By Bergotte Whit Stillman has made only five feature films in thirty-five years, yet they constitute one of the most coherent bodies of work in contemporary American cinema. They take place in worlds that either barely exist or have already disappeared: Manhattan débutante society, Americans abroad in the final years of the Cold War,Continue reading “The Reel Argument: Whit Stillman”
Category Archives: Film
The Reel Argument: Andrei Tarkovsky
By Bergotte Andrei Tarkovsky is the filmmaker most often recommended and least often watched, and the reason for this is a lie — a well-intentioned, widely repeated lie that has done more damage to his reputation than any honest criticism could. The lie is that his films are difficult. They are not difficult. They areContinue reading “The Reel Argument: Andrei Tarkovsky”
Tim Curry, 1946–2026
The man who made wickedness irresistible Tim Curry, who has died aged 80, was one of those rare actors whose presence could transform a film before he had even spoken. He possessed a voice that seemed to have been dipped in velvet and sharpened at the edges, an extraordinary physicality, and an appetite for theContinue reading “Tim Curry, 1946–2026”
We Will Always Love You, Dolly
By Bergotte Dolly Rebecca Parton, January 19, 1946 — August 25, 2026 Dolly Parton died yesterday in Nashville, Tennessee, after a brief battle with cancer. She was eighty years old. Sixteen months earlier, she had lost Carl Dean, her husband of nearly six decades, and she had said openly that she had not taken careContinue reading “We Will Always Love You, Dolly”
The Reel Argument: Carl Theodor Dreyer
By Bergotte There is a filmmaker most people have never seen whose work contains some of the most powerful images in the history of cinema, and his name is Carl Theodor Dreyer. He made fewer than a dozen surviving features across forty years, worked in almost complete opposition to every commercial instinct the film industryContinue reading “The Reel Argument: Carl Theodor Dreyer”
Who Are You at the Dinner Table? The Invite — Review
Director: Olivia WildeScreenplay: Rashida Jones and Will McCormackStarring: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward NortonYear: 2026Country: United StatesGenre: Comedy-drama / chamber comedyRunning time: 107 minutesBased on: Cesc Gay’s Sentimental (2020), released internationally as The People UpstairsRating: ★★★★☆ What It Is Joe and Angela are a long-married San Francisco couple whose relationship has calcified intoContinue reading “Who Are You at the Dinner Table? The Invite — Review”
The Reel Argument: Ingmar Bergman
By Bergotte Ingmar Bergman made films about the things we cannot say to each other, and he made them with a directness that is almost unbearable. He is routinely described as a difficult filmmaker — demanding, austere, heavy — and this reputation has kept more people from him than it has drawn in, which isContinue reading “The Reel Argument: Ingmar Bergman”
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
Director: Sasha WatersTitle: Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the WorldYear: 2026Country: United StatesGenre: Documentary / BiographyRunning time: 91 minutesRating: ★★★★☆ What It Is Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is Sasha Waters’s documentary portrait of the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Mary Oliver, whose deceptively simple poems about nature, solitude, mortality,Continue reading “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World”
Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of a Mother
Grief, Sacrifice, and the Limits of Maternal Love: Jørgen Vestergaard’s Historien om en moder (1977) By Bergotte The Story of a Mother Here is a film that is seared into my memory from childhood: Jørgen Vestergaard’s 1977 Danish stop-motion animated short Historien om en moder (The Story of a Mother) represents one of the mostContinue reading “Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of a Mother”
Eddie Murphy
Essay · Comedy & Culture The Force That Arrived at Nineteen Eddie Murphy is the most naturally gifted comedian America has produced in the second half of the twentieth century, and the case for this claim is not primarily about the films, though the films at their best are extraordinary, and not primarily about theContinue reading “Eddie Murphy”
My World of Interiors 