Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Black Bag and the pleasures of Soderbergh's thrillers for grownups
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Hello Reader, It’s not very often that we get a movie for adults that’s smart and fun and screening theatrically. But Steven Soderbergh’s London-set spy thriller Black Bag fits this bill and opened in North American cinemas last weekend. The film features major stars like Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, who play the married couple around whose relationship the film pivots, and major lesser-known talents like Tom Burke and Naomie Harris in key supporting roles. As a card-carrying Soderbergh fan for 25 years — if you met me when I was 15, you might have gotten a dissertation on his entire filmography — Black Bag has so much of what I love in Soderbergh's films. And I say this as someone who wasn't a big fan of his last two films, Presence or Kimi! Episode 164: Steven Soderbergh's Black BagToday on the podcast, I talk about why I recommend Black Bag (it's fun! and smart!) and what has kept me watching every new Soderbergh film for two decades, even though not all of them hit. Happy watching/listening! Alex
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Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Hello Reader, Earlier this week, I sent out a note about how most of us haven't seen as many films from Africa as we have from any other country... ...but I only briefly mentioned why that's the case. It's not because we're bad international movie lovers. It concerns how the film industry works, how African films go from festival circuit to arthouse cinemas to VOD, and how movies make it onto our radar. Episode 170: Why is it so hard to see African films? So today on the podcast, I go deep...
Hello Reader, Hit reply to let me know where you sit on Cronenberg (including, who on earth is Cronenberg anyway?)! As I talk about on today's podcast on Cronenberg's The Shrouds, I started out as a Cronenberg skeptic. What had trickled down to me about Cronenberg was that he made horror movies, often body horror movies, often about psycho-sexual things. Although I've liked plenty of films that fit into each of these categories, none of them are my go-to favourite genres. I pretty much...
Hello Reader, Last weekend, I went to see Andrew Ahn's new film The Wedding Banquet (2025) which updates and reimagines Ang Lee's 1993 queer classic for a 2025 audience. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical. Much as I liked Lee's film and Ahn's feature debut Spa Night, I wondered...do we really need to revive this rather dated story 30 years later? But I went to see it because, if nothing else, I will watch anything with Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon, Certain Women, and Lockdown...