For decades the Village Voice set the benchmark for passionate, critical, and unique film coverage. Including reviews by some of America’s most respected critics, The Village Voice Film Guide compiles spirited landmark reviews of the Voice ’s selection of the 150 greatest films ever made. Collecting some of the best writing on film ever put on paper, this is a perfect book for film buffs. For half a century, the Village Voice has set the gold standard for serious film coverage. The New York City alternative weekly has boasted three of America's best critics--Jonas Mekas, Andrew Sarris, and J. Hoberman--and the backup reviewers have been nearly as good. In the pieces collected here, they turn their acumen to some 150 films, from Bunuel's L'Age d'Or and Vigo's Zero for Conduct to Scorsese's The Age of Innocence , from meritorious crowd-pleasers like Chinatown and 2001 to avant-garde works by Stan Brakhage and Joseph Cornell. Although most of the reviews were written for the films' initial releases, roughly a quarter of them were composed to notice revival screenings in Manhattan's many repertory houses, such as those of the silent masterworks Sunrise and Les Vampires ; two and even three commentaries occasioned by other such screenings appear. In view of the recent sale of the Voice to a chain that seems set on eviscerating arts coverage, this valuable, illuminating collection may be a swan song for the publication's former preeminence. Gordon Flagg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved An all-new guide to 50 years of groundbreaking films from america's most influential alternative newspaper For the last 50 years, the Village Voice has set the benchmark for passionate, critical, and unique film coverage for a savvy and sophisticated audience. Some of America's most respected film critics and culture writers have championed movies in the pages of the Voice that were often dismissed or ignored by the mainstream media. Now, the Voice has selected 150 of the greatest films that its influential critics have celebrated—and it has compiled their landmark reviews in this one-of-a-kind book??. Contributors such as J. Hoberman, Andrew Sarris, Jonas Mekas, Georgia Brown, Michael Atkinson, Amy Taubin, Tom Allen, and Oliver Stone will delight and provoke film buffs with their sharp insights and original points of view. Featured filmmakers include acknowledged masters such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Cronenberg as well as the most exciting new names in world cinema from China, Belgium, and Thailand. Featuring smart and compelling reviews for films from the surrealist shocker L'Age d'Or (1930) to the voyeuristic classic Rear Window (1954) to the fascinating drama The Devil, Probably (1977) to the erotic thriller Mulholland Drive (2001), this authoritative reference is your best guide to some of the most important and adventurous movies ever made. The Village Voice was founded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer in 1955. From its beginning, the Voice has pioneered the high-spirited advocacy journalism that has become the hallmark of the alternative press. As America's first and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice has maintained a tradition of uncompromising reporting and criticism for the past five decades. Dennis Lim is a film critic and the film editor at the Village Voice .