Extras Archives | Bright Wall/Dark Room

NASA made the Mercury Seven men into a myth. Tom Wolfe made them into (slightly flawed) idols. Philip Kaufman makes them the prototypes of all the insouciant heroes of the Reagan era, who reinforce the American status quo while still breaking every rule. Read More

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (all images courtesy of the Sundance Institute)

Sundancing with Myself: Dispatches from a Virtual Festival

Ethan Warren·

Festivals

If there was any tangible loss in a virtual Sundance, it wasn’t the loss of celebrity sightings and frostbitten extremities; it was the loss of a shared narrative on what the week had provided. Read More

The Elephant Man (1980) | art by Tony Stella

Staring All Over Again

Nathaniel Missildine·

Extras

A tremor of vulnerability renewed itself as I sat down to watch The Elephant Man again. I wasn’t sure I could handle it. Am I resilient enough for this now? Am I finally old enough to see it? Read More

Kenneth Lonergan, the writer and director of You Can Count on Me (2000) | art by Tony Stella

Kenneth Lonergan on You Can Count on Me

Chad Perman·

Interviews

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of You Can Count on Me's release, Kenneth Lonergan sits down to talk at length about the experience of making his first movie. Read More

Gary Oldman as Dracula | art by Tony Stella

Party On, Vlad: The Immortal Transience of Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Candace Jane Opper·

Extras

It’s easy to write off a movie like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so married as it is to the neon tackiness of the early 1990s; it’s much harder to recognize that placing itself squarely into that context is an extraordinary device. Read More

Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys (2000) | Paramount

Even This Late It Happens: 20 Years of Wonder Boys

Anya Jaremko-Greenwold·

Extras

After flopping at the box office in February 2000, the dramedy was re-released in November of the same year—and flopped again. But it grossed my heart. Read More

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on the set of Edward Scissorhands

Aspirational Ghosts: The Films of Tim Burton and the Internet Death Wish

Amber Sparks·

Extras

Tim Burton’s most lauded films are famously full of death. But they’re also full of would-be ghosts, characters who linger in the margins of living. Read More

The Festival!

Fran Hoepfner·

Festivals

Fran Hoepfner on Nomadland, Lovers Rock, Malmkrog, Undine, The Human Voice, The Truffle Hunters, Night of the Kings and more from this year's (remote) New York Film Festival. Read More

Richard Curtis and Rachel McAdams talk on the set of 'About Time'

Towards a Grand, Unified Theory of the Richard Curtis Cinematic Universe

Hope Rehak·

Extras

I want to live in the artificial worlds Richard Curtis creates, with their aesthetic rules and regulations, if only to live in a world where problems are surmountable, and everyone is funny. Read More

I Grew Up Thinking Feelings Were Cool: Cooper Raiff on Shithouse

Ethan Warren·

Interviews

In describing Cooper Raiff’s emergence onto the independent film scene, it’s easy to lean on what sounds like a novelty hook: at just 23 years old, he’s written, directed, starred in, and co-edited a college-set romcom that went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at South by Southwest. Read More

Ellen Ripley | illustration by Tony Stella

I’m Happy To Disappoint You: A Gen X Girl’s Undying Love for Ellen Ripley

Kali White VanBaale·

Extras

Alien may have blazed the trail for unlikely female action heroes, but it’s Aliens that made Ripley iconic to girls like me. Read More

Looking for a Way to Die in Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry

Ammar Keshodia·

Extras

Like the push and pull of life, Taste of Cherry is an assortment of contradictions. Read More