Documentaries about gentrification

Telling neighborhood stories

Some urban neighborhoods under pressure from the forces of gentrification document their battles through documentaries. Filmmaker Kathryn Smith Pyle singles out some worth your consideration.

Kathryn Smith Pyle

Mar 24, 2014 · Articles · 6 minute read

HBO's 'True Detective'

True romance?

HBO's True Detective is deceptive: on the face of a traditional cop-buddies-hunt-serial-killer procedural, it actually breaks new ground in portraying the relationship between the two protagonists.

Paula Berman

Mar 17, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

George Clooney’s 'Monuments Men'

Saving Michelangelo

George Clooney’s Monuments Men makes an American heroes’ story of the largely British effort to recover looted art treasures during World War II. The historical record is considerably more mixed, though, and the film itself has neither the documentary fidelity nor the cinematic edge of such earlier takes on the subject as The Rape of Europa or John Frankenheimer’s The Train.

Robert Zaller

Mar 17, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Alain Resnais, God, and ‘Providence’

God as a novelist who’s losing his touch

Alain Resnais used the film medium to trample constructs like time, space, and memory with impunity — most notably, in my opinion, in his brilliantly inventive, provocative, and beautiful 1977 allegory, Providence.

Dan Rottenberg

Mar 07, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Inside Llewyn Davis' and 'Her'

The production value of nostalgia

As period films, Inside Llewyn Davis and Her create new worlds for the camera. Through intricate production design, they evoke a particular kind of nostalgia, making viewers miss something they have never known.

Kayleigh Butera

Mar 03, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

The year I didn't go to the Academy Awards

And the winner is . . .

I truly care that quality films are made. But who actually wins an Oscar makes absolutely no difference to my life.

Susan Beth Lehman

Mar 01, 2014 · Articles · 4 minute read

In defense of binge-watching

Reading novels and watching TV actually have a fair amount in common.

Judy Weightman

Feb 18, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

'House of Cards' on Netflix

The toxic world of political ambition

House of Cards is just good enough to make you wish it were better.

Armen Pandola

Feb 18, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Monuments Men': a disappointing tribute

A great story still untold

I wish I could say that The Monuments Men is worthy of its subject and of the people who strove and died to save the art of western Europe. Instead, The Monuments Men is an action-comedy whose action is dull and whose comedy is formulaic.

Armen Pandola

Feb 13, 2014 · Articles · 11 minute read

Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida' at Sundance

Stumbling upon Ida at Sundance felt like participating in the celebration of independent film that you may not see anywhere else.

Kayleigh Butera

Feb 10, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read