David Edelstein Author Archive
Give A Gift
MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

David Edelstein

Senior Movie Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
[email protected]
  1. Deadpool 2 Is Tedious and PredictableRyan Reynolds returns for a film that spits one-liners as mechanically as a tennis-ball launcher.
  2. Terminal Isn’t Stylish, It’s Style-ClottedThe Margot Robbie vehicle is a genre unto itself: Crayola noir.
  3. The Seagull Is a Platform for a Definitive Annette Bening PerformanceAnton Chekhov’s Arkadina is one of literature’s most narcissistic mothers — which is saying something — and yet Bening makes her damnably human.
  4. Revenge Inverts Its Titular Genre Without Transcending ItBut Coralie Fargeat doesn’t linger on or eroticize the violence against her heroine — this isn’t torture porn.
  5. The Rachel Divide Is a Rorschach Blot for Its ViewersSome people think it’s a hatchet job, others that it gives Rachel Dolezal’s commitment to social justice too much credence.
  6. Olivier Assayas’s Cold Water Is in a Class by ItselfThe writer-director found his voice in his fifth feature, a high-strung teenage love story released in 1994 in France but not, until now, in the U.S.
  7. movie review
    Disobedience Is a Portrait of Lost Women Seeking ConnectionSebastián Lelio’s drama, starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, isn’t packed with surprises, but that’s not why you go to a movie like this.
  8. movie review
    Avengers: Infinity War Will Dazzle, Stagger, and Rile You UpMarvel’s films have little in the way of a vision, but audiences have so much feeling for these characters that it doesn’t entirely matter.
  9. Tully’s Setup Is Subpar, But It Soon Becomes MagicalSomething happens when the character of Tully comes: The movie contracts in a good way, deepens, and becomes very impressive.
  10. 17 Films You Should See at This Year’s Tribeca Film FestivalIncluding a forbidden romance between Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz, and Alexander Payne’s Tully.
  11. Which Horror Movie Should You See This Friday the 13th Weekend?Marrowbone, 10x10, A Quiet Place, and Truth or Dare are all available to freak you out this weekend.
  12. In Beirut, Jon Hamm Has Fully Arrived on the Big ScreenJust as smart is Brad Anderson’s direction, which is clean and crisp but never on the nose.
  13. Michelle Pfeiffer Is Stunning in Where Is Kyra?See this on the big screen.
  14. Blockers Is a Raunchy Farce That’s Fundamentally SweetBeneath the whacking, smutty, in-your-face teen sex farce, Blockers is a mature, thoughtful exploration of parental responsibility.
  15. movie review
    HBO’s Paterno Takes an Unconventional Approach to a Cautionary TaleAs the title character, the usually galvanic Al Pacino barely speaks, a nearly-still center surrounded by smash cuts and TV-talking-head inserts.
  16. movie review
    John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Uses Its Gimmick to Terrifying EffectThe catch in this horror film is thunderously effective: Don’t make a sound or you’re dead meat.
  17. The Last Movie Star Is a Banal Burt Reynolds VehicleBut for all my groaning during the film, I couldn’t help being haunted.
  18. Love After Love Is a Revelatory Moment for Andie MacDowellRussell Harbaugh’s debut is swimming with hate, but MacDowell takes out the sting.
  19. movie review
    Ready Player One Is a Lively and Agreeable Work of Fanboy ArtIt’s a first-rate film fashioned from secondhand materials.
  20. movie review
    Isle of Dogs Should Make You Howl With JoyIn Wes Anderson’s latest, nothing fits together and everything harmonizes, magically.
  21. movie review
    Stanley Tucci’s Final Portrait Is Quietly BrilliantAs a director, Tucci appears to savor the step-by-step process of creation from both his characters and his actors, Armie Hammer and Geoffrey Rush.
  22. movie review
    Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane Toys With RealityLike most of his films, Soderbergh’s new thriller, starring Claire Foy, tests a complicated thesis.
  23. 7 Days in Entebbe Muddles an Otherwise Fascinating StoryRosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl can’t save Jose Padilha’s latest.
  24. movie review
    Tomb Raider Is the Sort of Pulpy Action Fun That We UndervalueStarring Alicia Vikander, the film does everything right that last year’s The Mummy did so garishly, painfully wrong.
  25. The Wobbly and Woozy A Wrinkle in Time Only Works When It’s GroundedLet’s joyously welcome Ava DuVernay back to Earth.
  26. The Death of Stalin Walks the Line Between Satire and HorrorArmando Iannucci gets that grotesque horrors often emanate from egotists, clowns, and stumblebums, from small-minded people with unchecked powers.
  27. Al Pacino on Young, Middle, and Late Al PacinoAhead of his first major New York retrospective, the actor looks back on his career.
  28. Oscars Review: The Most Inspiring Broadcast, the Most Disappointing AwardsThis year, there was grace, positivity, and a slew of disappointing winners.
  29. Eli Roth’s Death Wish Remake Is Practically an NRA PromoIt couldn’t have arrived at a worse time (or a better one, depending on your perspective).
  30. Mute Is Meh, But Gets Points for Being Extremely RandomDuncan Jones’s latest feels like its plot has been laid out in a Mad Lib.
  31. Red Sparrow Is Convoluted and UninvolvingHow could Jennifer Lawrence, a delight in drama and comedy, have done this to herself?
  32. movie review
    Foxtrot Is a Punishing Drama That Toes the Line of Black ComedyIsraeli director Samuel Maoz’s alternately acclaimed and reviled film is thick with grief, confusion, and metaphor.
  33. Alex Ross Perry’s Nostalgia Is a Deep Look at Impermanence and PainAny film flooded with this level of emotion is worthy of our respect — and our tears.
  34. movie review
    Black Panther Is Unusually Gripping and Grounded for a Superhero FilmChadwick Boseman is simply magnetic as T’Challa, the African king fighting evil in the guise of a wildcat.
  35. movie review
    The Party Puts Its Politics Front and CenterWriter-director Sally Potter returns with a brief and darkly amusing specimen of the dinner-party-from-hell subgenre.
  36. movie review
    Review: Loveless Conjures Humanism Out of WretchednessRussian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s drama is about a state of mind, a lament, an indictment of crimes against the human spirit.
  37. Permission Begins As a Rom-Com and Turns Into a Rom-SquirmUngainly as it is, though, it delivers a hell of a kick.
  38. The 15:17 to Paris Is a Rickety Celebration of Old-fashioned American HeroismI like it — in spite of its dumbbell infelicities.
  39. The Cloverfield Paradox Has Some Colossal IssuesThe problem with retrofits is that they can’t spiral off in entertaining new directions. They have to come crashing back to Franchise-Land.
  40. Please Stand By Is a Thoughtful But Stiff Look at AutismDakota Fanning plays a young woman on the spectrum who travels to L.A. to deliver her Star Trek script.
  41. The Best of the 2018 Sundance Film FestivalThe best performances, the creepiest noises, and the tiniest horses out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
  42. A Futile and Stupid Gesture Captures Doug Kenney While Respecting His MysteryIt’s not particularly illuminating, but it’s far from futile.
  43. As Oscar Wilde, Rupert Everett Lifts The Happy Prince Into the StratosphereThe Happy Prince proves that a film can be both bleak and warm-spirited, as befits its mighty subject.
  44. Daisy Ridley’s Ophelia Is a Juicy, Crowd-Pleasing Shakespeare RevampBut perhaps, given the runaway strength of Naomi Watts’s supporting performance, it should have been titled Gertrude.
  45. Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke’s Juliet, Naked Revitalizes the Romantic ComedyJesse Peretz’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel explores what happens when a superfan’s idol and girlfriend strike up a relationship of their own.
  46. movie review
    Kathryn Hahn Is Dazzling in Private Life, a Tale About Makeshift FamiliesHahn and Paul Giamatti star in a comedy (of sorts) about a couple whose relentlessly unsuccessful attempts to conceive are stressing them out.
  47. 12 Strong Is an Underwhelming Tribute to the ‘Horse Soldiers’ of the Afghan WarThe film based on Doug Stanton’s book doesn’t do justice to the powerful true story of the 12 Americans who gathered intel in Afghanistan after 9/11.
  48. movie review
    The Final Year Gives an Insider’s Perspective of the Obama PresidencyGreg Barker’s swift documentary covers the achievements, mistakes, and compromises that make the Obama legacy alternately exhilarating and depressing.
  49. The Insult, Lebanon’s Oscar Entry, Is an Evenhanded Look at Racial AnimusPart of the film is a crackerjack courtroom drama. What’s dull is the trajectory.
  50. Proud Mary Is Rhythmless, But Has Some Standout PerformancesTaraji P. Henson holds her pedestal but doesn’t do much on top of it, while Billy Brown smolders in a vacuum.
More Articles