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David Edelstein

Senior Movie Critic
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  1. tiff 2018
    TIFF Review: First Man Is Laborious, and StupendousFirst Man might be the most grounded space movie ever made.
  2. movie review
    There’s Only One Reason to See VenomIt’s Tom Hardy, whose amiable mugging makes a nice change from his recent manly, mush-mouthed stoicism.
  3. profile
    Jamie Lee Curtis Will Have Her Revenge NowIn the new Halloween, she’s the one hunting Michael Myers. Welcome to the age of big-box-office post-trauma horror.
  4. movie review
    A Star Is Born Is One Hell of a Magic TrickI have zero doubts about the first half — it couldn’t be more charming.
  5. movie review
    Nicole Holofcener Works From a Different Angle on Land of Steady HabitsIt centers on the sort of self-absorbed man who’d drive her usual heroines to the brink.
  6. tiff 2018
    TIFF Review: Shane Black’s The Predator Is More Fun Than SkillfulIt throws enough at you to keep you distracted from seeing all the marks it’s not quite hitting.
  7. profile
    John C. Reilly Is Everybody’s Better HalfHe says he works best in duos, and he’s in three this fall: Stan & Ollie, Holmes and Watson, and The Sisters Brothers.
  8. movie review
    I Think We’re Alone Now Has an Intriguing Start, But a Bewilderingly Bad EndingPeter Dinklage deserves all the good will we can muster, but if he’s going to make movies like this, Game of Thrones can’t come soon enough.
  9. movie review
    Kristen Stewart and Chloë Sevigny Can’t Save the Lizzie Borden Biopic LizzieCraig William Macneill’s biopic on 19th-century ax murderer Lizzie Borden fails to find the juiciest parts of a famously fascinating story.
  10. tiff 2018
    TIFF Review: Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 Is a Must-SeeYes, he’s a bit of a blowhard, but the air is blowing hard in the right direction.
  11. movie review
    Operation Finale Makes a Great Story Feel SluggishRead the book instead.
  12. tributes
    Neil Simon Was Theater’s Odd Man OutOn the mixed legacy of the late playwright.
  13. movie review
    The Happytime Murders Is a Really Terrible Puppet MovieIt’s lucky to have Trump distracting from its awfulness this week.
  14. movie review
    Hulu’s Crime + Punishment Is a Powerful Work of DocumentaryStephen Maing’s film about 12 NYPD whistle-blowers makes you angry and scared in equal measure.
  15. movie review
    Movie Review: Minding the Gap’s Kids Are Trapped by Their Own Past and PresentA documentary about skateboarders’ lives that leads back to their abusive upbringings.
  16. movie review
    Ethan Hawke’s Blaze Reconsiders an Unsung Country SongwriterMusician Ben Dickey and Alia Shawkat star in this fuzzy but moving biopic of Blaze Foley.
  17. movie review
    Juliet, Naked Is Everything a Mainstream Rom-Com Should Be But No Longer IsIt has an irresistible premise: an increasingly intimate intercontinental relationship between a superfan’s idol and his own girlfriend.
  18. movie review
    A Prayer Before Dawn Is a Harrowing, Educational Prison DramaIt would make a great pick for a jailhouse movie night.
  19. movie review
    Madeline’s Madeline Is a Confusing, Yet Thrilling, Coming-of-Age StoryJosephine Decker’s film about a young girl playing a cat in an improvisational theater piece functions as a metaphor.
  20. movie review
    Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman Is an Entertaining and Effective Piece of MelodramaThe filmmaker doesn’t do subtlety.
  21. Night Comes On Is a Lovely, Inspiring Revenge MovieJordana Spiro is a real filmmaker.
  22. movie review
    The Spy Who Dumped Me Is a Showcase for Kate McKinnon’s Peculiar GeniusShe fires off one-liner after one-liner, apparently indifferent to whether it lands or flies into the ether — there will always be another.
  23. movie review
    See Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood for More Than Just the DirtThe dirt is what you come for in Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary profile of the “pimp to the stars.” But what you get is deeper and more mysterious.
  24. movie review
    The Captain Uses a Farcical Set-up to Tell a Brutal StoryWith the structure of a classic mistaken-identity tale and the tone of a serial-killer film, it’s too bleak to laugh at and too absurd to cry over.
  25. Tom Cruise Suffers for You, Hard, in Mission: Impossible — FalloutHe heaves himself up a cliff after a helicopter crash that would have killed a lesser-paid actor.
  26. Far From the Tree Is a Marvelous Doc About Kids Not Like Their ParentsRachel Dretzin’s boundlessly empathetic film is based on Andrew Solomon’s stupendous 2012 book.
  27. movie review
    Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot Is a Perfect Showcase for Joaquin PhoenixGus Van Sant’s latest, co-starring Jonah Hill and Jack Black, tells the story of John Callahan, a quadriplegic cartoonist recovering from alcoholism.
  28. The French Biopic Gauguin Is Surprisingly Dull, Considering Its SubjectThe image of Gauguin the voluptuary might be a cliché, but Edouard Deluc has gone to the other extreme.
  29. movie review
    Skyscraper Is Stupid But EnjoyableDwayne Johnson and his trapezius muscles charm their way through his latest action movie.
  30. movie review
    Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade Is a Haunting Portrait of AdolescenceWatching Burnham’s debut feature, you might realize what all great teenage coming-of-age stories have in common: unbearable levels of anxiety.
  31. movie review
    Ant-Man and the Wasp Is Harmless, Gimmicky FunSee Ant Man and the Wasp in 3-D for the full jack-in-the-box effect. Every gimmick helps.
  32. movie review
    The First Purge Is Predictable, But Shockingly ResonantIt’s pretty good if you’re not averse to caricatures, predictable twists, and lots of familiar B-movie tropes.
  33. movie review
    Woman Walks Ahead Is Blandly TastefulThe film, starring Jessica Chastain, ratchets down the messiness of the true story that inspired it.
  34. movie review
    Three Identical Strangers Is a Stunning and Troubling Real-Life MysteryThis documentary begins as a goofy, believe-it-or-not tabloid story and slowly drifts into darker waters — the realm of horror, then of tragedy.
  35. movie review
    Leave No Trace, Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone Follow-up, Is Grim and CaptivatingHer first narrative feature since launching Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone tells the story of a father and daughter living in the wilderness.
  36. Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town Has Its Moments, But Tries Way Too HardIt deserves points for ambition, though.
  37. The Catcher Was a Spy Is Too Discreet for Its Own GoodThe movie is well-crafted, but it doesn’t have the fullness you’d expect in a movie with so much believe-it-or-not weirdness.
  38. movie review
    Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska’s Damsel Is a Delightful, Violent Clown ShowPattinson gives himself a gray metal front tooth and pitches his voice into the high twerpy zone; Wasikowska can do no wrong.
  39. Boundaries Is a Bit Stale, But Makes Up for It With a Great CastIf the film smells more of mothballs than marijuana, it’s full of good actors: Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer, Peter Fonda.
  40. movie review
    Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Is Chasing Its Own TailThe latest Jurassic movie plays like a strenuous imitation of Steven Spielberg instead of the real deal.
  41. movie review
    Incredibles 2 Flies HighBrad Bird’s Incredibles 2 is, much like its predecessor, delightful as an animated feature but really, really delightful as a superhero picture.
  42. In Nancy, Andrea Riseborough Is RivetingRiseborough is a true chameleon actress who seems to change color from the inside.
  43. movie review
    Jim McKay’s En el Séptimo Día Is Quietly Thought-ProvokingThe director does no editorializing in this gentle and graceful portrait of an undocumented Mexican immigrant.
  44. movie review
    Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Will Make You Miss Mister RogersMorgan Neville’s moving documentary is a wonderful breather from reality, from which you come back more conscious of the hate that runs the world.
  45. movie review
    Toni Collette Gets the Worst Inheritance Ever in HereditaryWriter-director Ari Aster’s debut film is brilliantly horrible — cruel to the point of invasiveness.
  46. Johnny Knoxville’s Action Point Is a Mostly Enjoyable JoyrideThe Jackass star returns to his stunt-comedy roots to tell the story of a purposefully dangerous amusement park.
  47. movie review
    American Animals Salvages a Story From the Dumbest Real-Life Heist EverThe movie asks, “What were they thinking?”
  48. movie review
    The Tale Is a Nuanced Memoir of Sexual AbuseWith the word abuse I fear I’ve already misrepresented director Jennifer Fox’s complex ambitions.
  49. movie review
    Solo: A Star Wars Story Hits All Its Marks — Except for the Most Important OneMaybe in the next Han Solo film, he’ll become the Bogart-like cynic we met at the start of this whole saga.
  50. movie review
    First Reformed Is an Austere Examination of Faith and MoralityThis searching drama is the happy result of Paul Schrader’s entering the what-the-hell-let’s-go-for-it stage of his long and self-lacerating career.
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