The Unvarnished Lens: Douglas Keeve and the Enduring Legacy of ‘Unzipped’
For documentary filmmakers, the intersection of the personal and the professional is a treacherous landscape. When the subject of one’s camera is also the subject of one’s heart, the result can either be a compromised exercise in hagiography or a…
The Intimate Lens: Why Douglas Keeve’s ‘Unzipped’ Remains the Gold Standard of Fashion Documentary
For journalists and filmmakers alike, the intersection of romantic intimacy and professional documentation is a high-wire act. When the subject of your lens is also the person with whom you share a bed, the boundaries between objective observation and…
The Intimate Lens: Revisiting ‘Unzipped’ and the Ethical Tightrope of Documenting a Lover
In the landscape of documentary filmmaking, the line between observer and participant is often thin. When that line is blurred by romance, the result can either be a compromised exercise in hagiography or, in the rarest of cases, a masterpiece of…
The Intimate Lens: Revisiting the Complicated Romance of ‘Unzipped’
In the realm of documentary filmmaking, the line between observer and participant is rarely as thin as it is when the subject is also a lover. It is a precarious ethical tightrope, one that risks collapsing the objective distance required for a…
Through the Lens of Intimacy: The Enduring Legacy of ‘Unzipped’
In the realm of documentary filmmaking, the line between observer and participant is often blurry, but rarely is it as inextricably intertwined as in Douglas Keeve’s 1995 masterpiece, Unzipped. As the film returns to theaters this weekend in a stunning…
Ed Helms: Finding Ground in the Chaos of Stardom
The lead-up to an interview with Ed Helms at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was, to put it mildly, an exercise in absurdity. It began at a high-end hotel restaurant where the maître d’ attempted to levy a $75-per-person “sitting…
The Evolution of Alden Ehrenreich: From Blockbuster Expectations to the Craft of Character
The scene is a hotel suite in Toronto, where the air is thick with the ambient, swelling orchestral score of a high-stakes thriller. It is 10:00 AM—hardly the hour for Wagnerian crescendos—but for Alden Ehrenreich, it provides an ironic backdrop to a…
The Accidental Oracle: How ‘Idiocracy’ Transcended Cult Status to Become America’s Mirror
Last July, in an effort to capture the spirit of the United States’ 250th birthday, The New York Times posed a singular, provocative question to its readership: “What is the definitive movie about America?” The exercise was meant to elicit…
The Sound of Resilience: Inside Linkin Park’s Cinematic Rebirth, ‘Unshatter’
In the hyper-competitive landscape of 21st-century rock, few bands have faced a crossroads as daunting as the one encountered by Linkin Park. Following the tragic 2017 passing of their iconic frontman, Chester Bennington, the Southern California-based…
Beyond the Blood: Anna Biller and the Battle for Serious Cinema at TIFF
At the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Midnight Madness program—a sidebar traditionally reserved for the visceral, the kinetic, and the overtly transgressive—hosted the world premiere of Anna Biller’s The Face of Horror. While the…
