Bilge Ebiri Author Archive
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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.

  1. friday night movie club
    The Timeless Honesty of Wild Style, the First Hip-Hop MovieCharlie Ahearn and Fab 5 Freddy’s documentary-like film became an international cult favorite in the early 1980s. It’s just as fresh today.
  2. movie review
    Kenneth Branagh Needs to Make 10 More of TheseThe creepy, moody Agatha Christie adaptation A Haunting in Venice is far from perfect, but it feels like the work of a man rejuvenated.
  3. venice 2023
    William Friedkin’s Final Film Makes You Question EverythingThe Caine Mutiny Court-Martial sends you out interrogating your beliefs — about war, about service, about madness, even about right and wrong.
  4. venice 2023
    The Blood Is Everywhere in Pablo Larraín’s Mesmerizing El CondeIt’s fun to imagine this piece of agitprop provocation just appearing on the screens of millions of Netflix subscribers across the world.
  5. venice 2023
    What’s at Venice Film Festival? Fast Cars, Fake Noses.And (some) movie stars.
  6. movie review
    Liam Neeson Is Stuck in a Car and All Is Right With the WorldRetribution is a simple little thriller that works despite plot holes and predictability.
  7. movie review
    Strays Is Crude, Rude, and Very FunnyGood dogs being bad are somehow the best dogs.
  8. movie review
    Blue Beetle Does the Superhero Thing RightIt’s funny, bighearted, and actually seems to like spending time with its characters.
  9. vulture animal bureau
    Cat Performances, RankedA celebration of the 25 greatest feline roles — with no CGI, human-cat hybrids in sight.
  10. movie review
    The Last Voyage of the Demeter Is a Delightfully Nasty Piece of WorkThick atmosphere and a gleeful mean streak make up for a premise with a foregone conclusion.
  11. the vulture transcript
    Director William Friedkin on Rising and Falling and Rising in the Film IndustryHis thoughts on The Exorcist, Sorcerer, Cruising, Killer Joe, and more.
  12. movie review
    Meg 2: The Trench Should Have Been StupiderIt’s all ridiculous and, in an alternate universe, it might have even been genuinely entertaining.
  13. movie review
    A Helpful Reminder Never to Underestimate Walton GogginsVenice has been filled with lots of big, bold, showy turns. Then there’s Goggins quietly yanking our heartstrings by simply being present.
  14. movie review
    A Few Decent Laughs Can’t Save Haunted MansionDisney’s new theme-park movie is a hot mess, even if it’s a sporadically entertaining one.
  15. q&a
    The One Thing Missing From Oppenheimer’s ScoreLudwig Göransson strategically avoided an entire instrument family and built one of the most beautifully agitating movie soundtracks.
  16. barbenheimer
    Benny Safdie Is Really Proud of How His Eyebrows ‘Shined’ in Oppenheimer“Every once in a while I have a straggler that I’ll just pluck out. But Chris said, ‘Don’t do that. Let’s just let it go crazy.’”
  17. endings
    The Hidden ‘Inception’ Near the End of InceptionAn idea that might have been planted within Cobb’s subconscious.
  18. endings
    OPPENHEIMER
    The ‘Troubling Reverberations’ at the End of Oppenheimer, ExplainedIt’s the most shattering ending of anything Christopher Nolan has made, and maybe even of any studio blockbuster in recent memory.
  19. in conversation
    ‘I Can Do Things to You With My Voice’Fifty-one years of acting. Hundreds of roles. One Samuel L. Jackson.
  20. double feature
    The Only Way to Watch Barbie and OppenheimerYou’re wrong. We’re right. Long live Barbenheimer.
  21. movie review
    Bird Box Barcelona Doesn’t Have the Guts to Tell This StoryThe Netflix sequel is an exercise in sadism but not the good kind.
  22. movie review
    A Familiar Magic Trick Executed to PerfectionTom Cruise does what he does in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. He is very good at what he does.
  23. a long talk
    ‘My Films Had So Much Anger’John Woo reflects on a career driven by action, ambition, and artistry.
  24. movie review
    This Might Be the Strangest Movie of the YearRuby Gillman, Teenage Kraken seems like a trifling dose of high-concept sweetness, but it’s truly absurd in all sorts of unexpected ways.
  25. movie review
    Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Is Too Entertaining to DismissA movie about going back in time turns out to be something of a time machine itself.
  26. movie review
    No Hard Feelings Makes It Look EasyJennifer Lawrence goes over the top in the most delightfully discomfiting way.
  27. movie review
    Extraction 2 Is Trying So HardMainly, it’s all just neat — impressively mounted and increasingly meaningless.
  28. movie review
    Wes Anderson Has Gone MadHis new movie, Asteroid City, brings a necessary madness to the meticulous director’s method, and it amounts to a masterpiece.
  29. endings
    Let’s Talk About the Ending of Beau Is AfraidIt would be tempting to say that Beau Is Afraid is the story of Beau’s journey back home, but really, there isn’t much of a journey.
  30. movie review
    Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Is Ready to Be Consumed and ForgottenFighting robots are back, but does anyone really care?
  31. movie review
    Is a Movie Called The Boogeyman Allowed to Be This Bleak?Rob Savage’s Stephen King adaptation is visually compelling but narratively inert.
  32. cannes 2023
    Cannes Is Over. Now What?The 2023 film festival has come to an end. Here are the movies to watch.
  33. cannes 2023
    Could a Documentary Win at Cannes This Year?Nonfiction has been notoriously absent from past competition lineups, but two well-regarded docs may have a chance at the 2023 Palme d’Or.
  34. cannes 2023
    Jason Schwartzman and Wes Anderson ForeverOne of the great pleasures of Asteroid City is reflecting on how this duo’s collaboration has changed over the decades.
  35. endings
    Let’s Talk About the Ending of John Wick: Chapter 4That final shot and the end-credits stinger might be more closely connected than they appear.
  36. cannes 2023
    Takeshi Kitano Kills AgainSome directors’ late films are stripped-down, austere, deliberately paced; Kitano seems to be going in the opposite direction, god bless him.
  37. movie review
    The Gripping Night of the 12th Scratches That Zodiac ItchFrance’s big award winner is an unsettling look at a real-life unsolved case.
  38. cannes 2023
    Michael Douglas Is the Expert on Movie Sex Scenes, According to Michael Douglas“You put your hand here and then we’re going to go kiss, kiss, and then we’re going to go down.”
  39. cannes 2023
    What’s at Cannes? Scorsese, a Gay Western, and Cate Blanchett As a Renegade Nun.All the movies (and one TV show) we’re excited to see at 2023’s Festival de Cannes.
  40. summer preview 2023
    Here Come Fast X, Tom Cruise, and a Summer of Big MoviesBut which will be the biggest? In a post-Maverick glow, anything is possible.
  41. movie review
    To Fly Is Human. To Air, Divine.Ben Affleck’s Air might as well be a faith-based film about Nike’s signing of Michael Jordan.
  42. movie review
    BlackBerry Is More Office Space Than Social NetworkGlenn Howerton’s turn as a cutthroat tech executive has to be seen to be believed.
  43. movie review
    Let’s Watch Some Nazis ExplodeIf Sergio Leone had directed Crank: High Voltage, it might have looked a little like Sisu, a crazy new action movie from Finland.
  44. movie review
    It’s Nice to See a Good Marvel Movie AgainWith Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Marvel reminds us why we used to like this stuff.
  45. a long talk
    ‘I Don’t Believe Cinema Needs to Tell You a Story’Peter Greenaway on his long career spent treasuring artificiality, avoiding Hollywood, and playing games.
  46. movie review
    Peter Pan & Wendy Micromanages All the Fun Out of NeverlandJude Law makes a great Captain Hook, but the movie is joyless and confused.
  47. movie review
    There Are Four Movies in Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, and Two of Them Are GoodJake Gyllenhaal puts valuable mileage on those huge haunted eyes of his in Guy Ritchie’s Afghanistan War drama.
  48. movie review
    Why Are We Doing This to the Evil Dead Movies?With Evil Dead Rise, a series that once ran on silly slapstick and goofy gore becomes drab franchise fodder.
  49. movie review
    Quasi Proves That Broken Lizard Will Never Grow Up, Thank God“Hey! More fire ants in that guy’s dickhole!”
  50. movie review
    The Pope’s Exorcist Is a Huge Joke (on Us)The film allows Russell Crowe to have fun with the part of a demon-hunting Italian priest, but it forgets to have fun along with him.
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