For more than two decades, Melissa Anderson has been one of New York City’s most important film critics—and one of Film Comment’s favorite writers. From her start as a freelancer in the 2000s, through her editorships at Time Out, The Village Voice, and most recently 4Columns, she has regaled readers with her peerless wit, her attunement to desire, especially queer desire, and her facility for writing about actors. A new book published by The Film Desk—evocatively titled The Hunger: Film Writing, 2012–2024—offers an invaluable compilation of Melissa’s writing. 

Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited Melissa on this week’s episode to talk about her formative experiences of film and film criticism, her development as a writer and editor, and the genesis of this new collection.

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On October 30 of last year, we lost one of cinema’s most daring auteurs: the British director Peter Watkins. Starting out in television in the 1960s, Watkins developed an utterly unique and militantly political mode of filmmaking. In works like Culloden (1964), The War Game (1966), Punishment Park (1971), and his magnum opus, La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000), he cast nonprofessional actors in enactments of political events from the past, present, or a dystopian future, which he then shot in the style of live news reporting on TV. The results are thrilling films that startle with their naturalism and urgency, and provoke thorny questions about authoritarianism—not just of the state, but also of the media. 

To commemorate this great filmmaker’s legacy, Film Comment editor Devika Girish invited critic J. Hoberman, who has not only admired and written about Watkins’s work, but also took a class with the man himself back in the 1970s. They talk about the trajectory of Watkins’s life and work, what makes his films feel so singular even today, and the contemporary directors that carry forward his legacy.

It’s that time of year again: the Academy Awards are just around the corner. In anticipation of the winners being revealed this Sunday, Devika and Clint teamed up with some colleagues from Tinseltown—the writers and editors of the Los Angeles Review of Books—to scrutinize this year’s nominees. The publication’s Editor-at-Large Eric Newman, Senior Humanities Editor Annie Berke, and Contributor Elizabeth Alsop joined for a special collaboration with their podcast, the LARB Radio Hour. The group debated the relative merits and shortcomings of this year’s Best Picture contenders—from Sinners to The Secret Agent to F1—and also discussed trends, surprises, and snubs.