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. the essay
    Laura Dern Changed Our Idea of StardomThere is no one performance you can point to as the reason for her decades-long success.
  2. best of 2019
    The Best Movies of 2019Our critics celebrate the latest Tarantino, a South Korean black comedy, and the return of Eddie Murphy.
  3. movie review
    Netflix’s Klaus Is Just Weird Enough to Get You to Watch ItThis animated holiday movie is set in a surreally gruesome place, filled with surreally gruesome people. Somehow, that works.
  4. the race to animate
    The Story of the Beauty and the Beast Screening That Changed EverythingAn in-progress version of the Disney film premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1991, and upended animation as we knew it.
  5. the race to animate
    What Happened to Rise of the Guardians? The Story Behind an Animation FlopBefore Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, director Peter Ramsey made a DreamWorks movie so strange it feels like we dreamed it.
  6. rise of the machines
    May We Never Forget the Deliriously Bleak Terminator 3The third Terminator film made clear that our future was indeed a nightmare. Maybe that’s why everybody’s trying so hard to pretend it didn’t happen.
  7. movies
    The Movies We Loved in 2019Including Bong Joon Ho’s acid black comedy, Brad Pitt in space, and the gentle Pain and Glory.
  8. backstories
    20 Years Later, The Insider Is Michael Mann’s Greatest ProphecyFor all its foresightedness, the 1999 movie is also a time capsule, from a period when TV or newspaper reports could actually change things.
  9. movie review
    Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms Is a Dream, Then a Dance, Then an Existential ThreatThe artful, elliptical film tells the story of a young Israeli man trying to shed his identity in Paris.
  10. director’s cut
    Okay, Fine, Let’s Talk About MarvelWhat are Martin Scorsese and the Justice League of Aging Auteurs really rebelling against?
  11. j’accuse
    How High-Frame-Rate Technology Killed Ang Lee’s Gemini ManIt would be silly to blame the film’s failure on the tech, but I’m going to go ahead and blame the tech.
  12. movies
    ‘Heil Me, Man’: How Taika Waititi Learned to Play HitlerFor Jojo Rabbit, a black comedy about a Nazi fanboy at the end of the Third Reich, the director cast himself as a make-believe version of the Führer.
  13. movie review
    Not Even Lupita Nyong’o and her Ukulele Can Save Little MonstersThe zombie movie, now streaming on Hulu, is an unhinged horror-comedy that never quite settles in.
  14. theater review
    Theater Review: When Middle Age Goes Rough, in Linda VistaTracy Letts finds emotional vulnerability in a nearly wrecked man.
  15. q&a
    Pedro Almodóvar on the Most Painful Disagreement He’s Ever Had With an Actor“I had to go to a psychiatrist just because of the anxiety.”
  16. movie review
    Pain and Glory Is the Most Emotionally Naked Movie Pedro Almodóvar Has Ever MadeIt’s not quite autobiographical, but a fictional alter ego story, a vessel through which the director can confess his doubts and regrets.
  17. the uncanny valley
    So, How Is the De-Aging in The Irishman? Incredibly Impressive.The effects in Martin Scorsese’s movie are far from perfect, but — unlike this year’s Lion King remake — they actually help give the movie its soul.
  18. movie review
    The Death of Dick Long Is a Delirious Symphony of StupiditySwiss Army Man co-director Daniel Scheinert returns to Sundance with a more modest effort that’s still plenty weird in its own right.
  19. q&a
    What the Hell Is Going on in Ad Astra? James Gray Explains HimselfThe director doesn’t know if the human race will survive, but he can spot all the mistakes in his own movies.
  20. chat room
    Paolo Sorrentino Explains That Absurd Sheep Death Scene in Loro“With cinema, it’s not up to us to be real. Cinema is something fake.”
  21. movie review
    It’s Between Two Ferns, for Crying Out LoudShoddiness is built into its philosophy, and things like production value, sharp scripting, and delicate acting would only degrade the project.
  22. movie review
    Paolo Sorrentino’s Loro Made Me Feel Dirty. I Can’t Wait to See It Again.Loro shows how Silvio Berlusconi created a reality-distortion field around him. Sound familiar?
  23. chat room
    Antonio Banderas Reflects on His History with ‘Dirty Movies’The Pain and Glory star recalls marrying Melanie Griffith, kissing Tom Hanks, and making controversial films with Pedro Almodóvar.
  24. hardest things
    The Hardest, Strangest, Most Unforgettable Jobs In HollywoodTV and movie craftspeople share their stories (and a great dip recipe).
  25. fall preview 2019
    The Best and Biggest Movies to See This FallCats, Frozen II, Little Women, and more.
  26. fall preview 2019
    Robert Eggers on The Lighthouse, His Bleakly Gorgeous Follow-up to The WitchThe director places us in a remote 19th-century lighthouse, where two men — played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson — find themselves at odds.
  27. odes
    Long Live Gerard Butler, and the Gerard Butler MovieHe is an action star for the age of the declining action star, and he’s almost single-handedly keeping a very specific type of film alive.
  28. remembrances
    Peter Fonda’s Hired Hand Is a Masterpiece of 1970s American CinemaIt would have been fascinating to see what the late director might have done had the Western been received as a success.
  29. movie review
    Good Boys Is Funny Because It’s AbominableSome moviegoers might want to leave the theater and file a lawsuit. I stayed and laughed.
  30. movie review
    Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Serves Unnerving, Old-School Horror to KidsIt starts off as a quaint, small-town fright flick before plunging headlong into a full-on, grotesque shriek-fest.
  31. movie review
    Hobbs & Shaw Is a Refreshing Antidote to Franchise BloatTurns out whittling the bulging series down to two guys who hate each other can be strangely liberating.
  32. movies
    So, How Much of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is Margot Robbie Actually In?Quentin Tarantino will probably reject this hypothesis.
  33. shield your eyes
    Motion Smoothing Is Ruining CinemaFilmmakers hate it. Viewers do, too. So why is it the default setting on almost every new TV in America?
  34. movie review
    The Lion King Is an Unusually Good Nature Documentary. Is That What We Wanted?Technically speaking, it’s a marvel. But having entered the photorealistic realm, the mood of the movie has changed.
  35. movie review
    Stuber Is Not the Odd-Couple Cop Comedy You Were Looking ForStill, Dave Bautista’s got real star power, and he keeps you watching.
  36. remember that time
    An Oral History of the Eyes Wide Shut OrgyStaging that scene from Stanley Kubrick’s divisive final film.
  37. movie review
    This Toy Story Is Not Like the Other Toy StoriesSeriously, did David Lynch write this thing?
  38. q&a
    Jim Jarmusch Believes in the Teens, But Not Joe BidenThe Dead Don’t Die director speaks with Vulture about zombies, Taylor Swift, and the ecological endgame that’s “coming for everybody.”
  39. movie review
    The Last Black Man in San Francisco Explores Friendship in a Gentrified CityJoe Talbot’s striking, occasionally contradictory feature debut exhibits both lived-in authenticity and fairy-tale hermeticism.
  40. movie review
    Men in Black: International: Where Did the Charm of This Franchise Go?You don’t really laugh at the Chris Hemsworth-Tessa Thompson sci-fi comedy so much as feel guilty for not laughing at it.
  41. cannes 2019
    Sylvester Stallone on That Time His Rocky IV Co-Star Nearly Killed HimStallone was in Cannes to present some footage from his upcoming sequel Rambo V: Last Blood.
  42. cannes 2019
    Our 15 Favorite Movies From Cannes Film Festival 2019From The Lighthouse to Pain and Glory to Portrait of a Young Girl on Fire, here’s the best of this year’s festival.
  43. cannes 2019
    Behind the 3.5-Hour Movie That Scandalized Cannes With Unsimulated CunnilingusBlue is the Warmest Color director Abdellatif Kechiche apologized for “having detained” people at his new movie’s premiere.
  44. cannes 2019
    Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite Is a Nerve-Racking MasterpieceThe Okja director’s latest film premiered at Cannes to a rapturous applause that rivaled the standing ovation Tarantino received.
  45. cannes 2019
    Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is the Most Fun Quentin Tarantino Has Had in YearsIf the director’s ninth movie makes any missteps, they come at the end.
  46. an actor’s journey
    It’s High Time Dennis Quaid Played a Horror-Movie PsychoSkip A Dog’s Journey and see The Intruder instead.
  47. movie review
    Pokémon Detective Pikachu Is Fun, But It Should Have Been More DisturbingThe Pokémon are fun to watch, but the movie is no Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
  48. movie review
    El Chicano is Nasty, Brutish, and Occasionally RivetingEl Chicano is being billed as the first Latinx superhero film.
  49. movie review
    Werner Herzog Brings a Soviet Leader to Tears in Meeting GorbachevSometimes, a history lesson works better when it’s a little ragged and personal.
  50. appreciations
    When It Comes to John Singleton, Don’t Forget Poetic Justice and 2Fast 2FuriousWhether he was making a historical epic, a social drama, or a disposable chase flick, Singleton told stories of real people and real mistrust.
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