The Film Stage

While his work was recently seen worldwide (or least screened worldwide, even if the theaters were empty) with crafting the opening animated sequence of Joker: Folie à Deux, Sylvain Chomet is also hard at work on his next feature. Set...

The best holiday movie of the season, Ham on Rye director Tyler Taormina expanded his star power with Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, which brings together Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Maria Dizzia, Sawyer Spielberg, Francesca Scorsese, and many more. After...

A premiere in the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó’s Agent of Happiness is quite an intriguing premise, following Bhutan’s official “Happiness Agents” as they quantify the true measure of...

Following up his sci-fi trilogy World of Tomorrow, animation extraordinaire Don Hertzfeldt unveiled his latest project earlier this year. Beginning a few months ago, his 22-minute, dialogue-free musical ME embarked on a nationwide tour, screening alongside his 2012 masterpiece It’s...

Few titles at Cannes carried greater weight than The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof’s first project to debut since an exile from his native Iran––little wonder in light of its focus on injustice and unrest as they reflect...

“Leave the light on. It’s easier for me to dream.” The opening shot of Việt and Nam, writer-director Trương Minh Quý’s sophomore film, is a feat of cinematic restraint. Nearly imperceivable white specs of dust begin to appear, few and...

After screening his latest film Caught by the Tides at the Busan International Film Festival, director Jia Zhang-ke met with the press, accompanied by his wife Zhao Tao. A frequent visitor to the BIFF, Jia started by saying he is...

Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ narrative feature debut, is the story of a stubborn world, resisting change. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, it’s an experimental rendition shooting mainly through POV. We meet our protagonist not by looking at him,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. Museum of Modern ArtAs the career-spanning Johnnie To retrospective continues, a Samuel L. Jackson series includes Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Jungle Fever on 35mm. BAMA Duras-Akerman double bill plays Sunday. Film...

Independent filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend, their newest in a 30-year collaboration, is a dog movie. Or, more aptly, it’s a film about a dog and Iris (Naomi Watts), a woman who hates dogs. Iris inherits...