Ben Kenigsberg

12/24/14

The Interview is a triumph of free speech, not of sharp satire

The Interview was controversial from the start, yet even two weeks ago, seeing the movie at a press screening at the…

12/18/14

The best of film 2014: The ballots

We voted, we tallied, we made a list: The A.V. Club’s tribute to the best films of 2014 was democratically…

12/18/14

The 20 best movies of 2014

From Anatolia to Zubrowka, the great motion pictures of 2014 took you places. They leapt into the past, winding…

12/11/14

P.T. Anderson goes back to the ’70s—and noir themes—with Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson may have made his name on a dazzling, Scorsesean flow, but ever since Magnolia, he’s boldly…

10/11/14

NYFF 2014: Birdman closes the fest, but Edward Snowden supplies a real finale

The New York Film Festival closes tonight with Birdman, but the real closer—at least in spirit—was last night’s…

10/4/14

NYFF 2014: Inherent Vice is a comic trip through the annals of noir

I don’t even know where to begin with the festival’s centerpiece, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice (Grade: A),…

9/27/14

NYFF 2014: Gone Girl is another thrilling procedural from David Fincher

As a prelude to the New York Film Festival, the Film Society Of Lincoln Center, the fest’s parent organization,…

9/24/14

NYFF 2014: Daft Punk, death, and the swan song of Alain Resnais

The New York Festival hasn’t even officially started, and it’s already turned self-reflexive. This year’s “spotlight…

9/19/14

NYFF 2014: Godard says goodbye to language as the festival begins

Compared to Cannes and Toronto, the New York Film Festival is a more aggressively curated affair. It’s possible to…

7/24/14

Uncomfortable parallels sour Woody Allen’s frothy Magic In The Moonlight

Judging from reviews and box-office returns, the consensus seems to be that Woody Allen—the artist, as opposed to…

7/10/14

Two old friends stay forever young in the Sundance-approved Land Ho!

Land Ho! is Old Joy if that title were taken literally. The film follows two aging friends, once married to sisters,…

6/19/14

Murder, abuse, and flaming genitals make Heli hell for squeamish viewers

Mexico-based director Amat Escalante’s third feature is a textbook example of festival outrage bait. It runs through…

6/19/14

The gripping Israeli drama Policeman finally makes its way to America

One of the highlights of last month’s Cannes Film Festival was Nadav Lapid’s The Kindergarten Teacher, an allegory…

5/8/14

Devil’s Knot pointlessly dramatizes the West Memphis Three case

Over the course of the three Paradise Lost documentaries and 2012’s West Of Memphis, the figures surrounding the…

5/8/14

The comedy The Double pits Jesse Eisenberg against…Jesse Eisenberg

As an actor, Jesse Eisenberg specializes in two kinds of social awkwardness. On one hand, he proved an ideal vessel…

5/7/14

Dreyer’s 1925 Master Of The House is shockingly progressive about gender

Few directors, let alone Carl Theodor Dreyer, would seem likely to land titles on lists of “auteurist feminist…

4/17/14

The Final Member is surprisingly moving—for a doc about a penis museum

Even “Siggi” Hjartarson, founder of the Icelandic Phallological Museum, admits that the project began as a joke.…