David Edelstein Author Archive
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David Edelstein

Senior Movie Critic
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  1. movie review
    Movie Review: Beautiful CreaturesRichard Lagravenese’s adaptation of the YA supernatural romance novel is deliciously overripe, but something’s missing.
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    Movie Review: Edelstein on Caesar Must DieA group of Italian prisoners audition, are cast, and rehearse a production of Julius Caesar.
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    Edelstein: Soderbergh’s Side Effects Delivers Smooth, Shapely SuspenseSoderbergh’s last theatrical release mixes noir and pharmaceuticals.
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    Edelstein on The Gatekeepers: Shedding Light on Israel’s Secret ServiceLeaders of Israel’s secret service open up, sort of, in this Oscar-nominated doc.
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    Movie Review: Edelstein on Bullet to the HeadOn its own degenerate terms, this movie, directed by auteur action darling Walter Hill, works.
  6. movie review
    Movie Review: Edelstein on KochWhatever your view of its subject, Koch makes for a vital piece of New York history.
  7. movie review
    Movie Review: Movie 43It’s rare to see a piece of crap that actually looks and sounds like a piece of crap.
  8. oscars 2013
    Edelstein: Why I Hate the OscarsThere are few sadder things in the entertainment world than watching artists go into contortions over the value of awards.
  9. movie review
    Edelstein on Mama: A Welcome Jolt of Meaningful ScaresStarring Jessica Chastain, Mama reminds how and why good horror flicks work so well.
  10. Edelstein on Bigelow’s Defense of Zero Dark Thirty’s TortureThe director says “depiction is not endorsement.” But it’s not that simple.
  11. movie review
    Edelstein: Gangster Squad Is Mobster Dinner TheaterIt plays like an untalented 12-year-old’s imitation of Brian DePalma’s The Untouchables.
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    Edelstein: Jack Reacher Already Feels Like It Belongs to Another EraIt’s painful to see author Lee Childs’s ex-military vigilante embodied by the diminutive Tom Cruise.
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    Edelstein: David Chase’s Not Fade Away Is a Dream of the SixtiesA semi-autobiographical debut film from the creator of The Sopranos.
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    Edelstein: Django Unchained Is Manna for Mayhem MavensEvery bullet generates a whoopee-cushion’s worth of red sauce.
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    Edelstein: Haneke’s Amour Stares Coldly Into the Face of Human AgonyThe German provocateur has discovered a real-world antagonist even more brutal than he is: time.
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    Edelstein on The Hobbit and Its Distracting Frame Rate“The Hobbit probably plays better at the normal frame rate, but how much better?”
  17. movie review
    Edelstein: Zero Dark Thirty Is Borderline Fascistic … and a MasterpieceLet your liberal morals and cinematic appreciation fight it out.
  18. movie review
    Edelstein: You’ve Got to Admire the Gumption of Les MisérablesThe film’s tasteless bombardment would, under most circumstances, send audiences screaming from the theater, but the film is going to be a monster hit and award winner, and not entirely unjustly.
  19. year in culture 2012
    Vulture’s TV, Movie, and Theater Critics Choose Their Best Performances of 2012One of them is a terrorist.
  20. David Edelstein’s Runners-up for the Best Films of 2012This year was the most difficult I’ve ever had to pick ten favorite films, let alone to rank them one to ten.
  21. year in culture 2012
    David Edelstein’s Top Ten Movies of 2012An unexpectedly modern Lincoln, the mercilessly gripping Zero Dark Thirty, the happy submission of Pitch Perfect, and more.
  22. movie review
    Movie Review: Killing Them SoftlyBrad Pitt teams up again with the director of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
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    Edelstein: Rust and Bone, Brutal and RomanticThe much-discussed drama with Marion Cotillard as the trainer whose legs are eaten by a whale is messy and redemptive.
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    Edelstein: The Gorgeous Life of Pi Is TranscendentYou’ll walk out of Ang Lee’s latest fervently believing in the magic of movies.
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    Movie Review: Mea Maxima CulpaThis documentary looks at the story of a priest that molested more than 200 deaf children.
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    Movie Review: Silver Linings PlaybookThis new psycho-comedy is directed by David O. Russell.
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    Edelstein on Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina: A Boldly Original MiscalculationA tour de force in the wrong direction.
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    Edelstein on Skyfall: The Bond Myth Is Mightier Than EverSam Mendes sends 007 into a battle that’s not just Bondian — it’s Oedipal, it’s biblical. And it’s absolutely thrilling.
  29. movie review
    Edelstein: Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln Is Splendid, MasterfulSpielberg should make a prequel to this movie.
  30. movie review
    Movie Review: A Late QuartetSoap operas featuring musicians are in a different league than all the rest.
  31. movie review
    Edelstein on Flight: Denzel Washington Is Titanic As a Drunk Hero PilotNo actor is as brilliant, or as cunning, as Denzel Washington at portraying superhuman coolness and the scary prospect of its loss.
  32. battle royale
    Cloud Atlas Rumble: Movie Critic vs. Book CriticDavid Edelstein vs. Kathryn Schulz … GO!
  33. movie review
    Edelstein on Alex Cross: Coarse, Punishing, and ConsciencelessWhere’s Morgan Freeman when you actually need him?
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    Movie Review: The SessionsA sexual coming-of-age movie. For a 38-year-old man in an iron lung.
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    Edelstein on Holy Motors: A Film of Unfettered ImaginationDirector Léos Carax is incapable of an impersonal shot.
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    Movie Review: SinisterWhen a genre comes to consist principally of movies like this, then it’s time to find some other way of getting your jollies.
  37. movie review
    Movie Review: ArgoBen Affleck mashes up political thrills with movie-business satire in his new film.
  38. david edelstein
    Edelstein on Taken 2: Look Who’s Taken NowRated PG-13, this sequel could have done with a tad more splatter.
  39. david edelstein
    Movie Review: Wuthering HeightsSo much nature.
  40. david edelstein
    Movie Review: Pitch PerfectIt’s the year’s most exhilarating pick-me-up.
  41. david edelstein
    Edelstein: The Time Traveling Looper Delivers in Spite of Iffy LogicYou must remember this: The fundamental things don’t apply as time goes by in the ballyhooed time-travel thriller Looper.
  42. david edelstein
    Movie Review: Trouble With the CurveEastwood plays an aging baseball scout in this formulaic drama.
  43. Edelstein: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Nails Teenage AlienationEmma Watson stars in this exquisite adaption of the best-selling YA novel.
  44. movie review
    Edelstein on The MasterA piece of stark, often abrasive American mythmaking.
  45. david edelstein
    Edelstein on The Words: Nothing But Aimless Words, Words, WordsPlagiarism’s all the rage-arism in this Bradley Cooper film.
  46. david edelstein
    Edelstein on Sleepwalk With Me: This Comedian’s LifeThis autobiographical monologue-film stars and is directed by funnyman Mike Birbiglia.
  47. david edelstein
    Movie Review: Bachelorette, For a Good Time CallTwo films in which girls talk dirty.
  48. david edelstein
    Edelstein on Lawless: A Standard Revenge Film Played at Half-SpeedJohn Hillcoat’s latest is dead weight: listlessly classical and then bludgeoning.
  49. david edelstein
    Movie Review: Premium RushThis film is a rare bird — one that pretends to be nothing more than it is.
  50. obits
    Edelstein on Tony Scott: A Director Incapable of Sitting StillFluidity, choreography, patterns of flux within the frame — none of these interested him as much as fractured montage.
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