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Matt Zoller Seitz

Features Writer
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
@mattzollerseitz
matt.zollerseitz@nymag.com

Matt Zoller Seitz is a critic and filmmaker who joined New York Magazine and Vulture in 2012 as a television critic. He has been writing about television and film for over 30 years and has written multiple books on popular culture, including the New York Times best sellers The Wes Anderson Collection, Mad Men Carousel, TV: The Book, and The Sopranos Sessions and the forthcoming The Deadwood Bible: A Lie Agreed Upon.

  1. exit interview
    ‘The Human Race Is Truly Flawed’After 40 years of making movies and TV, The Survivor director Barry Levinson has come to some conclusions about “ordinary” life.
  2. remembrance
    It Was Easy to Believe Ray LiottaThe beauty of his acting came from the laser-focused attention he brought to every assignment — no matter how noble or absurd.
  3. endings
    Harrison Ford Didn’t Do ItOr did he? The joy of watching the actor in erotic thrillers like Presumed Innocent is in the way he can keep us guessing how bad he really is.
  4. oscars 2022
    The Pain and Pleasure of The Lost DaughterMaggie Gyllenhaal craved a challenge, and she found it in Elena Ferrante’s unnatural mother.
  5. close read
    The Sublime Narcissism of EuphoriaLexi unveiling her masterpiece is Euphoria at its best, which is inextricably bound up with Euphoria at its worst.
  6. a long talk
    James Gunn Isn’t Laughing at PeacemakerAfter decades skewering superheroes, the writer-director chose sincerity for HBO Max’s first DC series.
  7. remembrances
    Honoring His Mother Was Louie Anderson’s Life’s WorkThroughout his decades-long career, the comedian learned to love himself the way his mother loved him.
  8. remembrances
    Terry Teachout Found Greatness EverywhereAs a critic, he was formidable; as a champion of under-recognized voices and productions, he was peerless.
  9. in memoriam
    A Guide to Rewatching Sidney Poitier’s Most Memorable FilmsHis image evolved and adapted over decades as the central contradiction of the actor and director’s life played out on screens.
  10. remembrances
    Betty White Was Always on TVShe’s owned the medium—in multiple ways—for its entire history.
  11. in memoriam
    Out of Time: The Life’s Work of Jean-Marc ValléeThe late director and editor’s best film and television projects are united by a resolute commitment to immersive, subjective storytelling.
  12. tv recaps
    Deadwood Season-Finale Recap: Bloody ThoughtsFor all the gore, madness, and opportunism showcased in this final hour, we’re left with a sense of hope for Deadwood, its characters, and ourselves.
  13. a show agreed upon
    Join Us In DeadwoodA new collection of recaps discussing season one of HBO’s classic western.
  14. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: Growing PainsAs Deadwood grows, so does the gap between the powerful and powerless generally, and the schism between the worlds of men and women in particular.
  15. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: Drawing StrawsA vivid supporting player steps into the spotlight in a story line where self-interest and civic-mindedness ironically intertwine.
  16. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: The Blessing of Legal StandingWith the camp on the brink of legitimacy, Al’s first priority is to make sure profits not only flow but grow.
  17. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: The Dam Has BrokenArguably Deadwood’s first great post-Bill guest character, Kristen Bell’s Flora is a walking, talking emblem of the camp’s dynamic.
  18. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: A World That Can’t BeThe women of Deadwood are doing what they feel they have to do to improve their lives — or prevent them from getting worse.
  19. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: High Fever BluesA brutal and exhausting hour brings forth a biblically inflected plague that torments the just and unjust alike.
  20. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: But That Would Be WrongThe camp’s creeping case of law and order seems to be settling around Seth.
  21. overnights
    Deadwood Recap: All Are NecessaryThis isn’t just a public tragedy, it’s a trauma inflicted on a town whose emerging self-image will be at least partly formed by it.
  22. a long talk
    Under the Tuscan SunHow Succession director Mark Mylod turned the Italian countryside into the Roys’ personal hellscape.
  23. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: Pardon My FrenchAl Swearengen has shown us many sides up until now, but this is the first episode where he’s seemed in over his head.
  24. tv recaps
    Deadwood Recap: Means to an End“Deep Water” establishes that while Deadwood is interested in matters of right and wrong, judgment of those matters is of less concern.
  25. tv recaps
    Deadwood Series-Premiere Recap: A Hell of a Place to Make Your FortuneHas law and order come for what Al Swearengen has built? He certainly seems to think so.
  26. best of 2021
    The Best TV of 2021As the television landscape keeps expanding outward, these are the shows that are pushing it forward.
  27. strong streak of good
    The ’70s Wasn’t All BadCynicism, paranoia, mayhem was the dominant mode of New York cinema in the 1970s. But there was a countermovement.
  28. new york in your bones
    The 101 Best New York City Movies, RankedSome movies reflect the perilous reality of living here, others the urbane fantasy. The greatest do both.
  29. too much birthday
    Should Connor Have Taken Off His Jacket at Kendall’s Party?The most vexing etiquette question of our era.
  30. a long shot
    ‘You Just Have to Accept That Wes Is Right’The French Dispatch crew explains how it pulled off the movie’s quietly impossible long shot.
  31. a long talk
    ‘God, I’m Crying Over Kendall?’A guided tour of Succession’s descent into birthday hell with director Lorene Scafaria.
  32. q&a
    Many Saints of Newark’s Alessandro Nivola on the Tragedy of Dickie MoltisantiThe actor who plays Tony Soprano’s mentor talks Raging Bull, whether Uncle Sally is real, and his own Italian American experience.
  33. close reads
    Decoding The Many Saints of Newark’s Parallels With The SopranosSeven ways the new Sopranos film echoes the original series and treats its story as mythology that can be retold, reinterpreted, and revised.
  34. profile
    How Do You Follow The Sopranos?David Chase returns to the masterpiece he’s been unable to escape since it went off the air 14 years ago.
  35. in memoriam
    Death of a StorytellerRare is the actor who can locate the specific in the universal and vice versa. Michael K. Williams was that actor.
  36. a long talk
    Barry Jenkins Felt His Way Through The Underground RailroadThe filmmaker reflects on the intuition and instinct that shaped his most ambitious project to date.
  37. tv review
    The Mosquito Coast Is Filled With Unpleasant WisdomAt its best, the Justin Theroux–starring series delivers the horror-adjacent excitement that comes from wondering how things could possibly get worse.
  38. godzilla vs. kong
    My Heart Belongs to the MonsterVerseMatt Zoller Seitz on why Godzilla and King Kong deliver more compelling cinematic glory than the other multiverses in the movie business.
  39. tv review
    Gangs of London: Come for the Fights, Stay for the FightsThere’s more to this crime-thriller series from action maestro Gareth Evans than just bloody mayhem, but none of it transcends the bloody mayhem.
  40. light the lights
    The Muppet Show Must Go OnThe enduring troupe of felt players has always existed on a continuum of self-awareness, and it all began on The Muppet Show.
  41. tributes
    A Letter to Nick Nolte on His 80th BirthdayYou always were a character actor who just happened to be blessed with a movie-star face.
  42. obits
    The Adoration of Christopher PlummerThe late Sound of Music star was a workhorse actor with matinee-idol looks and an aversion to fuss. That’s why everyone wanted to work with him.
  43. tv review
    We Are the Brooklyn Saints’ Concerns Go Well Beyond Winning and LosingRudy Valdez’s Netflix docuseries reclaims dignity for its characters by seeking beauty, even poetry, in outwardly unremarkable scenarios.
  44. friday night movie club
    The Exquisite Violence of The Age of InnocenceThere are no shootings or beatdowns. No one gets run over by a carriage or slapped with a glove. But there’s emotional violence. And it’s unrelenting.
  45. close reads
    Has The Mandalorian Succumbed to the Dark Side?The final moments of the season-two finale represent the galaxy-collapsing shortsightedness that has come to define Disney-era Star Wars stories.
  46. best of 2020
    The Best TV of 2020These aren’t just very good TV shows. These were our escapes from despair.
  47. tv review
    The Good Lord Bird Is a Historical Epic That Speaks of and for the PresentEthan Hawke’s fiery John Brown is ultimately a supporting player in this savage, often corrosively funny portrait of the lead-up to the Civil War.
  48. tv review
    Fargo Disappears Into Its Own NavelEvery season of Noah Hawley’s crime anthology series is a veritable monologuefest, but season four seems especially top-heavy.
  49. tv review
    In Lovecraft Country, Monsters Past and Present ConvergeA present-tense correction of science fiction’s racist past, the new HBO series is what academics would call a “rich text.”
  50. filmmaking
    I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and the Power of Point of ViewVeteran documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus breaks down the process behind the HBO miniseries’ delicate balance of true crime and personal trauma.
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