Film
Riff on One Thousand and One Nights Longs for a Bygone Era of Filmmaking
Alternating between charmingly and cringingly unfashionable, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing defies some orientalist tropes while falling prey to others.
Mark Asch
Mark Asch is the author of the New York Movies volume of the Close-ups series of film books, and a contributor to Film Comment , Nylon , Reverse Shot , and elsewhere.
Film
When You Could Get a Three-Course Meal and Coffee for 25 Cents in New York
Lisa Hurwitz’s documentary finds some impressive interviewees, including Mel Brooks and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to remember the bygone vending machine restaurant chain Horn & Hardart.
Film
Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Ode to the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s
Stoner jokes, unexpected pop culture references, and an unlikely love story jangle against each other like charms on a bracelet.
Art
In Neelon Crawford’s “Moving Paintings,” the Natural and Manmade Face Off
MoMA’s exhibition Neelon Crawford: Filmmaker is a retrospective of his experimental work documenting machinery, travels in South America, and more.
Film
"Don't Fuck With the Jews" and Other Moments of Muscular Judaism on Film
Cinema’s thorny depictions of Israeli military action reflects the swift shift in Jewish identity around questions of oppression.
Film
Martin Scorsese’s Portrait of New York With the Ultimate New Yorker
In the docuseries Pretend It's a City, cultural commentator Fran Lebowitz leads a talking tour of the city.
Film
The Complicated Personas of Mozart, Rock Hudson, and Jean Seberg
A new retrospective at Anthology Film Archives presents the work of pioneering independent director and film essayist Mark Rappaport.
Film
Invisible Life Reveals the Lush Inner Lives of Two Sisters Torn Apart by Tradition
Adapted from Martha Batalha’s novel, Karim Aïnouz's latest tells the twinned stories of sisters Eurídice and Guida by exploring the pocket of time in their lives before they stopped waiting on their dreams.
Film
Joker Is a Thinly Veiled (and Thin) Take on '80s NYC
The film is far too derivative, far too wedded to juvenile mythology, and far too tentative to deserve its elevated profile.