FEATURES
The Souvenir
By Sheila O’Malley
In Joanna Hogg’s exquisite breakout, a film student’s unsentimental education in 1980s England becomes a rigorous work of elusive psychological portraiture. Plus: an interview with Hogg by Nicolas Rapold
Late Night
By Devika Girish
The workplace comedy brings Mindy Kaling’s disarming, observant eye to the story of a homogenous talk show and its unexpected new hire
50 Years of Film at Lincoln Center
The world-famous film organization—and longtime publisher of this magazine—celebrates its golden anniversary and brand-new moniker this year. We reminisce with the words of subversive pioneer Amos Vogel and selections from series past by a handful of Film Comment contributors
Becoming Us: The Violence of Assimilation
By Soraya Nadia McDonald
Jordan Peele’s latest cultural touchstone, Us, plumbs the depths of the fractured American experience, but is there hope within its horrors?
Asako I & II
By Andrew Chan
Japan’s most excitingly unpredictable filmmaker, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, takes a left turn into pop melodrama with his shimmering tale of doubled love and folly
Non-Fiction
By Aliza Ma
Olivier Assayas never stops thinking about how tomorrow affects today, proving it again with a deceptively light, idea-packed sexual roundelay set in the publishing world
Cinema Optics
By Nick Pinkerton
Everything you see in a movie goes through and is transformed by the properties of the lens—that enduring analog hero of filmmaking, and perhaps its most woefully misunderstood component
Roberto Gavaldón
By Imogen Sara Smith
The sumptuously moody melodramas of the Mexican auteur are back in full luster for new generations to rediscover—and rank alongside Hollywood’s best
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS
THE PRE-SHOW | News, views, conversations, and other things to get worked up about
News, Inspired: Pedro Almodóvar on Pain and Glory, Release Me: Lucio Castro’s End of the Century by Jordan Cronk, Directions: Tsai Ming-liang by Jonathan Romney, Restoration Row: Márta Mészáros’s Adoption and The Two of Them by Max Nelson
CRITICS’ CHOICE
Critics rate and comment on new releases
MAKE IT REAL | The wide, wide world of cinematic nonfiction
Three portraits of women by Eric Hynes
ART AND CRAFT | Filmmaking according to the makers
Editor Galut Alarcón on Raúl Ruiz’s The Wandering Soap Opera, as told to Manu Yáñez Murillo
FINEST HOUR | One actor, one perfo