Letterboxd: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS—VARIETY
An ode to Bette Gordon and Kathy Acker’s underseen Fun City classic, VARIETY.
Vinegar Syndrome/IFC Films: BREAKING THE GIRLS
Essay featured in the blu ray disc debut of Jamie Babbit and Guinevere Turner’s film
Letterboxd: Uncut Gems—TAKE THIS WALTZ
An appreciation of Sarah Polley’s TAKE THIS WALTZ as one of the best, unsung films from this century so far
Letterboxd: Dawn of the Dads — PRETTY IN PINK
Celebrating the late Harry Dean Stanton’s role in PRETTY IN PINK.
Letterboxd: Mommies in the Movies — MERMAIDS
Honoring one of my favorite movie moms, Mrs. Flax of MERMAIDS.
Vinegar Syndrome/Dark Star Pictures: SAPIOSEXUAL + TABOO: FAMILY SECRETS
Essay featured in blu ray debut of a double feature from filmmaker Deborah Twiss.
Letterboxd: Power Couples — HELLRAISER
Celebrating Valentine’s Day with Julia and Frank from Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER
Vinegar Syndrome/Cinématographe: FEMALE PERVERSIONS
Essay featured in the first-ever blu ray release of Tilda Swinton’s American feature debut.
Letterboxd: The 2024 Naughty List
As a little treat for surviving another year, Kate Hagen returns with the second installment of The Naughty List, highlighting the very best cinematic sex stories of 2024, from ménage à tennis and babygirls to hot monsters, bulging biceps and more.
The Black List: 20 Films for 20 Years at the American Cinematheque
The Black List: 20 Films for 20 Years was a year-long collaboration between the American Cinematheque and the Black List highlighting exceptional films from the first twenty years of the annual Black List. The series was programmed by Kate Hagen, Imani Davis, and the American Cinematheque team.
Letterboxd: Where The Heart Is: The Communal, Nourishing strength of STEEL MAGNOLIAS at 35
On the transcendent power of STEEL MAGNOLIAS at 35 for Letterboxd
In Search of the Last Great Video Store: A Directory (Updated January 2025)
As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive databased of video stores that remain open around the world in 2025.
Letterboxd: The 2023 Naughty List
Another year of sex-scene discourse, another year of slim pickings at the cinema. From furious jumping to consent conversations, Kate Hagen selects the best of 2023’s mainstream offerings.
Bong Joon-ho on PARASITE
Bong Joon-ho’s films defy all conventional cinematic classification: Throughout the complex narratives of films like MOTHER, THE HOST, and SNOWPIERCER, Bong takes his audience on a journey that encompasses every possible human emotion within a hundred or so minutes. But Bong’s latest film, the Palme d’Or-winning PARASITE, might be his most accessible, acclaimed work yet.
Beyond Words 2023 at the WGA Theater
Celebrating some of 2023’s best screenwriting! Kate moderated a conversation featuring Todd Field (TÁR), Daniel Kwan + Daniel Scheinert (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE), and Seth Reiss (THE MENU) at the WGA Theater in February 2023.
Essential Video Stores: Celebrating Thirty Years of Scarecrow Video
When searching for the Last Great Video Store, all roads eventually lead to Seattle’s Scarecrow Video. Their massive home media collection is the largest in the world, with over 131,000 titles available for rental — that’s about forty-four times as many movies as are currently streaming on Netflix.
Letterboxd: Fat Girls on Film
When Kate Hagen’s mission to curate a cinematic canon for fat girls came up short, she searched out films that best transcend ‘fat girl’ tropes, and suggests how Hollywood can serve an audience neglected by decades of poorly drawn caricatures.
Sexual Violence in Spec Screenplays
I’ll never forget the worst script I’ve ever read. It came across my desk while reading for the Black List in the fall of 2013, and was classified as a comedy. It was a coming-of-age story about a young woman with dreams of stand-up stardom. It also had eight rape scenes in it, described a ten-year old girl as “teasing like a stripper,” featured multiple scenes of child abuse, torture, and incest, and blamed the multitude of abuses suffered by its heroine on her inability to wear underwear. I’ll remind you again that this script was classified as a comedy by its own (male) writer.
Letterboxd: Crushed at the Movies— POKÉMON: THE FIRST MOVIE
For Valentine’s Day, the Letterboxd crew reminisce on ten of our worst dates at the movies, from foot lotion mishaps to foot-long sandwich calamities, and wonder what kind of film could survive an awkward debut outing.
Noemie Merlant + Celine Sciamma on PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
My favorite movie-going experience in 2019 may have been seeing Céline Sciamma’s exquisite PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE at the 105-year old Prytania Theatre in New Orleans as a part of the New Orleans Film Festival. Being in an ancient theater only added to my immersion in the film’s sumptuous, sensual world, created by Sciamma and her incredible lead actresses, Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. I spoke to Merlant and Sciamma about how they built a welcoming atmosphere on set, the power of the female gaze in narrative, secrets in cinema, and much more.