The 64th edition of the New York Film Festival strikes me as its strongest in ages. I have no doubt that many critics and festival observers will agree with this, and no doubt various theories will be adduced to explain it. I recently heard a critic…

In 1966, photographer Barry Lategan scheduled a test shoot: a model’s first-ever photo shoot, meant to market her to other photographers and brands. That model was 15-year-old Leslie Hornby, a slim, boyish girl with a pixie cut and penciled lashes,…

It is rare to see a perfect film, let alone two back-to-back, but that is precisely what happened to me on the same day recently at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Both films were documentaries, which in this day and age can be as…