The Best Filmmaking Debuts of 2023
I’ve been hoisted by my own self-imposed rules this year. Because my annual list of best first-time feature directors doesn’t include documentarians, I can’t...
The Best Movie Dialogue of 2023
No matter how swamped I am during the Christmas holidays, I always enjoy transcribing stretches of dialogue that I think are particularly good. Is...
DFW Film Critics Hold Out for “The Holdovers”
It's that time of year once again, as the DFW Film Critics Association voted on 2023's best movies and wound up choosing The Holdovers...
Streaming Review: BS High
I am perversely, ineluctably drawn to documentaries like BS High, where people who have done something really bad confidently sit down in front of...
R.I.P., Vernon Fisher
All the obituaries for Vernon Fisher are using the words “blackboard” or “chalkboard.” It is true, many of the artist’s works feature an off-black...
Odds and Ends
I didn’t do this feature last year because I didn’t have enough entries to make a whole article about it. It’s returning with a...
The Best Movies of 2012
I discovered something quite distressing while prepping for this annual listicle. I made an initial pass through a list of movie titles from 2012...
The Best Filmmaking Debuts of 2022
Anna Rose Holmer made this list when she directed The Fits on her own, but this year she was part of a team with...
Best Documentaries of 2022
In the year’s best fiction film, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On describes a documentary to his grandmother: “It’s like a movie, but nobody...
The Best Lead Actors of 2022
I’ve got more women than men in this year’s list. That isn’t anything new — in some years, the men dominate the lead roles,...
