Imagine making a film about a sentient killer tyre, a killer jacket, an oversized pet fly, and then landing a spot as the opening film in Cannes. Quentin Dupieux’s career is one odd ride.

One more time with feeling. Thrilled to be back for another two weeks under the Mediterranean sun—reviews, interviews, and dispatches from #Cannes2024 forthcoming!

If you need to be reminded that wars are awful and that prolonged exposure to violence can numb your soul, then you have issues no film can help you address. Least of all CIVIL WAR. Some words on Garland & the myth of the 'important' film for Notebook mubi.com/en/notebook/po…

Fancy spending a week in 🇮🇹 (Piattaforma Lago) and one in 🇸🇮 (FeKK Ljubljana) this summer to write about cinema--and work on some video essays? Applications for the 5th European Workshop for Film Criticism are now open. Help us spread the word! talkingshorts.com/european-works…

I'll never not be stunned by Hamaguchi's humility & generosity; for Filmmaker Magazine, we spoke about EVIL DOES NOT EXIST (still playing at Film at Lincoln Center & Film Forum), his practice, writing, and the influence of his early tsunami-themed docs on his latest: filmmakermagazine.com/125407-intervi…

Cannes homework, part one.

Are you an EU-based film critic looking to practice your skills & network with other cinephiles this summer? Then join us for the 5th European Workshop for Film Criticism, a two-part workshop at Piattaforma Lago (🇮🇹) & FEKK Ljubljana (🇸🇮). Apply by May 24! talkingshorts.com/european-works…

The sanctification of A24 is something I'll never be able to stomach, much like the amount of films they have supposedly 'championed' and unceremoniously abandoned to their fate... see THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER (no Hogg on the list, unsurprisingly) or Talbot's LAST BLACK MAN IN S.F.

Anyone knows what happened to Aaron Katz? The most talented of that ill-named Mumblecore generation, with a handful of early gems (DANCE PARTY USA, QUIET CITY, COLD WEATHER) that have long and undeservedly disappeared into digital oblivion. Let's keep them alive.

Schrader, Gomes, Simon, Peck, Coppola, Arnold, Jia, Baker, Kapadia, Cronenberg… Another year, another lineup to lull you into pure cinema bliss #Cannes2024

Never trusted Un Certain Regard all too much but SO thrilled that Truong Minh Quý found a slot there with VIET AND NAM. His previous, THE TREE HOUSE, was one of the highlights of Locarno Film Festival back in 2019. Seek it out! #Cannes2024 thefilmstage.com/locarno-review…

THE BEAST is now screening Film at Lincoln Center & IFC Center, and I can't recommend it enough: it's a film of audacious ideas and fearless inventiveness, designed to trouble our definition of what cinema can be. Over at Reverse Shot, I spoke with Bertrand Bonello: reverseshot.org/interviews/ent…

He's churned out six features since 2019; his next one will open Cannes. If you take his films seriously 'that means I failed,' he's said, but his works keep growing more self-reflexive and subversive. For Notebook, I spoke with Quentin Dupieux: mubi.com/en/notebook/po…

No workshop has shaped my life & career quite like the Locarno Film Festival's Critics Academy, so If you're a young film critic looking to break into the industry, learn from some of the best, and make some lifelong friendships, please apply by April 7: locarnofestival.ch/about/factory/…

Brought to you by MUBI US and mezzanine, Los Angeles Festival of Movies will showcase some of the finest indie releases of the past few months, including Whitney Horn and Lev Kalman's terrific DREAM TEAM, an IFFR gem that will screen on April 6. My review: thefilmstage.com/rotterdam-revi…

I have some serious issues with the whole 'Nolan Saved Cinema' narrative, as essential to understand OPPENHEIMER's triumph at the Oscars as it is profoundly misleading. How did he 'save' the medium, exactly? And what comes next? More for Notebook: mubi.com/en/notebook/po…

Folks in/around London: at 7pm *today* the Institute of Contemporary Arts will unveil Tom Shkolnik’s beautiful new film, THE WOMEN BY THE LAKE, introduced by Joanna Hogg, Ben Whishaw, PJ Harvey et al. Don’t miss it: I’ve seen it earlier this year and it’s an experience I can’t recommend enough.

If you’re in NYC this weekend the brilliant folks at Metrograph are screening Zhang Lu’s THE SHADOWLESS TOWER, a perturbing snapshot of Beijing and a few of its rootless residents—one of the finest films to have come out of the 2023 Berlinale. My review: thefilmstage.com/berlinale-revi…