Movie Enthusiast Issue 29: Where Are All the Women Filmmakers? (2017 Edition)
Since the last issue of this newsletter went out, two big news items have happened in film world. The first, as I’m sure you’re all aware, is La La Land was...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 28: “The Secret Progressivism of This Old French Film Will Shock You,” and other fictions
Previously on Movie Enthusiast, I mentioned that I was watching Éric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. Brief background: Rohmer was one of the editors of the French...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 27: 12 films to watch from Sundance 2017 (Nuns! Manifestos! Rooney Mara eating pie!)
As the rest of the country was in chaos last month, the 2017 Sundance Film Festival proceeded as per usual. Even if the festival weren’t taking place in the...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 26: Hidden Figures, Paterson, and more end-of-2016 housekeeping
January always ends up an appendage to the previous calendar year when it comes to movies. Now that all the late-year films that opened in New York and L.A....
Movie Enthusiast Issue 25: If I Had an Oscar Ballot…
At this stage in the game, Oscar voters only cast their nominating votes for Best Picture and categories for whatever branch they’re a part of (e.g. actors...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 24: The Inaugural Box Office Olympics
Toward the end of every calendar year I like to check the box office returns on some of the more obscure movies I saw in theaters to find out how much I...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 23: Spontaneous Moviegoing, Scorsese's Silence, Sundance 2017 Lineup Revealed
Two months ago I saw Park Chan-Wook's new film, The Handmaiden, and subsequently wrote an essay on it, offline, and decided not to publish it (yet, if ever)....
Movie Enthusiast Issue 22: Another Milestone Crossed
As some of my more ardent admirers know, I've been keeping journals of every movie I've watched since September 2011. I follow a pretty standard rule: each...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 21: Selling Good Movies with Bad Writing
Back in June I caught the microbudget indie The Fits during its brief stint in theaters. (Evidently, my arthouse of choice in downtown DC was one of only...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 20: Movies—they make us throw things across the room in rage
I can vaguely recall an awards show opening number from a few years ago that celebrated all the many feelings we get at the movies. (Yes, I realize I’ve just...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 19: Definitely Not Temp Music
Last week the inestimably valuable Every Frame a Painting, the popular series of video essays about filmmaking, covered the recent downtick in memorable...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 18: Stranger Things and Stranger Movies
I’ve been watching Stranger Things, the new 8-episode Netflix original series that pays homage to the beloved movies of the 1980s. In the spirit of the...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 17: Movies to See This Fall/Winter
My apologies for the delayed newsletter this month. This issue was tragically deleted before I could send it last week and I’ve only now gotten over my...
Movie Enthusiast Issue 16: Hats of Film Noir
Film noir is a subgenre built on dependability. The leading men are always world-weary, the dialogue is always snappy, the cinematography is always shadowy,...
Issue 15: Mid-Summer News
It's been a rough month for everyone; this week instead of the usual essay, I'm taking a short break and doing a roundup of links instead. We'll return to...
Issue 14: How to Watch a Movie
Pardon the late newsletter this week; didn't want to encourage email-checking on a holiday. In 2012, the French film Holy Motors took world of arthouse...
Issue 13: David Fincher and Virtue Ethics
Let's talk about David Fincher's Gone Girl. I don't know how this came to mind exactly; it just floated onto the tracks of my train of thought while reading...
Issue 12: Cannes Film Festival in Review
Previously on Movie Enthusiast: The Cannes Film Festival got off to an overwhelmingly strong start, with new films from Romania, Germany, South Korea, and...
Issue 11: Cannes 1st Half Roundup
The 69th Cannes International Film Festival is underfoot! And boy what an exciting five days we've had already. It's commonly agreed upon that last year's...
Issue 10: The Cannes International Film Festival Approaches
There's only one event in the world of film that gets me even more excited than the Oscars, and we're just a few days away from the 2016 edition. Mesdames et...