Colin Fitzgerald
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ Gorgeously Conveys Our Need for Poise and Elegance
The sense of artifice in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel helped him create an alluring reverie of both color and meaning.
Before Ru Paul and Trixie Mattel There Was the Ball Circuit: ‘Paris Is Burning’
Told through the voices and movements of the legends and pioneers of the '80s Harlem drag-ball scene, Paris Is Burning is an indispensable look at one of America's most influential subcultures of the last half-century.
Sidney Lumet’s Atomic Bomb Thriller ‘Fail Safe’ and the (De)Evolution of Cold War Ethics
Directed by the master of claustrophobic tension Sidney Lumet, Fail Safe is one of the most gripping Atomic Bomb Era thrillers ever made and its message resonates to this day.
‘The Great McGinty’ Takes on the Great Political Machine
Preston Sturges' classic Hollywood comedy The Great McGinty is an incisive and bold political satire that explores the ridiculous depths of American corruption—80 years before the Trump era.
Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ Remains Explosive and Vivid
The Criterion Collection's essential 30th anniversary Blu-ray package of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing honors the film's heart, aesthetic brilliance, and pointed message on American racism, diversity, and community.
The Towering Humanity in Abbas Kiarostami’s Films
The Koker Trilogy conveys Abbas Kiarostami’s commitment to crafting a cinema suitable for a universal audience that works to ameliorate conflict.
A Private Revolution: Jean-Luc Godard’s Second Wave
Jean-Luc Godard's cinematic oddities First Name: Carmen, Détective, and Hélas pour moi, newly released on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, embody the vast landscape of possibilities open to the director during the '80s and '90s.
David Lynch’s ’Blue Velvet’ Covers the Darkness
How can we appreciate David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, a film about America’s private darkness, in an era when such anxieties, tensions, and corruptions are so openly apparent?
The Coen Brothers’ ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ Is American Myth in Vignette
In the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, there's something altogether new about having revisionist western ideas filtered through their rich sense of character, black comedy, and their penetrating awareness of humanity's fatal imperfections.
Neuroses, Eccentricities, and the Status Quo in Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle of Dogs’
Visually enchanting and emotionally seductive, Wes Anderson's Japan-set stop-motion adventure marries aesthetic beauty with messy politics.