Amelia Merrill

Hark, cinephiles! Wes Anderson has returned to the silver screen with “The French Dispatch,” his latest romp of aesthetics that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Told as multiple stories within a story, “The French Dispatch” chronicles the life and death of a small newspaper in the fictional French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, which is populated by Anderson’s usual troupe of actors.
Critics have praised the film for its thorough commitment to what Anderson does best: follow a wacky group of ...

Joan Micklin Silver, the pivotal female Jewish American filmmaker, always worked with a wit and wisdom that made her stories feel both timeless and personal. Best known for the rom-com “Crossing Delancey,” Micklin Silver passed awaylast year while working on the restoration of her 1975 film “Hester Street” with the Cohen Film Collection. That 4K restoration — which essentially involves repairing breakdowns in the original physical film — is now playing in select theaters, and recently screene...

Watching the beginning of Radu Jude’s new film, you have to remind yourself that it’s not really porn. There is actual sex on screen, but it’s for shock value, and watching Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn in a theater full of other people will trigger laughter, gasps, and nervous tittering from everyone you’re packed in with elbow-to-elbow. By the time you’re wondering whether sex for shock value in a feature film with plenty of non-sex scenes is still, in fact, pornography, Bad Luck Banging m...

The landscape of Întregalde pierces you with a cold so persistent, you can’t help but shiver with the characters onscreen. Radu Muntean’s drama turns the question of what we owe to each other into a trap of wills, with the stubborn but gracious Maria (Maria Popistaşu) caught in the middle. Named after the remote village in the Apuseni mountains where the narrative unfolds, Întregalde follows a group of humanitarian aid volunteers delivering Christmas packages to impoverished Transylvanians wh...

Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth premiered at the New York Film Festival with little fanfare—a morning screening, a press conference with COVID-induced microphone restrictions, a packed theater of weary-eyed critics. This mood characterizes the film itself, an aesthetically gorgeous update on one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays that sticks to the source material like the conjoined twin of your battered-up copy from ninth grade English class. Macbeth is a perfect example of the craft of f...

To say that the past 18 months have been hard for nonprofit theatres is like saying there’s a chance of rain when it’s pouring outside. Artists, administrators, and audiences know all too well the hardships of the COVID-19 shutdown, which have ranged from layoffs and budget cuts to lockdowns and personal health struggles. Most of our readers have lived these experiences firsthand.
In looking at how the field has fared since the pandemic began, we wondered how theatres run by and historically ...

While the shift to working from home during the pandemic may have meant less time on the road for many, Jomar Tagatac can’t relate: He spent much of the past summer driving between his home in San Francisco and Sacramento, where he’s starring in the one-man co-production of Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths at both the San Francisco Playhouse and Capital Stage. And while this history play marks the return for many in-person audiences in Northern Calif...

There are times when a documentary film opens the door to an important conversation and leaves you breathless with the weight of what it depicts. And there are times when a documentary pushes the filmmaking form in new directions, leaving a lasting impression of innovation. With Pray Away, a thorough examination of the Christian-led conversion therapy and “ex-gay” movement, director Kristine Stolakis does both, presenting a film that will long be remembered for both form and content.
Pray Awa...

Last month, Brisbane, Australia was named the host of the 2032 Summer Olympics, an announcement that came as athletes geared up for this year’s competition in Tokyo — and as locals, living under a fourth state of emergency, continued to call for the event’s cancellation. The day of the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremonies, Tokyo recorded more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases — including 19 people linked to the Olympics — and more than 80% of Japanese residents were opposed to or concerned about the Gam...

Content warning: abuse
On July 23, 1996, a Jewish woman clinched the gold medal for the American women’s gymnastics team on home turf at the Atlanta Olympics. Kerri Strug, then 18, was up on vault in the last rotation of the women’s team final in the hope of helping the U.S. women win their first-ever team gold. It’s a scene most of us know well: Strug landed the vault before sitting down and then limping over to the coaching staff, who told her unequivocally, “We need this.” She pulled herse...

Comedy-horror Jennifer’s Body is a case study in how camera framing, subversive writing, and self-aware characters can bring a female point of view to an overwhelmingly male genre. Unfortunately this enterprise was not something people widely celebrated or even “got” in 2009. When Jennifer’s Body premiered, it was, more or less, a flop. Director Karyn Kusama and screenwriter Diablo Cody hoped that the horror comedy would appeal to teenage girls but the studio insisted on marketing star Megan Fox’s sex appeal to men -- a strategy that yielded disappointing box office sales and largely negativ

Filmmaker Zoe Lister-Jones is kind of a BJD (Big Jewish Deal). The actor-writer-director is no stranger to the indie film scene, having starred in movies like “Arranged,” a heartwarming but grounded story of friendship between Jewish and Muslim women, and collaborated with her husband, filmmaker Daryl Wein, on multiple projects. In 2017, she made her feature-length directorial debut with “Band Aid,” the story of a couple in a contentious marriage who start a band to channel their arguments in...

As we head into the controversial super-spreader event known as the Tokyo Olympics, all eyes are on the Jewish athletes in the various gymnastics disciplines. OK fine, maybe not, but all eyes should be, because there are many talented Jewish gymnasts from different countries who’ve fulfilled their lifelong dreams and will now be chalking up in Tokyo to represent the chosen people.
While we won’t be getting national treasure Aly Raisman’s iconic “Hava Nagila” floor routine, we will be getting ...

When COVID-19 first ripped through the theatre community last spring, the consequences of having close-knit ensembles and staff rehearse and work in cramped spaces was widespread infection. Across the country, as people scrambled to get tests or flights back home, the New York theatre community rallied to raise money for the Actor’s Fund, provide digital entertainment to distract from bad news and boredom, and support and uplift those who were ill, hospitalized, or even lost someone to COVID....

As outdoor theatre sweeps across the country this summer again, many companies are staging innovative approaches to hot and sticky summer nights under mosquito-bitten stars, presenting plays in partnership with local institutions like a zoo, drive-in options for car-bound audiences, and mixed programs of digital and in-person shows to accommodate patrons at all comfort and vaccination levels. But while the dominant image of outdoor summer theatre may still remain amphitheatres, stages constru...