Essential Reads of 2024

Illustrations by Stephanie Lane Gage.As the year draws to a close, we’d like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of our contributors. Here are some of their finest essays, interviews, festival coverage, and more from this year. We’re looking forward to much more in the new one. As always, thank you for reading.ESSAYSIllustration by Zoé Mahamès Peters.The current cinema: Sasha Frere-Jones on Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Eiko Ishibashi’s GIFT Philippa Snow on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things Adam Nayman on Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms Cassie da Costa on RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys Amanda Chen on Trương Minh Quý’s Việt and Nam Sanoja Bhaumik on Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s The Settlers Nathalie Olah on Andrea Arnold’s Bird Robert Rubsam on Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera Grace Byron on Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow Zach Schonfeld on M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and Michael Showalter’s The Idea of You Sam Sodomsky on Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days Maxwell Paparella on Wang Bing’s Youth Robert Rubsam on Oz Perkins’s Longlegs Kim Hew-Low on Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron Illustration by Stephanie Monohan.Repertory: Annie Berke on Kirsten Dunst’s period pieces Yasmina Price on Claire Denis’s S’en fout la mort (1990) Lawrence Garcia on Hong Sang-soo’s late period Imogen Sara Smith on Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933) Katherine Franco on Shu Lea Cheang’s Fresh Kill (1994) Soham Gadre on Bombay Noir Tomasz Kolankiewicz on Piotr Szulkin’s “asocial fiction” tetralogy Robert Barry on Aki Kaurismäki’s music Kerosene Jones on Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974) Rafaela Bassili on Nelson Pereira dos Santos’s Barren Lives (1963) Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956).Retrospectives: Matthew Thrift on Anatole Litvak Saffron Maeve on Bette Gordon Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer on Wojciech Has Imogen Sara Smith on Michael Powell before Emeric Pressburger Ruairí McCann on Hiroshi Shimizu Celluloid Liberation Front on Jocelyne Saab David Schwartz on Robert Frank Peter Goldberg on Zoë Lund Z. W. Lewis on Paul Naschy Celluloid Liberation Front on Otar Iosseliani Vedant Srinivas on Kumar Shahani Illustration by Nicole Pavlov.Film culture: Olivia Popp on the nonanthropomorphic turn in cinema Mark Asch on portrayals of Roy Cohn Jawni Hawn on Korean “comfort women” Z. W. Lewis on the figure of the political assassin Jonah Jeng on the stunt performer Perwana Nazif on Francesc Tosquelles and Radical Psychiatry Juan Camilo Velásquez on digital impressionism Chris Shields on Elvira and the horror host tradition Max Levin on Gregory Markopoulos’s Temenos L'homme atlantique (Marguerite Duras, 1981).Book reviews: Beatrice Loayza on Marguerite Duras’s My Cinema Jonathan Rosenbaum on Reading with Jean-Luc Godard Kayleigh Donaldson on Barbra Streisand’s memoirs Kaitlyn A. Kramer on Chris Marker’s Les Dépays Hicham Awad on Nicole Brenez’s On the Figure in General and the Body in Particular Alex Dueben on Dash Shaw’s Blurry Kat Sachs on Carrie Courogen’s Miss May Does Not Exist Bass (Steve McQueen, 2024). Installation view, Dia Beacon, New York, May 12, 2024–April 14, 2025. Photograph by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York.Around the galleries:Madeleine Seidel on Steve McQueen’s Bass Re’al Christian on Raqs Media Collective’s The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time-Cone The Notebook Insert is a seasonal supplement on moving-image culture.Illustration by Lale Westvind.In the spring, “In the Streets” considered the ever-increasing presence of video in public spaces: Nicholas Russell takes in Las Vegas on screen, and the biggest screen in Las Vegas Maxwell Paparella recounts the origin story of the Illuminator, the New York–based guerilla projection collective Martine Syms weaves a phantasm of seductive advertisement Radu Jude finds traces of old Bucharest on billboards and storefronts Pan Lu charts the changing face of Hong Kong Allee Errico illustrates the fragile faculty of attention battered by the glut of screens Amalia Ulman is a nervous flyer, and the in-flight entertainment isn’t helping Illustration by Ivy Johnson.In the summer, on the occasion of the XXXIII Olympiad, “The Sporting Image” looked at athletics on screen: Park Chan-wook confesses to not liking soccer Caroline Golum visits the video truck of a major-league baseball game Chloe Lizotte finds in the pre- and post-game show the death dream of linear television Matt Turner reports from the grandstands of two esport tournaments Savanah Leaf revisits highlights of her own Olympic volleyball performance Sergio de la Pava files a tribute to the sui generis beauty of boxing Carson Lund watches the Home run Derby Rebecca Liu sends up the on-field interview Cassie da Costa regrets the failures of broadcasting long-distance running Sanoja Bhaumik works the angles of tennis INTERVIEWSIllustration by Stephanie Monohan. Andrea Arnold in conversation with Caitlin Quinlan Zia Anger in conversation with Mackenzie Lukenbill Beth B in conversation with

Jan 26, 2025 - 23:29

Illustrations by Stephanie Lane Gage.

As the year draws to a close, we’d like to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of our contributors. Here are some of their finest essays, interviews, festival coverage, and more from this year. We’re looking forward to much more in the new one. As always, thank you for reading.

ESSAYS

Illustration by Zoé Mahamès Peters.

The current cinema:

Sasha Frere-Jones on Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Eiko Ishibashi’s GIFT
Philippa Snow on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things
Adam Nayman on Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms
Cassie da Costa on RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys
Amanda Chen on Trương Minh Quý’s Việt and Nam
Sanoja Bhaumik on Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s The Settlers
Nathalie Olah on Andrea Arnold’s Bird
Robert Rubsam on Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera
Grace Byron on Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow
Zach Schonfeld on M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and Michael Showalter’s The Idea of You
Sam Sodomsky on Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days
Maxwell Paparella on Wang Bing’s Youth
Robert Rubsam on Oz Perkins’s Longlegs
Kim Hew-Low on Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron

Illustration by Stephanie Monohan.

Repertory:

Annie Berke on Kirsten Dunst’s period pieces
Yasmina Price on Claire Denis’s S’en fout la mort (1990)
Lawrence Garcia on Hong Sang-soo’s late period
Imogen Sara Smith on Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933)
Katherine Franco on Shu Lea Cheang’s Fresh Kill (1994)
Soham Gadre on Bombay Noir
Tomasz Kolankiewicz on Piotr Szulkin’s “asocial fiction” tetralogy
Robert Barry on Aki Kaurismäki’s music
Kerosene Jones on Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974)
Rafaela Bassili on Nelson Pereira dos Santos’s Barren Lives (1963)

Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956).

Retrospectives:

Matthew Thrift on Anatole Litvak
Saffron Maeve on Bette Gordon
Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer on Wojciech Has
Imogen Sara Smith on Michael Powell before Emeric Pressburger
Ruairí McCann on Hiroshi Shimizu
Celluloid Liberation Front on Jocelyne Saab
David Schwartz on Robert Frank
Peter Goldberg on Zoë Lund
Z. W. Lewis on Paul Naschy
Celluloid Liberation Front on Otar Iosseliani
Vedant Srinivas on Kumar Shahani

Illustration by Nicole Pavlov.

Film culture:

Olivia Popp on the nonanthropomorphic turn in cinema
Mark Asch on portrayals of Roy Cohn
Jawni Hawn on Korean “comfort women”
Z. W. Lewis on the figure of the political assassin
Jonah Jeng on the stunt performer
Perwana Nazif on Francesc Tosquelles and Radical Psychiatry
Juan Camilo Velásquez on digital impressionism
Chris Shields on Elvira and the horror host tradition
Max Levin on Gregory Markopoulos’s Temenos

L'homme atlantique (Marguerite Duras, 1981).

Book reviews:

Beatrice Loayza on Marguerite Duras’s My Cinema
Jonathan Rosenbaum on Reading with Jean-Luc Godard
Kayleigh Donaldson on Barbra Streisand’s memoirs
Kaitlyn A. Kramer on Chris Marker’s Les Dépays
Hicham Awad on Nicole Brenez’s On the Figure in General and the Body in Particular
Alex Dueben on Dash Shaw’s Blurry
Kat Sachs on Carrie Courogen’s Miss May Does Not Exist

Bass (Steve McQueen, 2024). Installation view, Dia Beacon, New York, May 12, 2024–April 14, 2025. Photograph by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York.

Around the galleries:

Madeleine Seidel on Steve McQueen’s Bass

Re’al Christian on Raqs Media Collective’s The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time-Cone

The Notebook Insert is a seasonal supplement on moving-image culture.

Illustration by Lale Westvind.

In the spring, “In the Streets” considered the ever-increasing presence of video in public spaces:

Nicholas Russell takes in Las Vegas on screen, and the biggest screen in Las Vegas
Maxwell Paparella recounts the origin story of the Illuminator, the New York–based guerilla projection collective
Martine Syms weaves a phantasm of seductive advertisement
Radu Jude finds traces of old Bucharest on billboards and storefronts
Pan Lu charts the changing face of Hong Kong
Allee Errico illustrates the fragile faculty of attention battered by the glut of screens
Amalia Ulman is a nervous flyer, and the in-flight entertainment isn’t helping

Illustration by Ivy Johnson.

In the summer, on the occasion of the XXXIII Olympiad, “The Sporting Image” looked at athletics on screen:

Park Chan-wook confesses to not liking soccer
Caroline Golum visits the video truck of a major-league baseball game
Chloe Lizotte finds in the pre- and post-game show the death dream of linear television
Matt Turner reports from the grandstands of two esport tournaments
Savanah Leaf revisits highlights of her own Olympic volleyball performance
Sergio de la Pava files a tribute to the sui generis beauty of boxing
Carson Lund watches the Home run Derby
Rebecca Liu sends up the on-field interview
Cassie da Costa regrets the failures of broadcasting long-distance running
Sanoja Bhaumik works the angles of tennis

INTERVIEWS

Illustration by Stephanie Monohan.

Andrea Arnold in conversation with Caitlin Quinlan
Zia Anger in conversation with Mackenzie Lukenbill
Beth B in conversation with Rachel Pronger
Sofia Coppola in conversation with Phuong Le
Bas Devos in conversation with Laura Staab
Vera Drew in conversation with Kerosene Jones
Quentin Dupieux in conversation with Leonardo Goi
Ernie Gehr in conversation with Paul Attard
Alain Guiraudie in conversation with Beatrice Loayza
Shiguéhiko Hasumi in conversation with K. F. Watanabe
Agnieszka Holland in conversation with David Schwartz
Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross in conversation with Dessane Lopez Cassell
Payal Kapadia in conversation with Leonardo Goi
Kiyoshi Kurosawa in conversation with Jordan Cronk
Guy Maddin in conversation with Ryan Akler-Bishop
Alanis Obomsawin in conversation with Brandon Kaufman
Aaron Schimberg in conversation with Keva York
Albert Serra in conversation with Ela Bittencourt
Tarsem in conversation with Keva York
Jonathan Rosenbaum in conversation with Thomas Quist
Isabella Rossellini in conversation with Phuong Le
John Wilson in conversation with Andrew Northrop

FESTIVAL COVERAGE

Illustration by Maddie Fischer.

In addition to coverage from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice, Toronto, and New York, our contributors reported on two festivals giving life to films that might otherwise die, and another whose unique geopolitical position makes it a testing ground for a more utopian cinema.