Phil on Film Index

Sight & Sound

May 2021 I reviewed the book Robert De Niro at Work, a study of the actor's craft through the notes he has made on his screenplays over the years.

April 2021 I reviewed to new blu-rays: the Criterion release of Larisa Sheptiko's The Ascent, and Indicator's new edition of Paul Schrader's Light Sleeper.

October 2020 I spoke to director Antonio Campos about his adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock's The Devil All the Time.

February 2020 I spoke to Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson and Robert Eggers about The Lighthouse, and recalled my 2017 visit to the set of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. I also review 1917 and Queen & Slim.


December 2019 I reviewed Wash Westmoreland's Earthquake Bird and Julius Onah's Luce

May 2019 I spoke to Alice Rohrwacher about her brilliant third feature Happy as Lazzaro and I reviewed Jim Cummings' Thunder Road

December 2018 I reviewed Ben Wheatley's new film Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.

August 2018 I spoke to Paul Schrader about his magnificent new film First Reformed, and I discussed A Prayer Before Dawn with director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. I also contributed a capsule on David Thomson's Suspects for the magazine's 100 Novels About Cinema feature.

February 2018 I interviewed Pat Collins, director of the outstanding Irish film Song of Granite.

January 2018 I wrote about the veteran filmmakers who have made late works in 2017, and I reviewed David Gordon Green's Stronger.

December 2017 I spoke to Sean Baker and Samantha Quan about The Florida Project.

September 2017 I spoke to David Lowery about his wonderful new film A Ghost Story

July 2017 I reviewed Eureka's new Drunken Master blu-ray

June 2017 I wrote about John Huston's masterpiece Fat City for the Endings column

January 2017 I wrote about ‎Masaki Kobayashi's epic The Human Condition

July 2016 I interviewed visual artist Omer Fast about his debut film Remainder

June 2016 I talked to Whit Stillman about his new film Love & Friendship and the rest of his career for a cover feature

February 2016 I met Tom McCarthy to discuss his soon to be Oscar-winning newspaper drama Spotlight

November 2015 For the magazine's Lost and Found feature, I wrote about Emilio Fernández's Enamorada

November 2014 I reviewed David Cronenberg's first novel Consumed

October 2014 I reviewed Sam Fuller's House of Bamboo and John Huston's The Roots of Heaven on DVD

August 2014 I reviewed Preston Sturges' Unfaithfully Yours and Howard Hawks' The Road to Glory on DVD

November 2013 I wrote about Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia for the Endings column

September 2013 I looked at a collection of early Atom Egoyan films, newly released on blu-ray

August 2013 I reviewed Hal Hartley's Amateur, Simple Men and The Unbelievable Truth on blu-ray