Every January, as we ring in the new year, we take a moment to take a look at some of the major new releases of the holiday season. This year, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critics Beatrice Loayza and Mark Asch to focus on a select handful of titles that have recently graced the marquees of multiplexes, and which continue to stir up discourse. The group kicks things off with a deep dive into James Cameron’s latest 3D space opera, Avatar: Fire and Ash (4:00), before turning their attention to another epic, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme (33:34)—which both Beatrice and Mark have written great essays on in recent weeks. They also touch on James L. Brooks’s Ella McCay (51:15), which Mark reviewed for Film Comment just last week.
