“Dark Blood”: Death and the Maiden
Twenty years ago, promising actor River Phoenix died at 23. His last, unfinished film was “reconstructed” and shown at festivals earlier this year. The making of that film was already difficult before his death.
Archives
A Powerful Documentary That Touched Roger: “Not Yet Begun to Fight”
A documentary about wounded veterans that Roger championed gets a screening at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and screenings in New York and Los Angeles before a showing on PBS.
NBC Struggles to Find Life in Reboot of “Dracula”
The title of the second episode of NBC’s “Dracula” may be called “A
Whiff of Sulfur” but the program has a different, stale odor, feeling
like the product of inevitability more than creative spark.
The Trouble with “Carrie”: Strong Female Characters and Onscreen Violence
“Carrie” is unusual because Carrie’s turn to violence is not in service of others, unlike many “strong female characters” in recent films.
Video Interview with Benedict Cumberbatch on “The Fifth Estate”
Benedict Cumberbatch talks about “The Fifth Estate.”
Meet the Writers: Susan Wloszczyna
Writer Susan Wloszczyna responds to our Movie Love Questionnaire.
The Wes Anderson Collection, Chapter 5: “The Darjeeling Limited”
“The Wes Anderson Collection” video essay series continues with “The Darjeeling Limited,” the director’s comedy about brotherhood, death, and the limits of control.
A prayer for a war machine: a conversation about Oliver Stone’s “Untold History”
RogerEbert.com editor Matt Zoller Seitz and contributor Steven Boone discuss “Untold History,” a documentary series by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick that presents an alternative history of the United States and its role in recent world history.
Roger the Playwright: Victory Gardens Pays Tribute to Roger by Performing a Play He Wrote
Victory Gardens honors Roger by putting on a play he wrote as part of their annual Chicago Stories Gala.
Thumbnails 10/25/2013
American education is uneven rather than simply mediocre; what NYC sounded like in the 1920s; X bassist John Doe speaks; director Jeff Tremaine on pranking people; lousy films with great soundtracks.
Thumbnails 10/24/2013
Female Pleasure Is the Real TV Taboo; Blue Is the Warmest Controversy; Condescending to Vincent Price; Why Journalists Should Learn to Code; an MFA writing workshop for the Bible.
Thumbnails 10/23/2013
The legend of Harvey Scissorhands; the controversial twist of “Homeland”; a “Lucking Out” review; the sad misogyny of “Xanth”; the NSA galls the spy-crazy French.
Thumbnails 10/22/2013
A brief history of movie blood; a brief history of American independent cinema; new scholarship for women filmmakers from African and the Middle East; Fox News sock puppetry; “American Psycho” typo; cinema in 270 degrees.
Thumbnails 10/21/2013
The aesthetic politics of filming black skin; saving Memphis; a Richard Linklater retrospective; “Fisher King” commentary; bankrupting emergency care.
The Wes Anderson Collection, Chapter 4: “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”
“The Wes Anderson Collection” continues with a video essay on “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” probably Anderson’s most widely disliked feature, and MZS’s personal favorite.
Sundance’s Roger Ebert Scholarship Program
More details on the Sundance Institute’s Roger Ebert Scholarship for Film Criticism and our plans for more awards to new writers.
The Wes Anderson Collection, Chapter 3: “The Royal Tenenbaums”
A close look at “The Royal Tenenbaums,” the third in a series of videos based on Matt Zoller Seitz’s book “The Wes Anderson Collection.”
Acting right around White folks: on “12 Years a Slave” and “respectability politics”
“12 Years a Slave” and “The Butler” are part of a valuable subgenre of American film that dramatizes the fallacy of “Black respectability”—the notion that if African-Americans will only speak, dress and behave in a certain way, discrimination won’t affect them, and they’ll reap the American dream.
