The Film Stage

Note: This feature was originally published in 2023 as part of Film at Lincoln Center’s Edward Yang retrospective. A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong are now available on The Criterion Collection. What splits the fine line between desire and expectations? Is...

Premiering at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Orwell: 2+2=5 marks the latest documentary from I Am Not Your Negro and Exterminate All the Brutes director Raoul Peck. Capturing the prophetic writings of 1984 and Animal Farm author George Orwell...

One of the great discoveries from this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sierra Falconer’s directorial debut Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake). The lovely anthology feature made up of four stories was boarded by Joanna Hogg as executive producer and...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2025 Cannes coverage. The Balconettes opens in theaters on August 22. The chic balconies of Marseille certainly offer an image that is photogenic enough to open Noémie Merlant’s sophomore feature,...

No matter that a child born the day after Edward Yang’s death will start college this month; the Taiwanese filmmaker’s stature has grown so much in the last 18 years that a Criterion release or restoration debut offers more excitement...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 TIFF coverage. Relay opens in theaters on August 22. You always hear about whistleblowers––those who smuggle documentation for the benefit of the public out of corporations trying to make...

Not to be confused with Dan Trachtenberg’s latest Predator film coming later this fall, David Osit’s Mayor follow-up Predators is one of the most essential documentaries of the year. Exploring the thorny moral complications of To Catch a Predator and...

There is a distinct ’70s sheen to the Criterion Channel’s September lineup: a decades-spanning Robert Altman retrospective with everything from Nashville and The Long Goodbye to That Cold Day in the Park and The Company; a highlight of the decade’s...

Paweł Pawlikowski’s Joaquin Phoenix- and Rooney Mara-led The Island was, as cinematographer Łukasz Żal told us, “just two-and-a-half weeks before shooting” when the 2023 strikes shut down production. While it seems less and less likely we’ll ever see the film...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 TIFF coverage. Eden opens in theaters on August 22. On paper, there are few filmmakers who seem less-suited to the rigors of a project like Eden than Ron Howard....