Vinegar Syndrome/Dark Star Pictures: SAPIOSEXUAL + TABOO: FAMILY SECRETS
Essay featured in blu ray debut of a double feature from filmmaker Deborah Twiss.
Letterboxd: Power Couples - HELLRAISER
Celebrating Valentine’s Day with Julia and Frank from Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER
Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe: FEMALE PERVERSIONS
Essay featured in the first-ever blu ray release of Tilda Swinton’s American feature debut.
Letterboxd: The 2024 Naughty List
As a little treat for surviving another year, Kate Hagen returns with the second installment of The Naughty List, highlighting the very best cinematic sex stories of 2024, from ménage à tennis and babygirls to hot monsters, bulging biceps and more.
Letterboxd: Where The Heart Is: The Communal, Nourishing strength of STEEL MAGNOLIAS at 35
On the transcendent power of STEEL MAGNOLIAS at 35 for Letterboxd
Letterboxd: The 2023 Naughty List
Another year of sex-scene discourse, another year of slim pickings at the cinema. From furious jumping to consent conversations, Kate Hagen selects the best of 2023’s mainstream offerings.
Bong Joon-ho on PARASITE
Bong Joon-ho’s films defy all conventional cinematic classification: Throughout the complex narratives of films like MOTHER, THE HOST, and SNOWPIERCER, Bong takes his audience on a journey that encompasses every possible human emotion within a hundred or so minutes. But Bong’s latest film, the Palme d’Or-winning PARASITE, might be his most accessible, acclaimed work yet.
Beyond Words 2023 at the WGA Theater
Celebrating some of 2023’s best screenwriting! Kate moderated a conversation featuring Todd Field (TÁR), Daniel Kwan + Daniel Scheinert (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE), and Seth Reiss (THE MENU) at the WGA Theater in February 2023.
Essential Video Stores: Celebrating Thirty Years of Scarecrow Video
When searching for the Last Great Video Store, all roads eventually lead to Seattle’s Scarecrow Video. Their massive home media collection is the largest in the world, with over 131,000 titles available for rental — that’s about forty-four times as many movies as are currently streaming on Netflix.
Letterboxd: Fat Girls on Film
When Kate Hagen’s mission to curate a cinematic canon for fat girls came up short, she searched out films that best transcend ‘fat girl’ tropes, and suggests how Hollywood can serve an audience neglected by decades of poorly drawn caricatures.
Sexual Violence in Spec Screenplays
I’ll never forget the worst script I’ve ever read. It came across my desk while reading for the Black List in the fall of 2013, and was classified as a comedy. It was a coming-of-age story about a young woman with dreams of stand-up stardom. It also had eight rape scenes in it, described a ten-year old girl as “teasing like a stripper,” featured multiple scenes of child abuse, torture, and incest, and blamed the multitude of abuses suffered by its heroine on her inability to wear underwear. I’ll remind you again that this script was classified as a comedy by its own (male) writer.
Letterboxd: Crushed at the Movies
For Valentine’s Day, the Letterboxd crew reminisce on ten of our worst dates at the movies, from foot lotion mishaps to foot-long sandwich calamities, and wonder what kind of film could survive an awkward debut outing.
Noemie Merlant + Celine Sciamma on PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
My favorite movie-going experience in 2019 may have been seeing Céline Sciamma’s exquisite PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE at the 105-year old Prytania Theatre in New Orleans as a part of the New Orleans Film Festival. Being in an ancient theater only added to my immersion in the film’s sumptuous, sensual world, created by Sciamma and her incredible lead actresses, Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. I spoke to Merlant and Sciamma about how they built a welcoming atmosphere on set, the power of the female gaze in narrative, secrets in cinema, and much more.
Letterboxd: Favorite Horror Performances—Ashley Judd in BUG
As spooky season officially begins, the Letterboxd crew (with a little help from some filmmaker friends) scares up twenty-plus of our favorite horror performances—from Shelley Duvall and Claude Rains to Nicole Kidman and Snoop Dogg.
31 Days of Feminist Horror Films on The Black List Blog
Thoughts on more than 75 films, including CARRIE, SUSPIRIA, RAW, MS. 45, THE LURE, GINGER SNAPS, VARIETY, NEAR DARK, CAT PEOPLE…
Martin McDonagh on THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Filmmaker and playwright Martin McDonagh brings THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI — a searing study 2017 America starring Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell — to cinemas today. THREE BILLBOARDS (which took home the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Best Screenplay award at Venice) follows McDonagh’s Oscar-winning short SIX SHOOTER, the Oscar-nominated IN BRUGES, and SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS. We joined McDonagh and other journalists for a roundtable discussion of THREE BILLBOARDS, his collaborative process, Frances McDormand’s power, and what he’s up to next.
Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe: LITTLE DARLINGS, The Great American Teen Movie
Essay featured in the first-ever disc, blu ray release of LITTLE DARLINGS.
Movie Madness: Beyond Nostalgia
An essay for the 30th anniversary of Movie Madness, Portland's landmark video store, now featured in a lovely book about the store’s history.
Essential Video Stores: Beyond Video
Whether it’s the cinematic delights of John Waters, the “peak TV” era as defined by shows like HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET or THE WIRE, or the sonic thunder created by artists like Beach House and Dan Deacon, Baltimore, Maryland has long been an epicenter for transgressive, thrilling art that pushes the cultural conversation in America forward. So, when I began my journey to search for the Last Great Video Store last spring, I wasn’t surprised to learn that a new model of the Great American Video Store had sprung forth from one of the greatest American cities.
The 2020 Academy Awards
Once upon a time in Sharonville, Ohio, a girl sat on her living room floor, awake way past bedtime and surrounded by Barbies in their sparkliest evening gowns, enraptured by the spectacle of something called The Academy Awards…