Sarah Fensom

Jan 13, 2025 | filmcomment.com | Chris Shields |Sarah Fensom

This article appeared in the January 10, 2025 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Sign up for the Letter here. Cutter’s Way (Ivan Passer, 1981)In 2024, Best Buy, the ubiquitous big-box consumer technology retailer, began phasing out DVDs and Blu-rays from its stores.

Mar 4, 2024 | filmcomment.com | Sarah Fensom

This article appeared in the March 1, 2024 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Sign up for the Letter here. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2024)Samet (Deniz Celiloğlu) is biding his time. The protagonist of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s engrossing drama About Dry Grasses is a school teacher who has been waiting for a transfer from a remote Anatolian village to Istanbul for four years.

May 19, 2023 | bfi.org.uk | Sarah Fensom

Amanda Kim’s documentary about the polyglot Korean video and performance artist Nam June Paik is filled with impressive archive footage, but its conventional format could have done with a bit more of Paik’s avant garde spirit. 19 May 2023By Sarah FensomNam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV (2023) © Courtesy of Dogwoof FilmsSign up for Sight & Sound’s Weekly Film Bulletin and moreNews, reviews and archive features every Friday, and information about our latest magazine once a month.

May 8, 2023 | filmcomment.com | Sarah Fensom

This article appeared in the May 4, 2023 edition of The Film Comment Letter, our free weekly newsletter featuring original film criticism and writing. Sign up for the Letter here. Invocation (Amy Halpern, 1982)In Amy Halpern’s silent short Invocation (1982), two disembodied hands are surrounded by darkness. Just barely illuminated by a warm, honey-hued light, they pull and prod at the air in curvilinear motions that suggest the presence of an invisible orb.