Inside NYC's thriving cinephile underground

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It’s easy to get the impression these days that the traditional media industry is abandoning cultural criticism. Over the past few months, outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune have been reassigning or letting go of veteran film, music, and theater critics, leaving some to debate what impact, if any, written criticism still has on the culture at large.

Bucking this trend (and pretty much all mainstream media logic) is The Metrograph, a new biannual print magazine about cinema from the eponymous repertory theater in New York City’s Chinatown. It’s long, proudly niche, intentionally disconnected from the news cycle, and available only in print—with the goal of offering deep film fans an experience they won’t be able to find online, while inviting a new generation of people into the culture. The recently released second issue includes a 42-page dive into Paul Morrissey’s archives, author Gary Indiana’s favorite films (RIP), a history of the Japanese pink film, a “cinemap” of Belgrade, and a comic about Jerry Lewis’s infamous lost film The Day the Clown Cried. The cover, which we’ve cropped for this episode’s artwork, features a painting by artist Louise Giovanelli inspired by Christina Ricci’s character in Buffalo ’66.

Senior editor Annabel Brady-Brown (formerly of Australia’s Fireflies Press) and editor-at-large Nick Pinkerton (film critic, screenwriter of The Sweet East, creator of the Substack Employee Picks, and a former coworker of Emilie’s at Kim’s Video) join us to discuss the past, present, and future of independent film criticism—and what it means to make a magazine for cinephiles in 2025.

We also discuss why younger people in NYC seem to be gravitating back to the movies these days, and how the hyper-IRL, videostore-centric independent film culture of 20 years ago is a good template for what that might look like in the 2020s. Finally, we shout out some of the directors, movies, and micro publications that are making right now such an exciting time for cinema in NYC — and the repertory theaters and video stores we love around the world that are keeping the old Kim’s Video spirit alive.

Issue 2 of The Metrograph is out now. Buy it here, or at an independent book or magazine store near you.Read more by our guests:”Less rock, more talk: On Paul Morrissey, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ezra Pound, ‘political’ art, and 1988’s ‘Spike of Bensonhurst’” by Nick Pinkerton (Employee Picks)

“Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows: On the subversive pleasures of Agnès Varda‘s Le Bonheur” by Annabel Brady-Brown (The Metrograph)