The Hunger collects film writing by Melissa Anderson’s from publications including Bookforum, Artforum, the Village Voice and 4Columns, where she has been the film editor and lead film critic since 2017.
The book also includes reviews of contemporary and older movies as well as also essays devoted to the work of a single performer, such as Candy Darling and Shelley Duvall. The Hunger showcases a critical voice that is queer but undoctrinaire, homophilic yet heterodox. The collection concludes with a wide-ranging discussion between Anderson and the critic and scholar Erika Balsom about the role of pleasure and sexuality in writing, assessing stardom in the 21st century, covering repertory cinema in New York City, and the exhilarations that the movies still provide.
Film Desk Books, 276pp, 14cm x 20cm, illustrated paperback, 2025
