Press Play

A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES Finds Its Star In Zachary Galifianakis

Mark Greenbaum — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:22:53 GMT

Among its army of cult followers, A Confederacy of Dunces is the funniest American novel ever written. Little surprise, then, that the recent leaked news of yet another attempt to adapt it to the big...

VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Molly Haskell on CLAIRE'S KNEE

Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris and Kevin B. Lee — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:39:02 GMT

Press Play presents Sight & Sound Film Poll: Critics' Picks, a series of video essays featuring prominent film critics on films they selected for Sight & Sound...

VIDEO ESSAY: Maurice Sendak: Outside Over There

Tres Seymour and Ken Cancelosi — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:48:57 GMT

On May 8, 2012, Maurice Sendak died. Shakespeare’s dead, too, and Melville, and Emily Dickinson. In fact, come to think of it, so are most people who have ever lived. But most people...

GAME OF THRONES RECAP 9: BLACKWATER

Rowan Kaiser — Mon, 28 May 2012 12:14:40 GMT

We know what we’re getting when we watch a Game Of Thrones episode, right? We’re getting some beautifully shot scenes, certainly; this has been one of the best-looking shows on television...

MAD MEN RECAP 10: THE OTHER WOMAN

Deborah Lipp — Mon, 28 May 2012 05:36:01 GMT

Girl, you really got me going, you got me so I don't know what I'm doing. The Other Woman may be the most disturbing episode of Mad Men ever. We've seen bad things happen to...

GIRLS RECAP 7: WELCOME TO BUSHWICK, A.K.A. THE CRACKCIDENT

Sarah D. Bunting — Mon, 28 May 2012 02:56:03 GMT

Was anyone else surprised that the crack in this week's episode title was crack cocaine, and not the crack of an ass? We've seen stunt penises, non-stunt pubic hair, and breasts of all ages;...

VIDEO ESSAY: War Movies for People Who Don't Like War Movies

Kevin B. Lee — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:55:19 GMT

There’s no such thing as a truly anti-war film, Francois Truffaut once said. By depicting the adventure and thrill of combat, war movies can’t help but glorify their subject, fueling...

VIDEO ESSAY - Hijacking Michael Haneke

Kevin B. Lee — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:07:00 GMT

With Michael Haneke‘s winning his second Palme d'Or following the triumphant Cannes premiere of his new film Amour (Love), I thought it a fine occasion to revisit his earliest works....

CANNES 2012: And the Winners Should Be...

Glenn Heath Jr. & Simon Abrams — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:31:01 GMT

Read our critics' personal predictions of who SHOULD win the awards, and who WILL win the awards, at Cannes 2012: Glenn's Predictions: With the last Cannes competition screening in...

Cannes 2012: Sang-soo Im’s THE TASTE OF MONEY

Simon Abrams — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:53:15 GMT

You have to really want to say “F*** you” to anyone watching your work to make a black comedy as rancid as The Taste of Money. Money is a needlessly self-parodizing, feature-length...

CANNES 2012: Jeff Nichols' MUD

Glenn Heath Jr. — Sat, 26 May 2012 19:33:22 GMT

Some film critics have described Jeff Nichols’ Mud as the perfect way to end Cannes 2012, a fun and accessible slice of cinematic Americana. But considering the film’s hammy...

CANNES 2012: David Cronenberg's COSMOPOLIS

Glenn Heath Jr. — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:01:55 GMT

Billionaire business mogul Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) treats his body like a temple, receiving a health assessment from a physician every day like clockwork. One such appraisal takes place midway...

CANNES 2012: Koji Wakamatsu’s 11/25: THE DAY HE CHOSE HIS OWN FATE

Simon Abrams — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:37:27 GMT

Legacy is the thing in 11/25: The Day He Chose His Own Fate, Japanese guerilla filmmaker Koji Wakamatsu’s remarkable drama about the death of militant poet/novelist Yukio Mishima. Wakamatsu...

VIDEO: The Magnificent Andersons

Nelson Carvajal — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:06:32 GMT

Wes Anderson has established himself as an irreplaceable and elusive American storyteller. At age 43, Anderson has already made films about the romance of crime (Bottle Rocket), a philanderer's...

VIDEO - PLAY DIRTY with Alejandro Adams: NO BLADE OF GRASS

Alejandro Adams — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:14:00 GMT

Press Play introduces Play Dirty, a series in which filmmaker Alejandro Adams brings his unkempt insight and usual disregard for propriety to the video essay form, occasionally dragging along a...

GREY MATTERS: The Way the World Ends

Ian Grey — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:32:48 GMT

In 2001, Steven Spielberg went apocalypse crazy and he never recovered. 2001 was when he froze the world in in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, followed by War of the Worlds, followed by the...

CANNES 2012: Carlos Reygadas' POST TENEBRAS LUX

Glenn Heath Jr. — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:31:12 GMT

Narrative is the devil in Carlos Reygadas’s baffling and intoxicating Post tenebras lux. Finding any coherent structure or storyline in Reygadas’s deeply autobiographical film about a...

VIDEO ESSAY: Sight and Sound Film Poll - Jonathan Rosenbaum on SATANTANGO

Jonathan Rosenbaum and Kevin B. Lee — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:31:36 GMT

Press Play presents Sight and Sound Film Poll: Critics' Picks, a series of video essays featuring prominent film critics on films they selected for Sight and Sound...

CANNES 2012: Lee Daniels' THE PAPERBOY

Simon Abrams — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:53:04 GMT

In Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Lee Daniels deplorably used sizzling pigs' hooves, mommy issues, and incestuous rape to shed light (ineptly) on the difficulties of...

CANNES 2012: Walter Salles' ON THE ROAD

Simon Abrams — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:56:30 GMT

Walter Salles’s painfully literal-minded On the Road is a chore to watch. Unlike its source material, Jack Kerouac’s sui generis, fictional beatnik opus, Salles’s adaptation is...

CANNES 2012: Leos Carax's HOLY MOTORS

Glenn Heath Jr. — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:38:16 GMT

Where does one begin with Leos Carax’s insane Holy Motors? Maybe its incredible central performance(s) by Denis Lavant, who literally transforms into a different character in nearly every other...

VIDEO ESSAY: MEN IN BLACK: Three Reasons for Criterion Consideration

Robert Nishimura — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:41:10 GMT

For this month’s Criterion Consideration, coming up with a suitable equivalent to Barry Sonnenfeld's latest film, Men in Black III, was a bit of a challenge. In many ways, the...

CANNES 2012: Andrew Dominik's KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Simon Abrams — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:56:53 GMT

It’s a testament to Australian director Andrew Dominik’s considerable story-telling abilities that a movie as nakedly cynical and aggressively repellent in its philosophy as Killing Them...

VIDEO ESSAY - The Sight and Sound Film Poll: An International Tribute to Roger Ebert and His Favorite Films

Various Contributors — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:58:03 GMT

This week Press Play introduces Sight and Sound Film Poll: Critics' Picks, a series of video essays featuring prominent film critics on films they selected for Sight and Sound magazine's poll...

CANNES 2012: Abbas Kiarostami's LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

Glenn Heath Jr. — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:13:54 GMT

Denial and delusion ripple the pristine visual surface of Like Someone in Love, Abbas Kiarostami’s masterful critique of social and emotional formality, set in Japan. The importance of...