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. movie review
    For All Its Bleakness, You Can’t Stop Watching Nia DaCosta’s Little WoodsThis is not exactly a movie about how the opioid epidemic has ruined communities, but you do see how the opioid epidemic has ruined communities.
  2. movie review
    Penguins Would Be Amazing With the Sound Turned OffDisney’s nature documentary could do without its 1980s power-pop soundtrack.
  3. movie review
    Hooray, The Curse of La Llorona Is Actually ScaryThe horror film expands the so-called cinematic universe of The Conjuring with the introduction of a ghost from Mexican folklore.
  4. movie review
    Forget Realism, Master Z: Ip Man Legacy Delivers the SpectacleIt’s unlikely to make new converts to the series, but it’s filled with vibrant, graceful ass-kickery, and sometimes that’s all one needs.
  5. movie review
    Hellboy Deserves Better Than ThisHe’s one of the more interesting comic book heroes we have. Too bad his new movie is a mess.
  6. high life
    Claire Denis Made a Movie About Space, But She Swears It’s Not Sci-FiThe High Life director cast Robert Pattinson in a dystopian prison film, but don’t worry. She’s not exactly going mainstream.
  7. movie review
    Aretha Franklin’s Concert Doc Amazing Grace Is TranscendentThe long-buried documentary, which Franklin blocked from theaters, is finally being released.
  8. making movies
    Dragged Across Concrete’s S. Craig Zahler Doesn’t Care If You Like His MovieThe Dragged Across Concrete director talks casting Mel Gibson, balancing extreme violence with sandwich eating, and death-metal drumming.
  9. movie review
    The Highwaymen Is Just an Excuse to Hang With Kevin Costner and Woody HarrelsonWhat if Bonnie and Clyde were just a couple of murderous psychos, and the lawmen who emptied 130 rounds into them were the real heroes?
  10. movie review
    With Dumbo, Tim Burton Proves He Still Knows How to Give Us What We WantThe story and dialogue are pitched at the level of children’s fantasy, simple and direct and subtlety-free.
  11. profile
    Terry Gilliam, the Man Who Was Almost Killed by Don QuixoteThe Monty Python animator and director on the movie that took him three decades to make.
  12. movie review
    Not Even Keira Knightley Can Save the Emotionally Constipated The AftermathWhich is a shame, because these old-fashioned romantic dramas are dying out on the big screen.
  13. movie review
    Nancy Drew Proves Adaptable Again, in a Haunted-House Throwback Kind of WayNancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase won’t set the world on fire, and it probably won’t start any major new movie franchises. But it doesn’t need to.
  14. movie review
    The Kid Is an Old West Adventure Refashioned As a Grotesque NightmareIn The Kid, Chris Pratt is alarmingly convincing as a screaming, relentless, over-the-top lunatic.
  15. movie review
    Dev Patel Shows His Range in The Wedding GuestMichael Winterbottom’s thriller finds Patel in a broody, sexy role — a departure from his typically fresh-faced, nice-guy performances.
  16. interview
    Gaspar Noé on Climax, Violence, Santa Claus, and Modern Porn“If I make a happy, happy movie one day, I’ll think it’s dull. I like laughing about cruel things because life is cruel.”
  17. q&a
    Michael Mann and Elaine Shannon Talk Hunting LeRouxOh, and two DEA agents were in the room, too.
  18. movie review
    How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Is Curiously ElegiacFor some, it’ll be a moving conclusion to an epic series. For others, it’ll be one less kids’ franchise to worry about.
  19. deep dives
    The Fascinating Story Behind Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1968 Epic War and PeaceThe shoot went on for five and a half years, with brutal winters, actors threatening to quit, and the director suffering a heart attack.
  20. movie review
    Isn’t It Romantic Is the Inception of Rom-Coms (…Sort Of)It nestles a playfully meta rom-com satire inside what appears to be another rom-com — and suggests that, maybe, such movies still have their place.
  21. movie review
    The Gospel of Eureka Is Meditative and Fabulous in Equal MeasureThe doc explores Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a Bible Belt destination where religion and queerness have become intertwined in fascinating ways.
  22. movie review
    Horror Noire Is a Lively, Essential History LessonShudder’s new documentary about the history of black people in the horror genre is a powerful reclamation project.
  23. movie review
    In Cold Pursuit, Liam Neeson Seems Done With the Dadsploitation GenreIt’s the latest (and last?) Neeson-starring entry in the middle-aged-man-goes-on-a-killing-spree sweepstakes.
  24. movie review
    Jamie Dornan, Jemima and Lola Kirke Can’t Save UntogetherUntogether is seeking to provoke. But that’s about as racy or intimate as it gets.
  25. chat room
    Jessica Williams on Taking a Bite Out of Ed Helms“Honestly it was so, so gross. I could not emphasize to you — because it looked so realistic and because the arm was so heavy.”
  26. sundance 2019
    15 Movies We Loved at SundanceIncluding The Souvenir, The Farewell, We Are Little Zombies, and Animals.
  27. movie review
    Piercing Is Designed to Get Under Your SkinNicolas Pesce’s latest, starring Mia Wasikowska and Christopher Abbott, is alternately alluring and repellent.
  28. sundance 2019
    The Brink Is a Steve Bannon Movie That Doesn’t Give Him a PlatformBannon may bloviate and backslap all he wants, but The Brink’s message is clear: his shit is weak.
  29. sundance 2019
    Sweetheart Is a Diamond-Sharp, No-Nonsense Survival ThrillerKiersey Clemons stars in J.D. Dillard’s no-frills, all-thrills film as a woman who washes up on a desert island and encounters … something.
  30. sundance 2019
    Native Son Breathes Life Into One of Literature’s Most Heartbreaking CharactersMoonlight’s Ashton Sanders is the graceful center of Rashid Johnson’s visually striking and stylized film of Richard Wright’s classic novel.
  31. sundance 2019
    Behind Leaving Neverland, the Michael Jackson Documentary That Stunned SundanceDirector Dan Reed on why and how he explored Wade Robson and James Safechuck’s allegations that Jackson sexually abused them as children.
  32. movies
    Extremely Wicked Director on How Ted Bundy ‘Seduced’ His VictimsJoe Berlinger explains his two very different Ted Bundy movies: one is a Netflix doc, the other a Zac Efron movie.
  33. movie review
    King of Thieves Wastes Its Once-in-a-Lifetime CastI kept wishing James Marsh would just drop the not-particularly-interesting plot and let these god-level geezers go off on one another.
  34. sundance 2019
    18 Movies We Can’t Wait to See at SundanceIncluding Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson’s Late Night, Shia’s autobiographical Honey Boy, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw.
  35. movie review
    The Standoff at Sparrow Creek Is a Memorable Feature Directing DebutIt’s an effective little thriller whose occasional flaws come mostly as a result of its considerable virtues, so you roll with it.
  36. best of 2018
    The 10 Best Movie Scores of 2018Including If Beale Street Could Talk, First Man, and Aquaman.
  37. movie review
    The American Meme Is an Entertaining Missed OpportunityThe internet celebrity doc can be fun, even informative, but there’s a bigger story here, and Bert Marcus mostly fails to tell it.
  38. movie review
    Destroyer Is Deliberately FrustratingBut Nicole Kidman’s performance as this broken, obsessed woman is powerful.
  39. movie review
    Bumblebee Is a Surprisingly Restrained, Modest Transformers MovieBut in the end, I found myself missing the gonzo, go-for-broke bravado of the earlier movies — we’re all still here for the exploding robots.
  40. best of 2018
    The Top 10 Documentaries of 2018Including Shirkers, Amazing Grace, and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
  41. movie review
    American Renegades Is a Bit of a SlogBut there’s something pleasantly old-fashioned about the military-heist adventure, set during the Bosnian war.
  42. movie review
    The Quake Is a Little Too GoodThe destruction in The Quake is more total, more hopeless, and more convincing than that of its predecessor, The Wave.
  43. movie review
    Is Once Upon a Deadpool Even a Movie?The conceit — Ryan Reynolds kidnapping Fred Savage, then recounting the plot of Deadpool 2 — barely hangs together.
  44. movie review
    Clara’s Ghost Is One of the Strangest Films of the YearBridey Elliott’s film strikes veins both horrific and comedic, without ever quite settling down to any genre.
  45. the industry
    Can Special Effects Be Special Again?How the VFX industry plateaued  — and where it might go from here.
  46. year in culture 2018
    Widows, Black Panther, Suspiria, and the Year of the Elevated Genre FilmA number of this year’s most important films have turned on taking familiar genres and finding ways to infuse them with both artistry and resonance.
  47. movie review
    Dumplin’ Is a Breath of Fresh AirIts world feels so lived-in, its characters so engaging, that you often find yourself wondering about what they’ll do once the cameras stop rolling.
  48. 100 scares
    What Is the Greatest Year in Horror of All Time?Let us discuss.
  49. movie review
    Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Takes The Jungle Book in a Nightmarish DirectionMowgli at times feels — and I mean this as a compliment — like the psychic runoff hiding beneath Disney’s colorful, kid-friendly Jungle Book.
  50. movies
    The Complicated Legacy of Bernardo BertolucciOn the late director’s fearsome, beautiful films and the Last Tango in Paris controversy that haunts him, even in death.
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