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Moulin Rouge! (20th Century Fox)
Main Category

Come to the Moulin Rouge! where artifice reveals authenticity

Baz Luhrmann’s mashup musical piles on the spectacle on its way to embracing true love.

I Think You Should Leave (Netflix)
Main Category

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson makes us stay a little longer with sketch comedy gold

Season 3 may not be as consistent, but it still brings plenty of hilariously weird and uncomfortable situations.

The Purge (Universal Pictures)
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A decade on, The Purge series is more frightening than ever

The dystopian portrait of the United States now feels ironically naïve, a reality that makes it more deeply unnerving than when it first hit theatres.

Succession
Main Category

Succession ends as it should, with no one happy

One of the best series of the 20s closes on a realistically somber note, where even winning feels like losing.

Kandahar
Main Category

Kandahar takes a shot it doesn’t quite land

Gerard Butler’s CIA-agent-on-the-run thriller aims to be more than a power fantasy, but for all its virtues, it doesn’t stick that landing. There’s an expected..

Main Category

Traversing Baz Lurhmann’s sonic landscapes

Even when he’s not making musical movies, the Aussie auteur’s movies are always musical.

MOVIES

Moulin Rouge! (20th Century Fox)C
Main Category
Tim Stevens

Come to the Moulin Rouge! where artifice reveals authenticity

Baz Luhrmann’s mashup musical piles on the spectacle on its way to embracing true love.
The Purge (Universal Pictures)A
Main Category
Sarah Gorr

A decade on, The Purge series is more frightening than ever

The dystopian portrait of the United States now feels ironically naïve, a reality that makes it more deeply unnerving than when it first hit theatres.
KandaharK
Main Category
Michael Snydel

Kandahar takes a shot it doesn’t quite land

Gerard Butler’s CIA-agent-on-the-run thriller aims to be more than a power fantasy, but for all its virtues, it doesn’t stick that landing. There’s an expected..
T
Main Category
Shannon Campe

Traversing Baz Lurhmann’s sonic landscapes

Even when he's not making musical movies, the Aussie auteur's movies are always musical.
Sprout CCFF Short FilmsC
Main Category
B.L. Panther

CCFF 2023 Shorts Dispatch: Sèt Lam, Troy, & more

CCFF's second short of shorts explores humanity's need for community.
The BoogeymanT
Main Category
Gena Radcliffe

The Boogeyman offers some tame but effective scares

Though it strays far from its source material, Rob Savage's newest film manages to tap into the primal fear of the monster in the closet

FILMMAKER OF THE MONTH

Moulin Rouge! (20th Century Fox)C
Main Category

Come to the Moulin Rouge! where artifice reveals authenticity

Baz Luhrmann’s mashup musical piles on the spectacle on its way to embracing true love.
T
Main Category

Traversing Baz Lurhmann’s sonic landscapes

Even when he's not making musical movies, the Aussie auteur's movies are always musical.
Strictly BallroomS
Main Category

Strictly Ballroom introduces Luhrmann with stunning, messy style

Baz Luhrmann's 1992 feature debut boasts stunning dancing, intriguing ideas, and muddled storytelling.

RIGHT ON CUE

A
Main Category
May 26, 2023

Ariel Marx on the intimate tensions of A Small Light and Sanctuary

The composer and multi-instrumentalist breaks down her latest scores for the Nat Geo drama and the dark, steamy NEON rom-com.
LISTEN
Filmmaker of the Month: Baz Luhrmann

FEATURES

DVD Blu-ray Releases MayW
May 21, 2023
Alonso Duralde

What’s New on DVD/Blu-ray in May: Knock at the Cabin, Petite Maman, and More

Shyamalan's latest and a couple of Criterions about female bonds at different ages highlight this month's new physical media releases.
Ariel Marx, A Small LightL
May 18, 2023
Clint Worthington

Listen to an exclusive three-track sampler of the score for “A Small Light”

We premiere exclusive tracks from Ariel Marx's intriguing, eclectic score to the Holocaust drama.
Romeo + JulietT
May 14, 2023
Gena Radcliffe

Two inimitable performances anchor Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann’s hyper-stylized take on Shakespeare makes some odd choices, but not in the casting of some of its key characters
Makoto Shinkai - Voices of a Distant StarT
May 14, 2023
Michael Guarnieri

Talking Makoto Shinkai: She and Her Cat and Voices of a Distant Star

The first in a series of conversations about the acclaimed animator and his work, starting with the short films that made his name.
FOTM Baz Luhrmann BannerF
May 8, 2023
Justin Harrison

Filmmaker of the Month: Baz Luhrmann

Australia's wild blockbuster king claims May as The Spool's Filmmaker of the Month. Join us all you, Children of the Revolution!

TV

I Think You Should Leave (Netflix)I
Main Category
Sean Price

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson makes us stay a little longer with sketch comedy gold

Season 3 may not be as consistent, but it still brings plenty of hilariously weird and uncomfortable situations.
SuccessionS
Main Category
Sean Price

Succession ends as it should, with no one happy

One of the best series of the 20s closes on a realistically somber note, where even winning feels like losing.
Mulligan (Netflix)M
Main Category
Ashley Lara

Mulligan stumbles but eventually finds the funny in a post-apocalyptic Earth

Netflix’s new animated comedy has some growing pains, but improves as it goes.
Platonic (AppleTV+)K
Main Category
Tim Stevens

Keeping it Platonic and chaotic

Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen reteam for a fun, but uneven AppleTV+ series about friends who may bring out the worst in each other. NOW..
Ted Lasso Mom City (AppleTV+)M
Main Category
Tim Stevens

Meet Ted Lasso’s mom and understand the man

"Mom City" shows how the mother is also the father of the man when it comes to Ted and Jamie.
SuccessionL
Main Category
Sean Price

Logan is sent off in typical Roy fashion in “Church and State”

Shiv & Kendall are still making deals while Roman falls apart as they bid their father a complicated farewell in the penultimate episode of Succession.
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FILMMAKER OF THE MONTH

Old (Universal)L
March 2, 2023
Manish Mathur

Life comes at you fast in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old

The writer-director makes a horror film a metaphor for parenting with surprisingly resonant results.
ServantS
February 28, 2023
Beau North

Servant haunts through its isolating setting and stupendous cast

M. Night Shyamalan produces an idiosyncratic ghost story whose reality is far from settled.
GlassG
February 27, 2023
Michael Guarnieri

Glass shatters the modern superheroic mode to moving effect

M. Night Shyamalan closes the Eastrail 117 trilogy with a deliberate anticlimax and deep empathy in place of spectacle, and the results are striking.
SplitS
February 26, 2023
Gena Radcliffe

Split saw Shyamalan give James McAvoy the roles of a lifetime

McAvoy approaches the superpowered Kevin Wendell Crumb and his alters with care and empathy, overcoming sketchy psychology.
The VisitT
February 26, 2023
Josephine Maria Yanasak-Leszczynski

The Visit was a Pennsylvania homecoming for M. Night Shyamalan

After a series of disappointments, Shyamalan went back to his beginnings with a PA-set thriller that is as concerned with its cameras as it is with its characters.
The Happening (20th Century Fox)T
February 24, 2023
Sean Price

The Happening is a disaster worthy of love

Shyamalan’s eco-horror misfire almost ended his career, but 15 years later, the film comes off more as a goofy cult classic than box office bomb.