The Film Comment Podcast: Venice 2025 #4
Family affair: Bilge Ebiri and Jonathan Romney join to discuss Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Brother Sister, Kent Jones’s Late Fame, and more| Film Comment
Family affair: Bilge Ebiri and Jonathan Romney join to discuss Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Brother Sister, Kent Jones’s Late Fame, and more| Film Comment
Built to last: critics Joseph Fahim and Öykü Sofuoğlu join to discuss festival premieres including Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, Jihan K’s My Father and Qaddafi, and more| Film Comment
Crashing out: critics Katie McCabe and Tim Grierson join to discuss festival premieres including Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, and more| Film Comment
Golden years: Jonathan Romney and Jordan Cronk join to discuss early festival premieres Jay Kelly, Bugonia, La grazia, and more| Film Comment
In a silent way: Christopher Harris joins to discuss the origins of his filmmaking in his youthful ambition to be musician, his interest in stillness and silence as structuring concepts, and why his work is always as fun as it is challenging and erudite| Film Comment
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War report: intimate and epic, My Undesirable Friends: Part One follows a small cohort of oppositional journalists in Putin’s Russia during the run-up to the military invasion of Ukraine| Film Comment
Video life: many of the best films at this year’s festival—including Blue Heron, God Will Not Help, and Dry Leaf—explored the imperfect nature of recollection| Film Comment
Tooth and nail: Inney Prakash and Cici Peng join to discuss festival highlights Dracula, Dry Leaf, With Hasan in Gaza, and more| Film Comment
Still lives: the two acclaimed directors discuss their latest films, the practicalities of their unique production methods, and more| Film Comment
Charged as guilty: Roman Polanski‘s J'accuse, which dramatizes the infamous Dreyfus Affair, premiered to great acclaim in France—but soon led to further allegations of sexual abuse by the director| Film Comment
Water colors: the Argentine filmmaker pens and paints a tribute to Hong Sangsoo’s latest “river film," By the Stream| Film Comment
Now seating: Gina Telaroli, Benjamin Crais, and Michael Blair spotlight unmissable repertory series playing in New York City| Film Comment
Together now: the moving-image artist and scholar discusses her decades-long practice of “memory work”| Film Comment
Seat yourself: three independent cinemas opening in New York City are betting that audiences still prefer collective experiences of art and urban space| Film Comment
Train tracks: the Austrian experimental filmmaker discusses using found footage to interrogate and play with the past| Film Comment
Stop that train: the recursions of a painful past preoccupied many of the best films at this year’s edition of the Czech festival| Film Comment
Let them cook: Phoebe Chen, Bedatri Datta Choudhury, and Joseph Hernandez join to discuss the humble household appliance’s enduring on-screen appeal| Film Comment
Name game: the renowned British experimental filmmaker speaks about his latest, a politically charged and cheekily playful essay film| Film Comment
On fire: at this year’s edition of the festival devoted to rediscoveries and restorations, distinctions between high and low art dissolved into the heat of the air| Film Comment
New scene: the incarcerated journalist shares her painstaking journey to teach herself screenwriting in prison| Film Comment
Circuit cities: the Mumbai-based collaborative art studio CAMP experiments with media technology in playful and political ways| Film Comment
Start your engines: critics Alana Pockros and Adam Nayman join to discuss F1, Materialists, 28 Years Later, and more| Film Comment
Bull in the heather: Albert Serra‘s challenging and visceral portrait of a matador is one of the year’s best films| Film Comment
Walks beside me: an inclusive, elastic understanding of modern queer lives emerges across Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy| Film Comment
Fire escapes: the acclaimed author joins to discuss Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s 2013 thriller, cinematic portrayals of the climate crisis, and more| Film Comment
Heroes and villains: the festival largely made good on its promise to show socially relevant works from independent and early-career filmmakers| Film Comment
This whole world: the films of Pierre Creton model a communal life removed from urban capitalism, nationalism, and traditional family structures| Film Comment
Recipe for living: the stalwart actor talks to the legendary film critic about her latest role as an octogenarian settling into a nursing home| Film Comment
Here today: a new festival defiantly reclaims a lost history, bringing contemporary and classic Cambodian cinema to a local audience| Film Comment
Children‘s song: the 92-year-old filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and activist reflects on her influential body of work, currently the subject of a major retrospective at MoMA PS1| Film Comment
Road music: the German auteur discusses his latest tale of hauntings and doublings, which follows a morose piano student who wanders into the life of an enigmatic woman| Film Comment
End of the road: new films by Kelly Reichardt, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Julia Ducournau, and Sergei Loznitsa explore the politics of time| Film Comment
Listen in: filmmakers Eduardo Williams, Brett Story, and Zoya Laktionova discuss the ethical and practical ways in which documentaries use sound, voice, and audio| Film Comment
Going express: the filmmaker discusses his contemporary reimagining of Kurosawa’s classic, working again with Denzel Washington, and what makes New York City such a rich setting and subject| Film Comment
Get a grip: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning celebrates the tenacity and power of the human body struggling against technology| Film Comment
Political world: the Iranian auteur speaks about his Palme d‘Or–winning latest, a typically ingenious meditation on the lasting effects of state repression| Film Comment
Pressing on: standouts of the second week of the festival included Pedro Pinho’s I Only Rest in the Storm, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, and Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident| Film Comment
Shelter from the storm: critics Justin Chang, Tim Grierson, and Alison Willmore wrap up the 2025 edition with Bi Gan’s Resurrection, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, and more| Film Comment
Family ties: Abby Sun, Beatrice Loayza, and Giovanni Marchini Camia join to discuss Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Carla Simón's Romería, and more| Film Comment
Running on empty: Ari Aster‘s Eddington, Christian Petzold‘s Mirrors No. 3, and Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague fail to be more than mere reflections of their grander ambitions and inspirations| Film Comment
Rave on: the French-born Galician director discusses his latest, a trance-inducing techno vision quest set in Morocco’s Sahara Desert| Film Comment
Sail away: Kong Rithdee and Inney Prakash join to debate Lav Diaz’s Magellan, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, and more| Film Comment
Roll on: Miriam Bale, Robert Daniels, and Jessica Kiang drop a token and talk Highest 2 Lowest, Alpha, and My Father's Show, and more| Film Comment
Under cover: Kong Rithdee and Neta Alexander join to discuss Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, Christian Petzold's Mirrors No. 3, and Sebastián Lelio's The Wave| Film Comment
Reality bites: early festival selections like Enzo, Promised Sky, and Adam's Sake were rooted in straight-down-the-line realism| Film Comment
Drink deep: critics Mark Asch, Kong Rithdee, and Isabel Stevens join to swim through recent premieres Die My Love, The Chronology of Water, Nouvelle Vague, and Urchin| Film Comment
No holds barred: critics Mark Asch and Beatrice Loayza join to debate recent premieres Eddington, Sirât, and The Little Sister| Film Comment
Don’t let go: Isabel Stevens and Thomas Flew from Sight and Sound join to discuss Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Two Prosecutors, and Left-Handed Girl| Film Comment
Key frames: the grandest of all film festivals may be a large-format photo of the cinematic planet, but it is not a map of the world| Film Comment
First impressions: critics Jonathan Romney and Guy Lodge join to kick off our festival coverage, discussing early selections Leave One Day, Enzo, and Sound of Falling| Film Comment
Grounded: a nuanced perception of a band with many faces emerges from Alex Ross Perry‘s biopic-doc hybrid Pavements| Film Comment
Hold fast: the Guadeloupean-French filmmaker, currently the focus of a major retrospective at MoMA, never compromised on her ideological and artistic commitments| Film Comment
Major attractions: the legendary scholar joins the FC Editors and programmer David Schwartz for a lively and wide-ranging discussion| Film Comment
Burning down the house: Robert Daniels and Michael Blair join to discuss Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag, and Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet| Film Comment
Wade out: the New York–based festival is honoring two Indian filmmakers whose works, despite their seeming hermeticism, stand in serious dialogue with the politics of their times| Film Comment
For your consideration: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s new Apple TV series The Studio sets out to lampoon executive-class know-nothings at a major Hollywood production company, but does its satire actually pack a punch?| Film Comment
Phantom pictures: the Singaporean filmmaker reflects on how the urban landscapes and communities depicted in his 2018 feature A Land Imagined have since disappeared due to relentless industrial redevelopment| Film Comment
Talk to him: the recipient of Film at Lincoln Center’s 50th Chaplin Award reflects on his subversively queer cinema, his love for actors, and making films in times of authoritarianism| Film Comment
Grief stages: the Canadian auteur discusses making art to process loss, the eroticism of conspiracy theories, and why his latest is very much a Toronto film| Film Comment
New rhythms: the filmmaker discusses his intimate French Guiana–set debut feature, which reverberates with the collective call contained in its title| Film Comment
Double trouble: Barry Levinson‘s new mob movie trades on the gambit of its two Robert De Niro performances, yet fails to imbue them with any more brio than one finds in an SNL sketch| Film Comment
Watching the show: the Austrian critic and curator discusses his debut feature, a cinematic essay that investigates the on- and off-screen personas of the legendary American actor, and what they reveal about the United States then and now| Film Comment
Long journey: Sarah Friedland‘s debut feature Familiar Touch—the Opening Night selection of this year’s New Directors/New Films Festival—is the rare film about aging that bypasses the lurid and the exploitative| Film Comment
On the lookout: critics Mark Asch and Natalia Keogan join to discuss this year’s lineup of films by emerging directors, including Familiar Touch, Mad Bills to Pay, Lost Chapters, and more| Film Comment
Miracle workers: the American evangelical film industry is booming, producing movies infused with a Republican-aligned anti-government politics| Film Comment
Sweet dreams: there is something unsettlingly liminal about the Okinawan artist’s videos, which take place on thresholds like graveyards, fences, and national borders| Film Comment
No fun: boredom predominates in Bong Joon Ho‘s Mickey 17, for the characters and the audience alike| Film Comment
Bottoms up: Alain Guiraudie’s latest Misericordia perfects a farcical logic that underpins all his filmmaking| Film Comment
Land and sea: in his latest, an experimental literary adaptation, the filmmaker continues to blur the lines between performance and reality, past and present, with a uniquely improvised, tactile approach| Film Comment
Locally sourced: this year’s edition of the True/False Film Festival was a haven for principled cinephilia, with highlights including Hu Sanshou’s Resurrection and Francesca Scalisi’s Valentina and the MUOSters| Film Comment
Out with the old: critic Tim Grierson joins FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute to discuss recent offerings Mickey 17, Opus, Misericordia, Eephus, and more| Film Comment
Bootlegger‘s dilemma: critic Abby Sun answers a reader‘s question about the ethics of piracy in a skewed distribution landscape| Film Comment
Bite our style: Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl explores everything from the tragicomedy of survival to the Black feminist refusals of Missy Elliott| Film Comment
Alone again or: Ben Rivers’s latest Bogancloch—a continuation of the British filmmaker’s collaboration with a hermit—is notable for its exquisite play with duration, attention, and the very form of the observational documentary| Film Comment
Inside out: this year’s edition was suffused with an uneasy mood, expressed by many of the standout selections, including Mickey 17, Kontinental ’25, Special Operation, and Friendship’s Death| Film Comment
Pain and glory: Eric Newman and Paul Thompson, editors of the Los Angeles Review of Books, join to discuss, debate, and dismantle this year’s nominees, from Anora to Emilia Pérez to Nickel Boys, and more| Film Comment
Bon appetit: Andrew Katzenstein, Genevieve Yue, and Michael Blair join the FC editors to dish up favorite titles from the legendary American filmmaker’s body of work| Film Comment
Rise up: a special retrospective series at this year‘s festival captured the revolutionary promise of the historic Afro-Asian Film Festivals of the 1950s and ’60s| Film Comment
Take two: at this year‘s festival, overtly political films by Bong Joon Ho and Tom Twyker struggled to meet the moment, while more ruminative fare from Lucile Hadžihalilović and Richard Linklater offered unalloyed pleasures| Film Comment
Double exposure: the experimental filmmaker‘s latest feature combines avant-garde techniques, nonfiction footage, and live-performance elements| Film Comment
Video life: highlights of this year’s edition included films by Alex Ross Perry, Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan, Julian Castronovo, and more| Film Comment
Lovestreams: author Haley Mlotek and filmmaker Matthew Rankin answer your questions about romance, cinema, and the space between| Film Comment
Revolutionary dream: Curators Bunga Siagian and Yuki Aditya and critics Cici Peng and Inney Prakash join to discuss a special program at this year’s IFFR devoted to the historic Afro-Asian Film Festivals| Film Comment
Pushing hands: In Ang Lee’s films, what seems to be about culture is a condition of the family, and vice versa| Film Comment
Life of the mind: many of the films on view through the festival‘s virtual portal ranged from pallid to dismal, but Khalil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions was the thrilling exception| Film Comment
Case closed: three nonfiction filmmakers from the Sundance 2025 lineup discuss how their works question the expectations of true crime| Film Comment
Look and see: a number of films this in year’s selection—including Atropia, The Stringer, and others—grappled with the ethics of making images of war, violence, and suffering| Film Comment
Inside the dream: the cinema of David Lynch, who passed away in mid-January, is almost unique in its hypnotic ability to rearrange the way in which we see, and experience, the world| Film Comment
A day in the life: Vadim Rizov and Ruun Nuur join to discuss festival selections Peter Hujar's Day, Predators, Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo), and more| Film Comment
Virtual oceans: the great French actress discusses her latest role, a portrait of a woman facing a terminal diagnosis with a quiet self-assuredness| Film Comment
Hard questions: the documentarian discusses his new Sundance selection, a profound exploration of the ethical implications of medically assisted suicide for disabled people| Film Comment
Built to last: since its beginnings, the festival has navigated a perpetual tension between commercial considerations and its dedication to independent filmmaking| Film Comment
Kicking and screaming: critics Lovia Gyarkye, Alana Pockros, and Lisa Wong Macabasco join to discuss BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Bunnylovr, and more| Film Comment
Listen closely: critics Robert Daniels and Tim Grierson debate early festival selections Rabbit Trap, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Twinless, and more| Film Comment
Stand!: our Sundance coverage kicks off with Maddie Whittle, Ruun Nuur, and Vadim Rizov joining to discuss SLY LIVES! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), Pee-wee as Himself, All That’s Left of You, and more| Film Comment
Always in style: in the second entry of our new advice column for cinephiles, critics Inney Prakash and Imogen Sara Smith offer sage career counsel and expert fashion tips| Film Comment
Life underground: how a notorious Nazi’s extradition from Bolivia gave rise to a radical film project in a mining town| Film Comment
Count me in: the American filmmaker discusses why he wanted to make Dracula “scary” again| Film Comment
