A Skin So Soft follows six bodybuilders, of varying ages, ethnicities, and levels of mass, in the lead-up to a local competition.

Dan Schindel
Dan Schindel is a freelance writer and copy editor living in Brooklyn, and a former associate editor at Hyperallergic. His portfolio and links are here.
That Summer Offers a More Human Look at the Women of Grey Gardens
As a “prequel” look at the Beales, That Summer makes for a fascinating contrast between the icons they have been turned into and the people they were before then.
Stream the Only Film Ever Shot in Cinemiracle, a Wondrous Widescreen Format from the 1950s
Windjammer, a movie following a half-year voyage across the Atlantic, used a brand-new extreme widescreen camera system that hoped to become a new industry standard.
Kara Walker, Barbara Kruger, and Charles Atlas Dissect Modernity
The Hammer Museum has displayed the three video installations together for the first time.
Stream Frederick Wiseman’s Documentaries for Free Via Libraries and Colleges Around the US
This week, almost 50 years’ worth of Wiseman documentaries went live on Kanopy, after a long period of his work being mostly inaccessible.
Remembering Studio Ghibli Co-Founder Isao Takahata, Who Imbued Animation with Emotion
Takahata’s genius lay in his effortless ability to portray the mundane — something not often associated with the motion-focused energy of animation.
The Newly Expanded Wende Museum Offers a Nuanced Perspective on the Cold War
Amid continued misconceptions about the Cold War and Russia, the mission of the Wende Museum is vital.
Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs Has Bark But Lacks Bite
In a film set in futuristic Japan, Wes Anderson and his collaborators try to achieve more than cultural appropriation, with mixed results.
You Can’t Unsee Unsane, Steven Soderbergh’s Thriller About Mental Illness
Unsane reveals how entire institutions deny people’s individual experiences, demanding they submit to the official version of reality.
40 Strangers Meet in a Deeply Uncomfortable Documentary
In Leigh Ledare’s new film The Task, his subjects are not only aware of their participation in an art project, but openly speak about it.
How the Black Audio Film Collective Remixed Fact and Fiction
Active between 1982 and 1998, the collective made over a dozen films about the personal and political experiences of people of color living in Britain.
The Hollywood Directors Who Filmed the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps
George Stevens, John Ford, and Samuel Fuller, best known for their work in Hollywood, all documented the Allied liberation at the end of the war.