#imitation-of-life

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Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
21 hours ago

It's about finding light in the dark': why Harold and Maude is my feelgood movie

Harold and Maude uniquely combines themes of life and death, creating a cult classic that offers viewers lasting joy and meaning.
Independent films
fromInsideHook
1 day ago

Did an Unexpected Culprit Hurt Modern Filmmaking?

American cinema faces a paradox of thriving box office revenues while struggling with the decline of mid-budget films and the impact of YouTube.
Careers
fromSilicon Canals
11 hours ago

There's a kind of man who runs entirely on obligation for forty years - provider, fixer, the one who shows up - and retirement is the first morning he wakes up with nothing to fix and realizes he built himself no other way to matter - Silicon Canals

Retirement can lead to an identity crisis for those who defined themselves by their work and responsibilities.
UX design
fromMedium
2 days ago

Are we makers by nature-or consumers by design?

The relationship between creation and consumption is strained, impacting designers' creativity and cognitive processes.
#steven-soderbergh
Independent films
fromPortland Mercury
6 days ago

The Christophers Is Another Small Masterwork by Steven Soderbergh - Portland Mercury

Steven Soderbergh has directed 11 films since 2017, showcasing a prolific and controlled creative process.
Independent films
fromPortland Mercury
6 days ago

The Christophers Is Another Small Masterwork by Steven Soderbergh - Portland Mercury

Steven Soderbergh has directed 11 films since 2017, showcasing a prolific and controlled creative process.
fromConsequence
4 days ago

This Sacha Baron Cohen Movie About an Alternate Reality Ruled by Women Looks Bonkers

In Ladies First, Sacha Baron Cohen portrays an advertising executive who wakes up in a world where women dominate, leading to humorous situations and challenges.
Women in technology
fromFast Company
6 days ago

Adam McKay's new movie offers a glimpse at advertising's final frontier: your dreams

Publicly traded companies are by legal definition and requirement completely amoral. They want only one thing, to raise their stock price, and the public good and common decency are just obstacles to be overcome or spun in that quest.
Marketing
Film
fromThe Independent
1 day ago

The 19 most problematic movies of all time

Filmmakers often desire public engagement, but some films face scrutiny for problematic content due to evolving social standards.
Independent films
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago

The Film From 1969 That Explains Contemporary America

The Sorrow and the Pity reveals the complexities of life in Nazi-occupied France, challenging the myth of universal French resistance.
Books
fromAnOther
1 week ago

Larry Clark and James Gilroy Revisit Their Youth

Larry Clark and James Gilroy's collaboration captures their unique friendship and shared experiences through photography and drawings, reflecting a life lived authentically.
#art
fromDefector
3 days ago
Independent films

Steven Soderbergh And Ed Solomon Talk About Their Best Collaboration Yet | Defector

Arts
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Art, sex, nature: why is everything sold to us as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself?

Art should be valued for its own sake, not merely for its utilitarian benefits or health claims.
Independent films
fromDefector
3 days ago

Steven Soderbergh And Ed Solomon Talk About Their Best Collaboration Yet | Defector

The Christophers explores the complexities of art, legacy, and the artist's relationship with public perception through a unique narrative.
Relationships
fromInsideHook
2 weeks ago

What Men Can Learn From 17 Unforgettable On-Screen Proposals

Real-life proposals differ from romantic comedies, but lessons from memorable on-screen moments can guide men in crafting meaningful proposals.
France news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

The Stranger review lustrously beautiful and superbly realised modern take on the Camus classic

A monochrome adaptation of Camus's L'Etranger explores themes of empire and race in 1940s French Algeria, but loses some of the original's power.
fromThe Independent
3 days ago

Directors defend controversial AI resurrection of Val Kilmer

Coerte Voorhees stated, 'We are 100 per cent confident it's really the right move with this specific film, and we're really, really looking forward to everyone being able to judge it for themselves.'
Film
fromOregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
2 weeks ago

FilmWatch Weekly: Camus' 'The Stranger' on screen, Christian Petzold's 'Miroirs No. 3,' and more * Oregon ArtsWatch

François Ozon's adaptation of The Stranger, while visually stunning, reveals the limitations of cinema in depicting the complex inner states of consciousness that Camus masterfully crafted in his text.
Writing
Design
fromDesign Milk
2 weeks ago

OUTSIDERS Investigates the Space Between Society and Solitude

Modern design challenges conventional public seating to enhance social interaction and presence in urban spaces.
#adaptation
Television
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

TV's Failing Cure For Middle-Aged Malaise

Imperfect Women exemplifies the decline of the 'messy-mom thriller' genre despite initial viewership success.
fromThe New Yorker
3 days ago

The Calculated Uplift of "I Swear"

The film's title, an obvious reference to profanity, also alludes to an incident dramatized later on, when John, on trial after inadvertently triggering a pub brawl, must give sworn testimony in court.
Film
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
fromAnOther
4 days ago

Five Groundbreaking Dream Sequences From Silent Cinema

Film is like that. It developed from [the silent era] into Fellini and Bergman, Buñuel and David Lynch. [They] took these ideas and created a film that was really like a dream.
Film
Writing
fromSilicon Canals
2 weeks ago

I was quietly unhappy with my life for years and the most unsettling part wasn't the unhappiness - it was how functional I remained inside it, how well I performed contentment, how convincingly I answered fine to every person who asked, including myself - Silicon Canals

Pretending to be okay while feeling empty can trap individuals in a cycle of unhappiness.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 weeks ago

The Unbearable Strangeness of Being

Cinga Samson's paintings evoke a haunting, incomprehensible world reflecting historical scars and spiritual alertness through unsettling imagery.
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Daunting, inspiring, comforting, terrifying: the writers who can make silence as eloquent as words

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.
London
Film
fromQueerty
5 days ago

Coming out goes off the rails in this taboo thriller that pushed the boundaries of queer Asian cinema - Queerty

Ethan Mao portrays the intense struggles of a queer Asian youth facing family rejection and the complexities of identity and revenge.
Film
fromWIRED
6 days ago

A New Horror Movie Depicts Realistic Snuff. That's Not the Most Disturbing Thing About It

The reboot of Faces of Death reflects modern society's exposure to real violence through social media and its impact on viewers.
Independent films
fromFilmmaker Magazine
1 week ago

"Personal Storytelling, Experimentation, and a DIY Spirit": A Look Inside LAFM 2026

This year's festival showcases debut features emphasizing personal storytelling and experimentation from both international and local filmmakers.
#film-vs-literature
Photography
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Films Are Fantasies. Here Are Their Realities.

Atsushi Nishijima, an on-set stills photographer, has documented major films over the past decade and a half, capturing candid moments between takes on sets directed by prominent filmmakers.
Independent films
fromThe Independent
1 week ago

Everything Cary Elwes owned fit in a paper bag. Then he made a film with his brother

Cary Elwes faced personal loss due to wildfires but found support and purpose while filming 'Dead Man's Wire' with his brother.
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

In Film, Sometimes the Greatest Drama Is Offscreen

"Cinematic Immunity" offers a workers'-eye view of Hollywood on the Hudson, revealing the intricate dynamics of filmmaking in New York City from 1954 to 9/11.
Independent films
Toronto
fromwww.cbc.ca
1 month ago

These drawings of modern life are striking. But what's wrong with all the people? | CBC Arts

Simon Fuh's exhibition Cowboy Poet presents illustrated scenes of youthful misadventure rendered with blank-faced figures expressing apathy and detachment in response to chaos and absurdity.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Raymond Chandler and the Case of the Split Infinitive

Raymond Chandler clashed with The Atlantic's copy editor Margaret Mutch over her correction of a split infinitive, arguing that deliberate rule-breaking in language creates authentic, living prose.
Independent films
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

In "Kontinental '25," a Guilty Conscience Isn't Enough

A bailiff's tragic death leads to a futile self-flagellation campaign in Radu Jude's film 'Kontinental '25', inspired by Rossellini's 'Europe '51'.
fromThe Conversation
1 month ago

Today's obsession with authenticity isn't new - being true to yourself has troubled philosophers for centuries

All of us live in an age where we're bombarded by social media and artificial intelligence - when striving to be your authentic self becomes an increasingly difficult task. Yet, even if it has somehow become a common goal, it is unclear how many of us can truly define the "authenticity" that we say we are pursuing.
Philosophy
LGBT
fromQueerty
2 months ago

Teen angst, love & lust fuel this '90s indie from one of queer cinema's most provocative voices - Queerty

Gregg Araki's 1993 film Totally F***ed Up is revisited as Araki returns to Sundance with a new feature during the festival's final Park City edition.
fromPolygon
8 months ago

Time Flies when you're thinking about dying

So long as I manage to avoid lightbulbs or stay out of wine glasses, the buzzing will inevitably give way to silence. My wings will abruptly stop flapping and I'll careen towards the ground like an asteroid. I'll become a speck on a rug, a bit of debris absent-mindedly vacuumed up by someone who has no idea what adventures I've been on in the past minute.
Video games
Film
fromIndieWire
1 month ago

Indie Star Joe Swanberg Never Really Left - but He's Definitely Back Now

Joe Swanberg returns to feature filmmaking after nearly a decade with 'The Sun Never Sets,' a romantic triangle shot in Alaska starring Jake Johnson and Dakota Fanning.
Television
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 month ago

It's a trompe-l'il, it can't even turn you on': Have on-screen bodies become too unrealistic?

Despite increased sexual content in film and television, critics argue these portrayals lack genuine eroticism due to idealized bodies and choreographed encounters, potentially causing audience fatigue.
fromApaonline
1 month ago

Recently Published Book Spotlight: Anticolonialism, Ontology, and Semiotics: A Cinematic Exploration

Anticolonialism, Ontology, and Semiotics draws upon Africana anticolonial philosophy-especially the work of Frantz Fanon and two of his most influential interpreters, Eldridge Cleaver and Sylvia Wynter-to develop a basic analytical model for doing anticolonial political theory. I wanted to show that there is something distinctive, something special, to be found in this tradition of thought that has not been fully appreciated by philosophers and theorists in other fields.
Philosophy
Film
fromVulture
1 month ago

Paul Thomas Anderson Explains Himself (Kind Of)

Paul Thomas Anderson wrote One Battle After Another for his children to explore how his generation left the world for theirs, addressing complex character portrayals and generational themes.
Philosophy
fromThe Philosopher
2 months ago

On Being and Appearing: Social Reproduction and the Family Form

The family operates as the social form of appearance that conceals and shapes unwaged reproductive labour within capitalist value relations.
Books
fromSlate Magazine
2 months ago

Are We Just Recycling Old Stories, Ideas, and Styles?

21st-century culture is abundant and accessible but suffers an innovation deficit, leaving a "blank space" where original cultural creation should emerge.
Film
fromVulture
1 month ago

What Happens in the Mirror Universe Where Leo Chooses Boogie Nights

Leonardo DiCaprio's decision to star in Titanic instead of Boogie Nights was his biggest career regret, raising questions about how different both actors' trajectories would have been.
Arts
from48 hills
2 months ago

His suburban idylls teem with the 'uncanny magic of the exceptionally unexceptional' - 48 hills

Jonathan Crow’s American Realist paintings prioritize mood, composition, and color to evoke intuitive, music-like emotional responses that resist simple verbal definition.
#grief
Film
fromQueerty
1 month ago

Homoerotic or homophobic? This 50-year-old film explored repression & desire between two camp counselors - Queerty

The Best Way To Walk explores psychosexual tension between two adult summer camp counselors—a sensitive drama tutor and a repressed alpha male PE teacher—after the latter discovers the former cross-dressing.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Director of "Crime 101" on His Favorite Anti-Western Westerns

Several novels invert Western myths to portray disillusionment, vulnerability, failed heroism, and intimate self-discovery amid violence and harsh frontier realities.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Gus Van Sant: My assistant wanted to erect a statue of Luigi Mangione. My generation thought: this is murder'

Director Gus Van Sant dramatizes the 1977 Tony Kiritsis hostage crisis, a 63-hour standoff involving a shotgun wire attached to a hostage's head, in the film Dead Man's Wire.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

The Perverse, Tender Worlds of Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson uses meticulous sound design and minute details to explore control, narcissism, and power dynamics in intimate relationships within a 1950s London couture setting.
Film
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

The Cinema of Societal Collapse

Oscar-nominated international films explore survival and resistance under authoritarian regimes, depicting both specific historical tyranny and speculative global oppression.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

People feel like they're in on the joke': the new wave of pseudo-biopics

Filmmakers increasingly create pseudo-biopics that borrow recognizable elements from real people and events while changing names and details to avoid legal liability and maintain creative freedom.
Film
fromInsideHook
2 months ago

In Defense of Movie Sex Scenes

Onscreen sex scenes can be narratively essential but are often gratuitous, harmful, or disruptive when objectifying participants, reinforcing stereotypes, or damaging a film's flow.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Nonprofessional Actors Are the Heart of the Movies

This year's Oscar contenders feature nonprofessional actors alongside established performers, creating authentic performances that distinguish these films in the new casting achievement category.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was never a love story. It was a warning

Memory-erasure technology fails, exposing the limits of control and moral consequences, framing Eternal Sunshine more as hard science fiction than a simple tender love story.
Film
fromThe Independent
2 months ago

David Lynch, the visionary artist who made films no one else could

David Lynch redefined visual storytelling by blending suburban normality with surreal, often violent undercurrents, creating a uniquely indefinable 'Lynchian' cinematic language.
Film
fromVulture
2 months ago

Why Are So Many Movies About Kidnappings Right Now?

Contemporary hostage films use captivity to interrogate power imbalances, allowing marginalized figures to confront untouchable elites and reflect wider social anxieties.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

This fun thriller does the impossible: it makes you feel sorry for influencers (yes, really)

A coldly clever thriller where a charismatic killer murders influencers and steals their social media identities, exposing loneliness and performative online lives.
Film
fromInverse
2 months ago

'Zi' Is An Existential Dream Wrapped In A Time-Travel Movie

Zi follows a grieving Hong Kong woman who experiences visions of her future self, blending dreamy existential sci‑fi with minimal plot and striking imagery.
fromFilmmaker Magazine
2 months ago

"The Psychological Horror of Being a 13-Year-Old": Charlie Polinger on The Plague

After spotting that Eli's rash guard conceals a red, flaky skin disorder, the boys have concluded that he has the titular plague, a contagious disease that affects social standing as much as it does dermatological well-being. If anyone ever touches him, they must thoroughly wash themselves before they're considered full-blown infected. Even something as innocent as Eli sitting at the same lunch table sends his teammates running and screaming.
Film
Film
fromIndieWire
2 months ago

Highlighted by Nicole Holofcener, the Sundance Episodic Series Refuse to Judge How We Live in 2026

Sundance's final Park City edition combined nostalgia with urgent political protest while episodic premieres emphasized present-day human resilience and everyday survival.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Grim reapers: what has fertilised the rich new wave of neo-rural noir?

European neo-rural cinema depicts collisions between tradition and modernity in the countryside and portrays nature, not locals, as the primary source of threat.
Film
fromThe Independent
2 months ago

Little Rascals star who left Hollywood says he is now a 'radical Catholic extremist'

Bug Hall left Hollywood in 2020, embraced off-grid living, took a vow of poverty, and identifies as a 'radical Catholic extremist'.
Film
fromAnOther
2 months ago

How Richard Linklater Recreated the Magic of The French New Wave

Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague meticulously recreates 1959 French New Wave filmmakers, celebrating Cahiers du Cinéma's community with detailed casting, sets, and emotional authenticity.
Film
fromFuturism
1 month ago

Hollywood Is Lying to Everyone About How Much AI They're Using, Says Consummate Hollywood Insider

Hollywood studios are using AI more widely across writing and production than they publicly acknowledge.
fromFilmmaker Magazine
2 months ago

"It's Like Funny Ordinary People": Jay Duplass on See You When I See You

I was a struggling filmmaker. I was trying to find myself and it wasn't happening. I was ready to give up on filmmaking as I was about to turn 30. I didn't feel like I could do this to myself, my family and friends any longer. I was living in South Austin making the minimum amount of money, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and making bad art. But then Sundance gave me my career with this $3 short film that we submitted to the festival on a lark.
Film
Film
fromQueerty
2 months ago

WATCH: Hope emerges through love (& in-the-buff modeling) in intimate indie drama Surfacing - Queerty

Surfacing follows a depressed, pill-addicted man whose recovery deepens as blurred therapeutic boundaries and new relationships compel him to open his heart.
fromThe Independent
1 month ago

17 great movies ruined by terrible endings

10 Cloverfield Lane Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr are locked in an underground bunker for the majority of this left-field sequel to Cloverfield, with thrilling results. In the film's final throes, Winstead's character exits the bunker, and finds that her captor was telling the truth about an alien invasion above - a twist that completely and ruinously dissipates the hard-earned tension that came before.
Film
Film
fromDefector
2 months ago

Where Is Cinema?: An Interview With A.S. Hamrah | Defector

Rigorous film criticism remains vital, chronicling cinema's degradation while defending independent and underground filmmaking against industrial consolidation and technological homogenization.
Film
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Gus Van Sant talks about his new movie, 'Dead Man's Wire,' based on a true story

Dead Man's Wire dramatizes Tony Kiritsis's 1977 63-hour hostage standoff over a disputed mortgage.
Film
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

Werner Herzog Between Fact and Fiction

Werner Herzog pursues 'ecstatic truth' through cinema, blending documentary reality with fabrication to capture profound human experiences beyond conventional articulation.
Film
fromKqed
3 months ago

'Dead Man's Wire' Is a Retro Thriller That's Pertinent to the Present

Dead Man's Wire channels Dog Day Afternoon's righteous rage and contemporary echoes, propelled by Bill Skarsgård's intense performance and critique of media spectacle and capitalism.
fromQueerty
2 months ago

Queer desire becomes the ultimate horror in Sundance's most terrifying LGBTQ+ breakout hit Leviticus - Queerty

For as much as gays love their horror, and as many examples there are of the genre finding its haunting power through queer metaphor (from the scary subtleties of Psycho to the screamingly obvious A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge), there are relatively few mainstream horror films that actually tackle LGBTQ+ themes head-on. However, after a rapturous reception at the Sundance Film Festival, Australian supernatural fright flick Leviticus was quickly picked up for theatrical release by Neon and might just be the " queer horror masterpiece " we've been waiting for.
Film
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