The Film Comment Podcast

On this week's episode, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited FC Contributing Editor Inney Prakash and Assistant Editor Michael Blair to debate three new films that are currently gracing the marquees of multiplexes and stirring up discourse: Bassam Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (2:30); Alejandro González Iñárritu's Digger (16:35); and Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's You Can See Everything (27:12).Subscribe to Film Comment today to explore our Fall 2026 digital issue, the entirety of our archive dating back to 1962, and much more.

Several films—both old and new—across this year’s NYFF lineup push the boundaries of depictions of sensuality and desire on screen, posing provocative questions for the current cinema landscape, where sex has become a divisive subject.Last Tuesday at the festival, filmmaker and scholar Ayanna Dozier and Film Comment Contributing Editor Melissa Anderson joined Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute to explore films like Nitrate Kisses, The Devils, The Drift, The Unknown, and others to discuss what thrills and terrifies us about sexuality on screen.Subscribe to Film Comment to explore our brand-new Fall 2026 digital issue, the entirety of our archive dating back to 1962, and much more.

This week and next, we're handing over The Film Comment Podcast to the participants of the 2026 Film at Lincoln Center Critics Academy—an annual program for up-and-coming critics held during the New York Film Festival, led by Film Comment editors. For this week's episode, four of this year’s critics—Yezen Saadah, Kathy Ou, Samuel Brodsky, and Rebecca Turner—discuss some of their highlights from the shorts screening as part of NYFF’s Currents Program 5: The Material Ghost, including Peggy Ahwesh’s The Wayfinders, Adam Piron’s The Flesh of the Mountain, and Kevin Jerome Everson’s National Seating.Subscribe to Film Comment to explore our brand-new Fall 2026 digital issue, the entirety of our archive dating back to 1962, and much more.

Listeners might know John Early as a very funny comedian and actor—but last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, John debuted a new role: an auteur. His first feature, Maddie’s Secret, takes cues from TV movies, PSAs, erotic thrillers, internet videos, Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, and more to craft a movie that, despite all these influences and parodic touches, feels wonderfully original and earnest. Early plays the titular Maddie, a food influencer who struggles with bulimia, with sincere commitment, somehow walking the tightrope between campy, laugh-out-loud wit and a profound empathy. Maddie’s Secret opens in cinemas on June 19. Keep your ears open for Part 2 of this conversation, which will be dropping soon as an exclusive for Film Comment subscribers.

Cannes 2026 wrapped this past weekend, but the Film Comment crew has not slowed down one bit as we continue to cut through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more.For our final Podcast from the Croisette, FC Editor Devika Girish gathered three of our favorite critics—Justin Chang (The New Yorker), Tim Grierson (Screen International), and Jessica Kiang (Variety)—to unpack the festival's final days. The group discussed three late-premiering Competition titles: Valeska Grisebach's Jury Prize–winning The Dreamed Adventure (4:00), Léa Mysius's The Birthday Party (21:58), and Lukas Dhont's Coward (35:09)—before turning to Ken Russell's newly restored The Devils (1971) (50:15), which screened in the Cannes Classics section.Subscribe today to Film Comment to stay up-to-date with all of our Cannes 2026 coverage.

Cannes 2026 is in full swing and the Film Comment crew is on the ground, cutting through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more. This year’s edition is packed with highly anticipated premieres from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Valeska Grisebach, James Gray, Paweł Pawlikowski, and many more acclaimed filmmakers.For our sixth Podcast from the sun-dappled shores of the French Riviera, Sight and Sound's Isabel Stevens and scholar Neta Alexander join FC Editor Devika Girish to share their responses to two Competition titles that are sure to generate lots of chatter: Cristian Mungiu's legal thriller Fjord (3:15) and Pedro Almodóvar's self-reflexive drama Bitter Christmas (19:25). Next, they turn to two highlights from the festival's other sections: Austrian director Sandra Wollner's Everytime (26:00), which premiered as part of Un Certain Regard, and Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor's La perra (32:50), a selection in the Directors' Fortnight program.Subscribe today to Film Comment to stay up-to-date with all of our Cannes 2026 coverage.

Cannes 2026 is in full swing, and the Film Comment crew is on the ground, ready to cut through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more. This year’s edition is packed with highly anticipated premieres from Pedro Almodóvar, Valeska Grisebach, James Gray, Paweł Pawlikowski, and many more acclaimed filmmakers.For our fourth Podcast from the Croisette, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critic Öykü Sofuoğlu as well as FC Contributing Editor and Asia Society programmer Inney Prakash to debate their reactions to Clarissa (3:18), Arie and Chuko Esiri's Mrs Dalloway adaptation set in contemporary Lagos; Sheep in the Box (18:50), Hirokazu Kore-eda's parable about the dangers of AI; and Hope (33:09), Na Hong-jin's high-throttle monster movie.Subscribe today to Film Comment to stay up-to-date with all of our Cannes 2026 coverage.

Cannes 2026 has arrived, and the Film Comment crew is on the ground, ready to cut through the noise with dispatches, interviews, Podcasts, a special Cannes Critics’ Grid, and much more. This year's edition is packed with highly anticipated premieres from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Valeska Grisebach, James Gray, Paweł Pawlikowski, and many more acclaimed filmmakers.On the second of our daily Podcasts from the Croisette, critics Katie McCabe (Sight and Sound) and Alison Willmore (New York, Vulture) join FC editor Devika Girish to talk over their recent festival viewing. They begin with Pawlikowski’s highly anticipated Fatherland (3:20), before moving to Kôji Fukada’s subtle Nagi Notes (11:30), Asghar Farhadi’s surprisingly soapy Parallel Tales (19:56), and Maxence Voiseux’s documentary Gabin (27:30) before wrapping up by revisiting Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (31:52). Subscribe today to Film Comment to stay up-to-date with all of our Cannes 2026 coverage.