Justin Chang Justin Chang is a film critic for The New Yorker and NPR's Fresh Air
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Justin Chang

Justine Ungaro/Justin Chang
Justin Chang, Fresh Air Film Critic
Justine Ungaro/Justin Chang

Justin Chang

Film Critic, Fresh Air

Justin Chang is a film critic for The New Yorker and NPR's Fresh Air. He previously served as film critic at the Los Angeles Times and chief film critic at 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 and is a member of the New York Film Festival selection committee. He teaches at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.

Story Archive

Thursday

Lauren Acala plays a girl who encounters the satanic serial killer known as "Longlegs." Neon hide caption

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Neon

'Longlegs' is a terrifying serial killer -- who never touches his victims

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Monday

Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) and her cat Frodo try to avoid alien attack in A Quiet Place: Day One. Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures hide caption

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Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures

This 'Quiet Place' prequel is a little too mum on backstory

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Thursday

Mother and daughter Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) share a slow New England summer in Janet Planet. Courtesy of A24 hide caption

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Courtesy of A24

Sharply funny 'Janet Planet' perfectly captures the feel of a long, hot summer

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Friday

Jesse Plemons plays three different characters in Kinds of Kindness — an effort that won him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures hide caption

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Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures

Yorgos Lanthimos exhausts his ideas, and his audience, in 'Kinds of Kindness'

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Friday

Joy and Anxiety (voiced by Amy Poehler and Maya Hawke) meet in Riley's head in Inside Out 2. Disney/Pixar hide caption

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Disney/Pixar

New emotions emerge in 'Inside Out 2' — including nostalgia for the original film

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Friday

Viggo Mortensen plays Holger Olsen in The Dead Don't Hurt. Marcel-Zyskind/Shout! Studios hide caption

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Marcel-Zyskind/Shout! Studios

'The Dead Don’t Hurt' is a tender love story and a subversive Western

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Thursday

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the title character in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. hide caption

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Jasin Boland/Warner Bros.

Furiosa's 'Mad Max' origin story is packed with explosives and extremes

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Tuesday

Ryô Nishikawa plays Hana in Evil Does Not Exist. via Janus Films hide caption

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via Janus Films

'Evil Does Not Exist' — or does it? — in this mysterious Japanese eco-drama

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Thursday

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy. Universal Pictures hide caption

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Universal Pictures

Ryan Gosling is 'The Fall Guy' in this cheerfully nonsensical stuntman thriller

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Friday

Art (Mike Faist), Tashi (Zendaya) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor) are embroiled in a love triangle in Challengers. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures hide caption

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Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Watch a tense romantic triangle play out on the tennis court in 'Challengers'

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Thursday

Gabrielle and Louis (Léa Seydoux and George MacKay) meet in 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles and again in 2044 in The Beast. Carole Bethuel/Kinology hide caption

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Carole Bethuel/Kinology

'The Beast' jumps from 1910, to 2014, to 2044, tracking fear through the ages

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Friday

Kirsten Dunst plays a battle scarred photojournalist in Civil War. Murray Close/A24 hide caption

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Murray Close/A24

'Civil War' is a doomsday thought experiment — that could have used more thinking

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Thursday

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laâge star in Coup de Chance. GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS hide caption

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GRAVIER PRODUCTIONS

'Coup de Chance' is a typical Woody Allen film — with one appalling final detail

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Tuesday

Carol Duarte and Josh O'Connor in La Chimera. Neon hide caption

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Neon

'La Chimera' is marvelous — right up to its most magical ending

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Friday

Jake Gyllenhaal is a former UFC star who becomes a bouncer in Road House. Laura Radford/Prime Video hide caption

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Laura Radford/Prime Video

This recycled 'Road House' can't capture the B-movie spirit of the original

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Monday

Gu (Xin Baiqing) struggles with his own sense of impermanence in The Shadowless Tower. Strand Releasing hide caption

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Strand Releasing

A Beijing restaurant critic arrives at a crossroads in this absorbing family drama

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Friday

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are Paul Atreides and Chani in Dune: Part Two. Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures hide caption

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Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures

Staggering action sequences can't help 'Dune: Part Two' sustain a sense of awe

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Thursday

Seydou (Seydou Sarr, in gray) crosses the desert in Io Capitano. Greta De Lazzaris/Cohen Media Group hide caption

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Greta De Lazzaris/Cohen Media Group

Join a Senegalese teen on a harrowing journey in this Oscar-nominated film

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Friday

In Drift, Jacqueline (Cynthia Erivo) winds up in Greece after experiencing something terrible during a visit to her family in Liberia. Sundance hide caption

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Sundance

A Liberian woman with a mysterious past dwells in limbo in 'Drift'

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Friday

Juliette Binoche prepares one elaborate dish after another in The Taste of Things. Stéphanie Branchu/IFC Films Release hide caption

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Stéphanie Branchu/IFC Films Release

'The Taste of Things' is a sizzling romance and foodie feast — but don't go in hungry

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Friday

Le Phong Vu plays Thien, a young man looking for answers in the Vietnamese countryside. Cercamon hide caption

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Cercamon

'Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell' is a film where a big screen makes a big difference

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Friday

Jessica Chastain plays a single mother who connects with a man with early-onset dementia (Peter Sarsgaard) in Memory. via Ketchup Entertainment hide caption

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via Ketchup Entertainment

Two strangers grapple with hazy 'Memory' in this unsettling film

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Thursday

Sandra Hüller plays a mother who lives next door to Auschwitz in The Zone of Interest. A24 hide caption

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A24

Chilling 'Zone of Interest' imagines life next door to a death camp

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Thursday

A24; A24; Searchlight Pictures; Grasshopper Film & Gratitude Films; Janus; Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures

2023 was a great year for moviegoing — here are 10 of Justin Chang's favorites

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