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Jim Hemphill

Jim Hemphill is the writer and director of the award-winning film The Trouble With the Truth, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and other platforms. He has written about movies and television for Filmmaker magazine, American Cinematographer and Film Comment, and is the author of The Art and Craft of TV Directing: Conversations with Episodic Television Directors. He also serves as a film historian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has contributed audio commentaries to DVDs and Blu-rays for Indicator, Shout Factory, the BFI, and other home video labels. His website is www.jimhemphillfilms.com.

On That Lost Three-Hour Version Superman and the Curious Pleasures of TV Edits

Jim Hemphill shares his fondness for quirky small-screen cuts of big movies, and one of these that's finally been released for the first time.

November 3, 2017

So It Turns Out Happy Death Day is Pretty Much a Masterpiece

Jim Hemphill is surprised to find the latest Blumhouse joint is legitimately great, and wonders if a golden age of horror is imminent.

October 19, 2017

Coppola Just Premiered The Cotton Club Encore — and It’s a Masterpiece

Jim Hemphill, just back from the Telluride Film Festival, reports on the revelatory new version of one of the great director's most troubled movies.

September 6, 2017

Second Screen: Why Madam Secretary is the Best Political TV Show Ever

Jim Hemphill enumerates the many ways in which he loves the series which has finally provided Téa Leoni with the role she deserves.

August 24, 2017

Second Screen: Riverdale, or if Fassbinder Had Directed 90210

Jim Hemphill on the deliriously enjoyable CW show, which is so referential it makes Tarantino look like Bresson.

July 24, 2017

Second Screen: NCIS: New Orleans is the Rio Bravo of Police Procedurals (No, Really)

Jim Hemphill explains why this spinoff of a long-running cop show has some of the best qualities of Howard Hawks' 1959 classic Western.

June 28, 2017

Jim Hemphill Talks with Lea Thompson (The Year of Spectacular Men) for the Talkhouse Podcast

Jim Hemphill sits down with his friend and former collaborator Lea Thompson as her directorial debut world premieres at L.A. Film Festival.

Why the Criminally Overlooked Happy Campers Deserves Classic Status

Jim Hemphill makes the case for Daniel Waters' subversive summer camp movie, a film that has never been recognized for its unsettling brilliance.

May 26, 2017

On Its 40th Anniversary, John Boorman’s Much-Maligned Exorcist II: The Heretic Deserves a Second Chance

A wildly sumptuous feast for the senses, the undervalued sequel is due for the same critical reevaluation as Sorcerer.

May 19, 2017

Adam Sandler’s “Carte Blanche” Freedom and the Joy of Sandy Wexler

Jim Hemphill celebrates the creative expansion the polarizing comedian's new Netflix film has afforded him.

May 8, 2017

Second Screen: The Irresistible Hollywood Narrative of Famous in Love

Jim Hemphill on why he fell for Freeform's addictive new series about the on-screen/off-screen romance between two young movie stars.

April 19, 2017

Second Screen: Is Billions a New High for Cable Television?

Jim Hemphill on the abundance of riches to be found in the Showtime series, which brings the best of cinema to the small screen.

March 27, 2017