Fans of classic films will instantly recognize the opening scene of Carol: two star-crossed paramours (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara) sit silently at a table, staring into each other's eyes, when they are suddenly interrupted by a clueless dimwit. One stands to leave, placing her hand discreetly on the shoulder of her secret lover, then departs, seemingly forever. We then flash back to… read more!

Todd Haynes seems a strange choice to direct a routine David vs. Goliath legal drama. The crossover king of postmodern and queer cinema, Haynes is renowned for reference-heavy period pictures like Velvet Goldmine and Carol, not for contemporary – or at least relatively contemporary – investigative thrillers. Dark Waters' opening scene at first suggests that Haynes is up to his… read more!

A heartfelt re-creation of 1950s "women's pictures", those Technicolor melodramas made famous by the likes of Douglas Sirk, Far from Heaven delves deeper than the surface crises of those earlier films' well-to-do heroines, exploring racial and sexual issues that would have been unheard of in Hollywood films of that time. Set in 1957 Connecticut, the story centers around emotionally torn… read more!

Writer/director Todd Haynes's abstract portrait of Bob Dylan in the '60s and '70s has garnered attention for its gimmicky casting of six different actors – Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, and relative unknowns Marcus Carl Franklin and Ben Whishaw – as six different incarnations of the legendary singer/songwriter. But the casting simply reflects the fragmentation of Haynes's… read more!

Todd Haynes's attention to period detail is never less than impeccable – in fact, the director has never made a feature set in current times. (Even his 1995 breakout Safe was set in the late '80s.) Clearly, reproducing the past is, for Haynes, a big part of the joy of filmmaking. Sometimes it meshes well, thematically and visually, with a stong… read more!