Alex Gibney’s documentary, released 20 years ago this week, tells the story of massive corporate fraud as both very complicated and infuriatingly simple.
Read more
This story of a modern-day witch hunt bucks the tradition of depicting Christmas as a glittery veil that covers thornier questions of morality and charity.
Read more
Overlooked in Mike Leigh’s filmography, ‘Vera Drake’ is quietly radical in its portrayal of abortion as a mere fact of everyday life.
Read more
Milos Forman’s masterful biopic paints a complex portrait of Mozart as a man of both heart and genius.
Read more
Three interpretations of Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny” raise questions about the good and the bad of ingrained hierarchies, and what it means to dutifully and faithfully serve.
Read more
In its unsparing depiction of a con job, the dynamic between the conman and his victim is both depressingly transparent and truly mystifying.
Read more
Errol Morris’s Oscar-winning documentary, released 20 years ago, is a masterful meeting of stylist and subject.
Read more
On the 40th anniversary of its release, an examination of Bob Fosse’s final film, and what it has to say about sexual violence and exploitation.
Read more
Given its time, ‘I Want to Live!’ (released 65 years ago this week) is surprisingly aware of the raw deal women defendants get in a “trial by media.”
Read more
1930s screen goddess Kay Francis (whose films are now streaming on the Criterion Channel) embodied the Pre-Code era’s spirit of “sheer elegance and pure sex.”
Read more
Luchino Visconti’s 1963 epic is deeply rooted in Italian history, but also in its director’s personal and political struggles.
Read more
Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel has beautiful imagery and a passionate certainty that expands our ideals of the possible.
Read more