Dry Leaf, Rose of Nevada, and Levers present us with surfaces so textured and tactile that they have the physicality of a ...

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It’s a sign of how quickly things change in the movie business, but there was no such thing conceptually as a “reboot.” That idea didn’t exist when I came to look at Batman. That’s new terminology.

Like most of Nagisa Oshima’s movies, this is based on fact. In 1936 a young woman named Sada Abe was found wandering in the streets of Tokyo, apparently in a state of bliss, clutching a severed penis.

Within moments of meeting a woman on a train, Norman Oppenheimer offers—unsolicited— to introduce her to three prominent people. That’s how Norman operates: he’s a “fixer,” a seemingly well-connected ...

(R.J. Cutler, U.S., 2009)Is Anna Wintour a malicious, vindictive, power-crazed dragon lady or merely, as one of her supporters claims, just really, really busy? Whatever the case, the imposing editor ...

Outer LimitsMysterious and soulful, Virgil Vernier’s debut fiction feature has its eyes on the night skies and its feet firmly planted on concrete. Somewhere in a Paris banlieue backcountry of ...

By Grady Hendrix in the March-April 2020 Issue P erpetually out of step, Shinya Tsukamoto goes where his gut leads him, handcrafting freaked-out sci-fi nightmares from 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, digital video, ...

1. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Sam Peckinpah, 19742. Claire’s Knee Eric Rohmer, 19703. Faces John Cassavetes, 19684. Eyes Without a Face ...

“I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert,” remarks Sandy (Laura Derm) to Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) at a crucial juncture in the harrowing new David Lynch picture, Blue Velvet. We never are ...

“This is a time machine,” a guide declares to tourists clad in transparent ponchos as they descend into an archeological site in Gianfranco Rosi’s Below the Clouds, “and we’re going back.” Rosi’s ...

This article appeared in the September 19, 2025 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Sign up for the Letter here. Penitentiary ...