3 pieces
Across the last three years, the three-hour-plus film has quietly returned to the centre of serious American cinema. An essay on what the long film does that the short film cannot.
Films and TV shows are casting more speaking roles than they can properly serve. An essay on why the ensemble has gotten bloated, what it costs the specific characters inside it, and what tighter casts still do.
The argument against CGI and for practical effects has hardened into a specific aesthetic dogma that no longer tracks the actual craft. An essay on what the argument originally responded to and why it now misfires.