Justin Chang

Pasadena

Film Critic, @NewYorker and @nprfreshair | 2024 @PulitzerPrizes Winner, Criticism | Chair, @NatSocFilmCrix | Secretary, @LAFilmCritics | Programmer, @TheNYFF

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Articles

Jafar Panahi’s Cannes Triumph Sends a Warning to Authoritarians Everywhere

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

When “It Was Just an Accident,” a new movie from the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, on Saturday, Panahi responded in a way that I’ve never seen from a winning filmmaker. As the audience inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière erupted in applause and leaped to their feet, Panahi, in sunglasses, remained in his seat and crowed his elation to the skies.
All the Films in Competition at Cannes 2025, Ranked from Best to Worst

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

When the competition program of the seventy-eighth Cannes Film Festival was announced several weeks ago, I wasn’t alone in predicting that the Iranian director Jafar Panahi would win the Palme d’Or, the event’s highest honor, for his new film, “It Was Just an Accident.” When I saw the film in Cannes last week, I felt more certain than ever.
“Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning” Goes Hard on Valediction

2 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

“Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” has a running time of just under three hours. Within those three hours, alas, I’d say that Tom Cruise has a running time of only a minute or two. For those of us who’ve grown fond of Cruise the cardio demon, this is dispiriting news: what a letdown after “Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol” (2011), in which he raced heroically through the blinding fury of a Dubai sandstorm.
A New Wave of Cinematic Riches Arrives at Cannes

2 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

“When will this fucking movie be over with?” It’s a question that surfaces often at the Cannes Film Festival, where hour blurs into hour, movie bleeds into movie, and, by day nine or so, even a good picture can take on the quality of an endurance test. Seldom, though, do you hear an onscreen character actually express the sentiment aloud.
A Queasy Comedy About Male Loneliness

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

Are men O.K.? What a new buddy comedy co-starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, a king of the genre, tells us about the age of male isolation. Plus:• Susan B. Glasser on Trump’s home away from home• Morgan Wallen goes back to God’s country• Building drones—for the children? Justin ChangChang is a film critic for the magazine.
'Caught by the Tides' turns discarded documentary scraps into a remarkable drama

3 weeks ago | nhpr.org | Justin Chang

During the pandemic, the Chinese director Jia Zhangke, like many of us, had a lot of time on his hands. He began sifting through a personal archive consisting of footage that he had shot since 2001. He ended up weaving much of this footage — some of which we've seen before — into a gorgeous and lyrical feature, called Caught by the Tides.
“Caught by the Tides” Is a Gorgeous Vision of Loss and Renewal

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

Early on in Jia Zhangke’s “Caught by the Tides,” a woman in her twenties, Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao), tries to escape her boyfriend, Guo Bin (Li Zhubin). Lord, how she tries. It’s 2001, and the two are alone on a bus, parked somewhere in Datong, a coal-mining city in northern China. Whenever Qiaoqiao tries to get up and bolt for the exit, Bin hurls her back down into her seat—up and down, up and down, eleven times in a row, until Qiaoqiao, in tears, finally breaks free on the twelfth attempt.
'The Shrouds' introduces a new stage of grief: Watching your loved one decompose

1 month ago | capradio.org | Justin Chang

When The Shrouds premiered at film festivals last year, David Cronenberg described it as his most personal work — a deeply felt response to the death of his longtime wife, from cancer in 2017. The movie is about a man named Karsh, who lost his wife, Rebecca, to cancer four years earlier. That's not the only similarity.
“April” Is an Unflinching Portrait of a Doctor’s Fight for Reproductive Justice

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Justin Chang

Before watching “April,” the new movie from the Georgian director and screenwriter Dea Kulumbegashvili, I had seen only one other fictional film that featured a real childbirth. It was “Staying Vertical” (2016), from the French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, and although the movie was thoroughly steeped in the absurd, the birth was filmed in a single take that left no doubt about its authenticity.
'The Shrouds' introduces a new stage of grief: Watching your loved one decompose

1 month ago | kuow.org | Justin Chang

In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel plays a widower who uses technology to monitor the remains of his dead wife. Janus Films When The Shrouds premiered at film festivals last year, David Cronenberg described it as his most personal work — a deeply felt response to the death of his longtime wife, from cancer in 2017. The movie is about a man named Karsh, who lost his wife, Rebecca, to cancer four years earlier. That's not the only similarity.