Author: Grace Cogan
-
“Project Hail Mary” will Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!
There’s a particular kind of science fiction that trusts you. Not the kind that stops the movie every twenty minutes to hand you a glossy explainer, but the kind that assumes you’re smart enough to sit with a problem, follow a mind at work, and feel the wonder of genuine discovery. Project Hail Mary, directed…
-
The Religion of Baseball in “Field of Dreams”
There is a moment near the end of Field of Dreams that undoes me completely, every single time. It is not the catch — though the catch will finish the job. It is Moonlight Graham walking off the field. Doc Graham has just stepped across the white chalk line to save young Karen Kinsella from…
-
The Academy’s Century: “Cimarron” (1931)
In a year following All Quiet on the Western Front, it makes complete sense that Cimarron was the next Best Picture winner. Aside from some interesting performances, primarily by Richard Dix, and some truly remarkable riding and action sequences, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching a prolonged episode of Bonanza. The story…
-
The Academy’s Century: “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930)
To understand what All Quiet on the Western Front meant in 1930 — and what it still means — you have to understand the climate in which it arrived. The Academy Awards were, at that point, barely more than a novelty. The third ceremony, honoring films from 1929 and 1930, was a different beast from…
-
“The Candidate” (1972) asks American audiences “What do we do now?”
There is a scene about two-thirds of the way through The Candidate in which Bill McKay, California senatorial hopeful and reluctant celebrity, sits alone in the back of a moving car and rehearses the stump speech he has given a thousand times. He recites his positions on housing, healthcare, and the environment the way a…
-
The Academy’s Century: “The Broadway Melody” (1929)
The second Academy Awards ceremony, held in April 1930, was a quieter, more perfunctory affair than even its already modest inaugural predecessor. The Academy was still working out what it was for, what it was rewarding, and why anyone should care. Somewhere in that institutional uncertainty, The Broadway Melody slipped through — the first sound…
-
The 98th Academy Awards: On Cinema, History, and the Improbable Luck of Being Here
There is a version of this piece that opens with a complaint. A lament about the speeches getting cut off, about a bit that went nowhere, about Sean Penn winning an acting prize for playing a racist and not bothering to show up. That version exists. But I don’t think it is the right one,…
-
Shaking Into Song: “The Testament of Ann Lee” (2025)
There is a moment roughly midway through The Testament of Ann Lee when Amanda Seyfried, playing the titular role, locked in close-up, opens her mouth and sings. The camera does not cut away. It does not search the room for reaction shots or retreat to a respectful medium shot. It simply stays, for what feels…
-
The Academy’s Century: “Wings” (1927)
There is a peculiar injustice that history has visited upon Wings. The film is well-documented, widely available, yet it lives in the shadow of a movie it technically predates. Wings premiered in New York in August 1927, two months before The Jazz Singer arrived in October like a thunderclap and rendered almost everything that preceded…
-
“The Secret Agent” is the Strangest Best Picture Nominee in Years
There is a genuinely great film buried somewhere inside The Secret Agent — you can feel it most acutely in its opening hour, which crackles with the kind of lean, paranoid energy that recalls the best American thrillers of the 1970s. The setup is nothing short of genius. Armando, played by Wagner Moura, is an…
Show Me Cinema 