Justin Chang
Justin Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Fresh Air, and a regular contributor to KPCC's FilmWeek. He previously served as chief film critic and editor of film reviews for Variety.
Chang is the author of FilmCraft: Editing, a book of interviews with seventeen top film editors. He serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
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A new film, adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, posits that the death of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son may have inspired one of the greatest fictional tragedies ever written. -
Sirāt tells the story of a man searching for his lost daughter at a rave in the Sahara Desert. Though it carries echoes of earlier cinema, nothing about this film feels derivative or secondhand. -
Joachim Trier's drama centers on the complicated relationship between a filmmaker and his grown daughters. But for every perceptive moment in the film, there's another that feels coy, even complacent. -
In this wickedly funny dark comedy, Emma Stone stars as a high-powered CEO who gets kidnapped by a low-ranking employee, played by Jesse Plemons, who believes she's an alien from outer space. -
Iranian director Jafar Panahi has been arrested repeatedly in his home country. His shockingly funny new revenge thriller was informed by the stories of people he met in prison. -
Roberts plays a Yale professor whose life unravels after one of her colleagues is accused of sexually assaulting a student. After the Hunt is an academic potboiler that muddles its central issue. -
Paul Thomas Anderson's action thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. It weaves zany dark comedy, sociopolitical satire and controlled narrative chaos. -
Kogonada's film about lonely strangers traveling together in a car with a magical GPS wants to engage in heady conceits. But not even Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie can save a script this hopeless. -
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale takes place in 1930 and is much better than the last Downton movie. Creator Julian Fellowes cuts back on the convoluted plotting and zeroes in on emotional dynamics. -
Darren Aronofsky's film is a funny, bloody valentine to 1990s New York City. Though awfully engrossing, Caught Stealing's mix of rambunctious slapstick and bone-crunching violence doesn't always gel.
