Kevin Lally on Film

Open Roads Italian Series Returns with Stories of Familia

For the 24th year, Film at Lincoln Center and the legendary Italian studio Cinecittà are presenting “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema,” a chance for New Yorkers to catch up with the latest offerings from one of the world’s greatest cinema nations. Running May 29 to June 5, the 2025 series opens with a film that…

gkevinlally

May 29, 2025

Film Appreciation

Diamonds, Familia, Film at Lincoln Center, Open Roads, The Time It Takes, Vittoria

Remembering Robert Benton and ‘Nobody’s Fool’

Oscar-winning writer-director Robert Benton passed away on May 11, 2025, at his home in Manhattan at the age of 92. What an enviable career he had—art director for Esquire, co-writer of the undisputed classic Bonnie and Clyde, creator of the Best Picture winner Kramer vs. Kramer. I had the privilege of meeting Benton in January…

gkevinlally

May 15, 2025

Benton, Robert, Filmmakers

Nobody’s Fool, Robert Benton

James Foley Talks ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

James Foley died on May 6, 2025, at the age of 71. I had the good fortune to talk with the director in 1992 about one of his highest-profile films, the star-laden adaptation of David Mamet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross. Foley’s post-Glengarry credits included the John Grisham thriller The Chamber, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades…

gkevinlally

May 14, 2025

Filmmakers, Foley, James

Glengarry Glen Ross, James Foley

Sean Baker Makes Academy Awards History with Four Oscars in One Night

Sean Baker set an Academy Awards record on Sunday, March 2, 2025, winning four personal Oscars as the writer, director, editor, and part of the producing team of his $6 million comedy-drama Anora. (Only Walt Disney had previously won four Oscars in a night, but for different films.) Throughout awards season Baker had been a…

gkevinlally

March 4, 2025

Baker, Sean, Filmmakers

Anora, Sean Baker

Nick Park and Peter Lord’s ‘Chicken Run’ Turns 25

Four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park is back in the Oscar race with Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, the latest delightful adventure featuring his irresistible stop-motion creations, eccentric inventor Wallace and his melancholy dog Gromit. Co-directed by Park and Merlin Crossingham, this Netflix release is the animated duo’s first screen appearance since the 2008 short A…

gkevinlally

January 24, 2025

Filmmakers, Lord, Peter, Park, Nick

animation, Chicken Run, netflix, Nick Park, Peter Lord, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Remembering Visionary Director David Lynch

David Lynch has died at the age of 78. I had the pleasure of meeting the visionary director way back in 1984 to discuss his third feature, the much-maligned adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel Dune, which today has its staunch defenders. (I was frankly bored by Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated 2021 version and find Lynch’s…

gkevinlally

January 16, 2025

Filmmakers, Lynch, David

David Lynch, Dune