosive cinema of displacement and daring

by Sergei Loznitsa

In Memoriam: Kira Muratova

Steven Yeun on Burning

Burning star Steven Yeun finds himself anew on screen

by Devika Girish

Interview: Steven Yeun on Burning

Scare Tactics: Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark

In Hold the Dark, menace maven Jeremy Saulnier sends another hapless soul to hell and back

by Laura Kern

Scare Tactics: Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark

Art and Craft: Reed Morano

Perfect vision: the director and cinematographer of I Think We’re Alone Now talks about the immediacy and freedom of shooting for oneself

by Amy Taubin

Art and Craft: Reed Morano

The Turning of the Earth: Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s richly realized ROMA surrounds us with the bourgeois Mexico City of his youth, seen through the eyes of another

by José Teodoro

The Turning of the Earth: Roma

Make It Real: Notes on Nonfiction Camp

In The Gospel of Eureka, the humor and fabulous pageantry are more than just for laughs

by Eric Hynes

Make It Real: Notes on Nonfiction Camp

Intimations of Mortality: Monrovia, Indiana

Monrovia, Indiana, Frederick Wiseman’s postcard from the Midwest, detects the lengthening shadows beyond the all-American sunshine

by Nicolas Rapold

Intimations of Mortality: Monrovia, Indiana

Department

Editor’s Letter by Nicolas Rapold

The Pre-Show by Film Comment

Critics’ Choice by Film Comment

Column

Inspired: Yorgos Lanthimos on The Favourite by Yorgos Lanthimos

Release Me: La Flor by Nicolas Rapold

Directions: Hirokazu Kore-eda on Shoplifters by Mark Schilling

Restoration Row: Barbara Hammer x 10 by Max Nelson

Finest Hour: Bonar Colleano in The Way to the Stars by Robert Horton

Off the Page: John M. Stahl’s Seed by Imogen Sara Smith

Graphic Detail: Everett Aison by Adrian Curry

Currents

Fausto by Jordan Cronk

Chained for Life by Nellie Killian

Tour Without End by Nellie Killian

Delta by Robert Horton

A Land Imagined by Jordan Cronk

Feature

Everybody Hurts: Burning by Andrew Chan

Other People’s Diaries: Chick Strand by Sierra Pettengill

Following the Money by Nick Pinkerton

Problematic! Revisiting 1999 by Nick Davis

The Big Screen

Private Life (Tamara Jenkins, USA, Netflix, Opening October 5) by Sheila O’Malley

Short Takes: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller, USA, Fox Searchlight, Opening October 19) by Teo Bugbee

Life and Nothing More (Antonio Méndez Esparza, Spain/USA, CFI Releasing, Opening October 24) by Amy Taubin

Short Takes: Colette (Wash Westmoreland, UK/USA/Hungary, Bleecker Street, Opening September 21) by Lauren Kaminsky

I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni, UK/France/Germany, Film Movement, Opening September 7) by Kelley Dong

Short Takes: The Waldheim Waltz (Ruth Beckermann, Austria, Menemsha Films, Opening October 19) by Tina Poglajen

Bisbee ’17 (Robert Greene, USA, 4th Row Films, Opening September 5) by Mark Asch

Short Takes: Wildlife by Steven Mears

Short Takes: The Guilty (Gustav Möller, Denmark, Magnolia Pictures, Opening October 19) by April Wolfe

Home Movies

Memories of Underdevelopment by Esther Allen

September-October 2018 Listings by Film Comment

Country by Michael Koresky

Desecration by Maitland McDonagh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf: The Poetic Trilogy by Farran Smith Nehme

Shampoo by Christina Newland

Strange Victory by Nicolas Rapold

Sunday’s Illness by Devika Girish

America to Me by Nick Davis

Wish List: Twisted Nerve by Laura Kern

Readings

Are Snakes Necessary? by Brian De Palma & Susan Lehman by Yonca Talu

Foucault at the Movies edited by Patrice Maniglier & Dork Zabunyan by Thomas Beard

Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Notorious Scandal Magazine by Samantha Barbas by Nick Pinkerton

Online-only articles published between 2010–2020 have been organized alongside their corresponding print issues for the archive.

Podcast

Ghosts

Le cinema du boo: what do these visitations of the supernatural and the otherwise unearthly do to us, and to movies?

October 31, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Ghosts

Paul Dano and Richard Ford

Putting out fires: the director of Wildlife and the writer of the novel Wildlife meet for a rare discussion of filming and writing fiction

October 29, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Paul Dano and Richard Ford

Peter Bogdanovich

The never-ending story: the filmmaker/historian discusses his Keaton documentary The Great Buster, Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind, and more

October 23, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Peter Bogdanovich

NYFF56 Festival Wrap

Galore: our critics talk about the highlights and, yes, the themes of the recently concluded New York Film Festival, including The Favourite and Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind

October 17, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: NYFF56 Festival Wrap

NYFF56 Projections

Trips to the interior: we survey the mind-expanding highlights of the experimental cinema program in the 56th New York Film Festival

October 11, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: NYFF56 Projections

NYFF Live 2018 Cinema of Experience

The 56th New York Film Festival features three special Film Comment Talks, the first of which was our latest “Cinema of Experience” roundtable.

October 3, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: NYFF Live 2018 Cinema of Experience

Ballad of the Coen Brothers

Quicksilver: on the occasion of their new film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, we look at Joel and Ethan Coen’s peerless body of work

September 26, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Ballad of the Coen Brothers

Ethan Hawke

Heart of the country: the actor-director-writer in conversation with Nick Pinkerton at our latest Free Talk at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

September 21, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Ethan Hawke

Work / Bujalski

Clocking in: Andrew Bujalski and Sierra Pettengill discuss the portrayal of work on screen and in his film Support the Girls

September 19, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Work / Bujalski

Toronto Three

Grand finale: we discuss more of the hits from Toronto as the festival rolls to a close

September 14, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Toronto Three

Toronto Two

Station to station: we discuss new films by Claire Denis, Barry Jenkins, Errol Morris, and more

September 12, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Toronto Two

Toronto One

High hopes: we discuss Fahrenheit 11/9, Graves Without a Name, Destroyer, and more at the Canadian megafestival

September 11, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Toronto One

Venice

Total cinema: our editor-in-chief reports from the venerable festival on ROMA and other essential fall films

September 5, 2018

The Film Comment Podcast: Venice

Phantom Light

by Imogen Sara Smith

Blues for the Iron Curtain: Cold War and Red Boogie by Imogen Sara Smith

Ghosts and Replicas: Bisbee ’17 and Museo by Imogen Sara Smith

Film of the Week

by Jonathan Romney

Shirkers by Jonathan Romney

They Shall Not Grow Old by Jonathan Romney

Classical Period by Jonathan Romney

Bad Times at the El Royale by Jonathan Romney

High Life by Jonathan Romney

Mandy by Jonathan Romney

The Public Image Is Rotten by Jonathan Romney

Venice Film of the Week: Sunset by Jonathan Romney

Deep Focus

by Michael Sragow

Mid90s by Michael Sragow

First Man by Michael Sragow

The Old Man & the Gun by Michael Sragow

The Sisters Brothers by Michael Sragow

White Boy Rick by Michael Sragow

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection by Michael Sragow

Film Review

Review: Border by Devika Girish

Review: A Star Is Born by Michael Koresky

Director Interview

Cannes Lee Chang-dong by Dennis Lim

NYFF Louis Garrel by Yonca Talu

NYFF Sky Hopinka by Becca Voelcker

Paul Greengrass by Nicolas Rapold

NYFF Christophe Honoré by David A. Gerstner

László Nemes by Tina Poglajen

Bai Xue by Aliza Ma

NYFF Ali Abbasi by Nicolas Rapold

Jeanne Balibar by Joan Dupont

Mary Harron by Nicolas Rapold

Mahmoud Kalari by Godfrey Cheshire

Dominga Sotomayor by Pedro E. Segura Bernal

Jodie Mack by Jordan Cronk

Toronto Tim Sutton by Amy Taubin

Ognjen Glavonic by Eric Hynes

Venice Mike Leigh by Nicolas Rapold

Queer & Now & Then

by Michael Koresky

Queer & Now & Then: 1963 by Michael Koresky

Queer & Now & Then: 1980 by Michael Koresky

Queer & Now & Then: 1997 by Michael Koresky

Queer & Now & Then: 1960 by Michael Koresky

Essay

Sing Your Life: Marnie at the Met by Michael Koresky

Excerpt: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan: The Triumph of Tribalism by J. Hoberman

Festivals: Toronto by Nick Davis

Festivals: Wavelengths at TIFF by Nellie Killian

Festivals: Venice by Nicolas Rapold

TCM Diary

The Canterville Ghost by Sheila O’Malley

The Wild Boys of Wellman by Justin Stewart

filmlinc

by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

On Making The Wild Pear Tree by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

News Brief

by Carlos Valladares

News to Me: The Village Voice Live, Soderbergh, Zhao by Carlos Valladares

News to Me: Jerry Lewis’s “Home Movies,” Kasi Lemmons, Annette Michelson by Carlos Valladares

Festival Dispatch

Festivals: Toronto 2018 by Michael Koresky

Festivals: Telluride 2018 by Eugene Hernandez