Film

Los Angeles Haunts Itself

The 1973 film Messiah of Evil doesn’t scare with monsters—it shows instead how horror can annex a place, compelling you to pass through familiar and traumatic rooms, dread gathering as your heel meets the floor.

An Efficient System of Exploitation

Despite filming her last feature in the '40s, Dorothy Arzner remains Hollywood's most prolific female director—what does that say about Hollywood?

The Eternal Becoming of Sofia Coppola

Like so many of her heroines, the director seduces to control.

When Satyajit Ray Came to Hollywood

East and West: the twin myths cast lasting shadows on the mind of the Apu Trilogy filmmaker. 

Kids Like Us

Fifteen years after its release, Bend It Like Beckham is still an essential representation of South Asian teenagehood. 

Whatever Happened to Virginia Van Upp?

No other producer did for Columbia Pictures what Virginia Van Upp, one of Hollywood's first female executives, did in the 1940s. So why did her influence slowly fade away? 

Cher's Era

During her brief '80s reign as one of film's biggest stars, Cher didn't disappear into roles—she brought her indelible presence to bear on women thought to be invisible and cast them into the light.

Roger Ebert's Zero-Star Movies

What did it take for the most famous and widely read American film critic ever to hand out his lowest possible rating, issued only a few dozen times in a 10,000-plus review career?

Waiting for Ripley

As Arrival and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story placed strong women at the hearts of heady, exciting science-fiction stories, Sigourney Weaver's iconic Alien hero looms as large as ever.

Adrienne Shelly Will Take You There

The actress and filmmaker behind Waitress, who was murdered ten years ago, created as though she was on borrowed time and left a legacy that outlived her.