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Bilge Ebiri

Movie Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine

Bilge Ebiri is a film critic for New York and Vulture. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the Criterion Collection.

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    Filmmaker Ken Jacobs in Stereo(graph)In his ‘Capitalism: Slavery,’ the director takes a Victorian stenograph of cotton pickers and, essentially, animates it into cinema.
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    Vegas: Based on a True Story Director Amir Naderi on Gambling Away His Budget“I had $25,000 … I thought, ‘Oh, I can raise the rest of the money by gambling!”’
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    Five Reasons Why Paolo Sorrentino Will Save World Cinema’Il Divo’ is the first of his works to open theatrically in the U.S., but Sorrentino has been making some of the most stylistically exciting films of recent years.
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    Filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan Spins a Melancholy CocoonIt’s more abstract than his later films, but it’s still clearly his work, as evidenced by its evocative shots of nature, its glimpses at family life, and its lushly melancholy mood.
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    Treeless Mountain Director So Yong Kim on the Joys of Working With Child Actors (Really!)Next stop, animals?
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    Filmmaker Brendon McQueen Springs Grandma From the HospitalThere have been many films made about Alzheimer’s, but few with the sensitivity and (yes) humor of Brendon McQueen’s beautifully shot and touching short film ‘Skip Rocks.’
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    Filmmaker Scott Rice Sheds Light on Perils in Nude ModelingIt’s like an art film hijacked by Michael Bay, but in the best way possible.
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    Filmmaker Brian Pew Would Like to Get Your Opinion on This Toilet Paper’Focus Group’ takes us into the impossibly dry and claustrophobic world of consumer focus groups.
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    See Duke Ellington’s Movie DebutAs such, it’s a part of both cinema and music history, even though, as a film, it’s basically an excuse to showcase Ellington’s musicianship.
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    Oscar Shorts Shatter IFC RecordAmid all the gloomy news about this year’s big Oscar nominees not exactly setting the box office on fire, an unlikely savior seems to have materialized.
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    Filmmaker Cruz Angeles Makes Uncomfortable ArtOne of our favorite films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Cruz Angeles’s beautiful debut feature. So we decided to delve into his back catalogue.
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    Filmmaker Eran Merav Learns Important Lesson About DogsIn Eran Merav’s short, ‘Nati,’ a young ice-cream seller gets duped into an unbelievable act of cruelty by some of his yahoo friends.
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    Best. Sundance. Ever?Special acting prize recipient: Mo’Nique!
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    Sundance Shocker: Michael Cera’s Paper Heart Takes a Schoolyard Beating“A holocaust of twee.”
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    Stella Schnabel on Her Breakout Sundance PerformanceWe speak to Schnabel about improvising scenes with non-actors, the difference between acting and real life, and her famous father.
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    Brittany Snow Can Act!Every so often we see a film at Sundance that shows us actors we had previously dismissed in a wondrous new light.
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    Blogger’s Cowboy-Hat Ordeal Comes to Close at Sundance“Leaving an article of clothing, something with your scent on it, means that you intend to come back and spray your scent around some more.”
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    We’ve Seen Steven Soderbergh’s Porn-Star Flick, The Girlfriend ExperienceThe movie was shot in sixteen days with a cast of non-professionals, save for the lead: porn actress Sasha Grey.
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    Sundance Wants to Sex You UpAshton Kutcher gigolo flick! Amber Heard constantly naked! Possible secret screening of Steven Soderbergh’s Sasha Grey flick!
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    Sundance: Shock Docs Seize the Power of the ImageThis year’s documentarians are bringing us images from places we’re not meant to see.
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    The Cove’s Richard O’Barry on Secret Dolphin Slaughter — and Flipper’s SuicideThe dolphin “abolitionist” speaks to us about watching TV with Flipper and dodging the yakuza.
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    Sundance: Fest Director Suggests The Greatest May in Fact Be, Well, the GreatestSo far, the most important question of the festival.
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    Silent Light Director Carlos Reygadas Goes to the Beach, Works Through Mommy IssuesReygadas’s 1999 short film ‘Maxhumain’ is a tiny, experimental, mixed-media dream about a young man’s existential portent amid memories of his mother
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    Filmmaker Dale Goodson Gets GasHey, remember those skyrocketing fuel prices earlier this year? Boy, was that a silly time — and so long ago, too.
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    The Wrestler Director Darren Aronofsky on Mickey Rourke and the Benefits of Having a Small Music BudgetAronofsky rapped to Vulture about his new movie and how a Ratt song can enhance the emotional texture of a bar scene.
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    Adam Resurrected’s Jeff Goldblum on His First-Ever Movie Accent and Forgetting His Secret MantraGoldblum spoke to Vulture about his new part, his old part — his turn in ‘Annie Hall’ — and his fears about tackling such a legendary book.
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    Filmmaker Barry Jenkins Explores Love in a Time of CloroxJenkins’s 2003 short ‘My Josephine’ is a lovely, impressionistic look at an Arab man and woman who work in a laundromat.
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    Milos Forman Remembers The Firemen’s Ball, Sabotaging CommunistsThe legendary director raps with Vulture about his classic 1967 film.
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    Wendy and Lucy Director Kelly Reichardt on Michelle Williams and Why Alaska Is OverratedReichardt raps to Vulture about Michelle Williams, the fine-tuned instrument.
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    Dennis Hopper on Elegy, James Dean, and Being Big in France’I’m pretty sure I wasn’t as terrible as people have made me sound.’
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    Gotham Awards Honor ‘Frozen River’ and Penélope Cruz, End on TimeIf last night’s Gotham Awards ceremony at Cipriani were any indication, the upcoming spate of year-end prize-giving will be a series of smooth, well-oiled affairs.
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    Filmmaker Antonio Campos Spoils His DinnerLet’s see … where to start with this one?
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    Roger Ebert Remembers Gene Siskel’s Best Snaps’Phone for you, Rog. Your shoes are calling.’
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    Filmmaker Michael Dudok de Wit Tears a Family ApartYou might need a Kleenex.
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    Maeve Binchy on ‘The Hard Core’ and Her Uplifting Next Novel About Heart FailureBinchy raps to Vulture about how she got her writing start from a kibbutz and taking the money and running.
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    First-Time Director Robert Davi on ‘The Dukes,’ Battling James Bond, and Meeting the Jonas Brothers’My agent said, ‘They want you to do a Jonas Brothers video.’ And my kids and my wife were all going crazy.’
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    Filmmaker Ilya Chaiken Blacks OutShot on a dime, ‘Blackout’ is a funny, genuinely unsettling look at an unfortunate hookup in the midst of the big power outage of 2003.
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    Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne Laments the Plight of the Bathroom Attendant’Rent-A-Person’ is a hilarious musical pastiche about a young, lovesick men’s-room attendant who decides to become a visionary entrepreneur.
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    Wayne Coyne on ‘Christmas on Mars,’ Giant Brains, and Long John Silver’s’Yeah, my house is basically Salvador Dalí meets ‘Sanford & Son.”
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    ‘Splinter’ Director Toby Wilkins Goes Kidney ShoppingSee Wilkins’s creepily hilarious 2006 short ‘Kidney Thieves,’ starring Ethan Embry, Paget Brewster, and Paul F. Tompkins.
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    Filmmaker Branan Edgens Would Like to Sell You David Lynch’s Coffee’The Darkest Coffee’ functions less as a commercial and more as a four-minute creepfest about the experience of consuming said hot beverage.
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    Filmmaker Myna Joseph Follows Creepy Sisters Into the WoodsFair warning: ‘Man’ is not an easy film to watch.
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    Filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund Makes a Music Video Without the Music’The Hidden’ features no soundtrack — but it’s easy to see from it what makes Akerlund such a great music-video director.
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    Filmmaker Andrew Cooke Laments the Plight of the Fake YogiAndrew Cooke’s hilarious mockumentary follows a yogi who might be longing a bit too hard for the trappings of modern life.
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    Filmmaker David Bond Flunks Art Class’Lions Are Green’ is about a young colorblind boy who draws a green lion in class and gets called out for it.
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    Filmmakers Nathan and Keary Kensinger Open a Secret Commie BookstoreIt’s the best film about a secret commie San Francisco bookstore you’ll ever see.
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    Ludivine Sagnier on ‘A Secret’ and Always Playing the SwimmerSagnier chats with Vulture on choosing her roles.
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    Filmmaker Kentucker Audley Says There’s Gonna Be No DancingAudley’s short is an intense, despairing look at obsession and the twisted nature of attraction.
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    Here Comes the Story of the Hurricane, Says Filmmaker Paola MendozaMendoza visits her Colombian grandmother as she deals with the wreckage of her Mississippi home following Katrina.
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    See the Short That Got Filmmaker Seith Mann a Job on ‘The Wire’Seith Mann’s intense, touching, and very well-made 2003 NYU short five deep breaths helped get both Mann a stint directing on the show and its lead, Jamie Hector, the chance to play young drug lord Marlo Stanfield.