Slamdance 2026: Jessica Barr and Ryan Simpkins on Their Stunning Single-Take Film, “The Plan”
The sun is just beginning to set as the twenty-something characters in Jessica’s Barr’s mesmerizing new film, “The Plan,” start to congregate in an East LA apartment. The calmness of the setting gradually proves to be deceptive, as the mounting tension within these friends—particularly Evan (Ryan Simpkins)—threatens to erupt. With the helicopter blades of an […]
Berlinale 2026: “Mouse” Destined to be Hailed Among the Year’s Best Films
There is no filmmaking duo whose work I await with greater anticipation than Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson. In 2019, Thompson made his debut feature, “Saint Frances,” written by and starring O’Sullivan as a thirty-something nanny with an unwanted pregnancy, who forges a bond with the six-year-old she looks after. O’Sullivan brought her next script, […]
Sundancing on My Own: My Four Extraordinary Days in Park City
Sundance has always been a festival I had admired at a distance. How Robert Redford had gone about using his platform to launch the careers of countless filmmakers for over four decades had always left me in awe. So many of my favorite films had premiered at Redford’s festival nestled in the snow-capped mountains of […]
Look for the Signs: Christy Salters Martin and Lisa Holewyne on “Christy”
I went into David Michôd’s biopic “Christy” knowing nothing about its titular boxer. I knew I would be interviewing the film’s real-life subject, Christy Salters Martin, the following morning, and was delighted to see her in attendance at the press screening. She was accompanied by her wife, Lisa Holewyne, who had formerly been her adversary […]
Kick Out the Conventions: Agnieszka Holland on “Franz,” “The Secret Garden” and More
With the 61st Chicago International Film Festival nearly in the rearview mirror, there are so many memories from the past several days that I know I will be cherishing for years to come. Yet the one that stands above them all is the half-hour I got to spend last weekend speaking with one of the […]
Attracted to Abstraction: Lucile Hadžihalilović on “The Ice Tower”
“If you can’t play with the language, you are not reinventing the language.” This is what Argentine director Gaspar Noé told me when I interviewed him fifteen years ago about his 2009 masterpiece, “Enter the Void.” There is perhaps no filmmaker who has crafted more visceral portrayals of primal human experiences, particularly sex, violence and […]
It Was All a Miracle: Embeth Davidtz on “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”
I was ten years old when Danny DeVito’s euphoric screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel Matilda arrived in theaters. I had read the book so many times that the cover had fallen off, and in the character of Miss Honey, I found an embodiment of all the teachers who had been an invaluable, nurturing […]
A Profound Experience of Rewriting: Eva Victor on “Sorry, Baby”
As annoyed as I was about Barry Jenkins, one of the greatest filmmakers working today, recently helming a prequel to the worst Disney remake in history, the Oscar-winning director of “Moonlight” has also been helping launch some of the most exciting careers in modern cinema over the past few years. I’m thinking specifically of Charlotte […]
Disrupt the Dopamine: Lily McInerny on “Bonjour Tristesse”
Throughout human history, few things have discomforted patriarchal societies quite like the candid thoughts of women. French author Françoise Sagan was only 18 when she published her wildly popular 1954 debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse, which translates as Hello Sadness. Her tale of a teenage girl, Cécile, whose freedom she enjoys with her widowed father, Raymond, […]