‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ Originated the Soderbergh Enigma
A delicate balance of the heady and the simple, Sex, Lies, and Videotape is both quintessential Steven Soderbergh and unlike anything he's directed since.
Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is a contributor to PopMatters. You can find his other writing at Paste, Splitsider, Willamette Week, and elsewhere. He's also the host of the "Be Reel" podcast and a DJ for Oregon Public Broadcasting's music division.
‘Get Shorty’ Is the Purest Distillation of Elmore Leonard
The 1995 Hollywood caper Get Shorty, starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito, was billed as Elmore Leonard's revenge on the movie industry, but it has a funny way of showing it.
Hannibal Lecter May Be ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ Icon But Clarice Starling Is the Movie
The Criterion edition of 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs reminds us what the film has always stood for: Don’t underestimate Clarice.
When the Movie Gods Aren’t Enough: The Bottom Line and ‘The Big Picture’
Ben Fritz explores how a great American pastime has been subsumed by Moneyball tactics.
‘Phantom Thread’ Sends off Daniel Day-Lewis by Deciphering Daniel Day-Lewis
The Oscar-nominated film from Paul Thomas Anderson is a revealing subversion of Day-Lewis' stable of expert characters.
‘Ali: A Life’ Chronicles a Rhyming, Jabbing, Heroic Contradiction
In the first-ever unauthorized biography of Muhammad Ali, Jonathan Eig captures the icon's triumphant, tragic, and quintessentially American arc with exquisite detail and original analysis.
The Tale of a Screenwriter, ‘Rewrite Man’ Is an Ode to Professionalism, Not Virtuosity
The life and times of forgotten screenwriter Warren Skaaren double as an education on the convoluted beast that was New Hollywood.
In ‘The Big Sick’ and Other Films, Zoe Kazan Evolves the Rom-Com From Within
In a film world where the old-school romantic comedy scarcely exists, Zoe Kazan's recent entries to the genre stand as tests of empathy and feminism.
An Android’s Dream: How the Robot Traitor Became the Center of ‘Alien: Covenant’
In an allegory where humans are the damned and the aliens are the plague, what does it mean to spend so much time with immune robot bystanders?
‘Free Fire’ Is Clever and Vigorous — Just Don’t Expect It to Be Smart
Ben Wheatley's latest is Reservoir Dogs meets Smokin’ Aces minus any and all narrative ambition.
Seeking El Dorado Is Its Own Reward in ‘The Lost City of Z’
Questing for humanity in the uncharted Amazon, James Gray’s new period epic is told at a whisper.
‘Punching Henry’ and the Pains of Standup Comedy
Henry Phillips’ sequel to Punching the Clown revisits the difficulties of performing stand-up comedy (with his guitar,) but doesn't pose new questions about that experience.