David Edelstein Author Archive
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David Edelstein

Senior Movie Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
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  1. movie review
    Movie Review: Wanderlust Wrings New Laughs Out of a Weary IdeaIt’s the great American (hash) pipe dream.
  2. considerations
    Edelstein: Why Is The Artist a Lock for Best Picture?The reasons aren’t all that flattering.
  3. movie review
    Movie Review: The Laughless, Thrilless This Means WarDoes Reese Witherspoon think that the female audience won’t bond with her if she seems too willful?
  4. movie review
    Movie Review: Denzel Washington Swaggers Through Safe HouseWhat separates Safe House from the standard Cuisinart-cut action picture is that it’s marinated in post-Iraq cynicism.
  5. movie review
    Movie Review: The Woman in Black Gives an Anemic ‘Boo?’Where are Hermione and Ron when Daniel Radcliffe needs them?
  6. dissent
    Edelstein on the ‘Unworthy’ Oscar NominationsThere’s no excuse for overlooking Margin Call or Beginners.
  7. movie review
    Movie Review: Haywire, or The Vindictive Ex-Girlfriend ExperienceGina Carano is something to see.
  8. movie review
    Movie Review: The Enjoyably Pure Artifice of A Joyful NoiseIt’s too transparently corny and manipulative to resent.
  9. Movie Review: In A Separation, Every Single Character Comes Up Short in LifeWhat makes it so good is that no one is bad.
  10. movie review
    Movie Review: The Disposable Exorcism Mockumentary The Devil InsideIt’s always fun to watch bony, hollow-eyed white women grotesquely contort their bodies, call priests “cocksuckers,” and hurl them against walls, but the ending reeks.
  11. movie review
    Edelstein: The Iron Lady Makes a Case for the Human Being Beneath Thatcher’s MaskMeryl Streep the impersonator reproduces the music in her subject’s voice and through it the workings of a mind.
  12. best of 2011
    David Edelstein’s Favorite Performances From 2011And a few of his worsts, as well.
  13. movie review
    Movie Review: The Bigger, Better Adventures of TintinSpielberg becomes the slapstick-action wizard of his (and our) wildest dreams.
  14. movie review
    Movie Review: Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Brings the HateRooney Mara is … functional.
  15. movie review
    Movie Review: Carnage, or No Exit for Anxious BreedersThe pleasure, such as it is, comes from anticipating the land mines and then gauging the scale of the devastation.
  16. movie review
    Movie Review: The Nonsensical, Wonderful Mission Impossible: Ghost ProtocolIt’s surprising, even moving, how often Cruise throws the ball to Renner.
  17. movie review
    Movie Review: The Maximum Clutter of Sherlock Holmes: Game of ShadowsThis sequel is overblown and inelegant.
  18. Movie Review: Young Adult Only Starts Out Strong and SourThe problem with Reitman isn’t that he’s shallow, but that he thinks he’s deep and edgy.
  19. movie review
    Movie Reviews: On Shame and A Dangerous Method, the Michael Fassbender Double FeatureCompared to the trendy despair of Shame, A Dangerous Method is a road map to happiness, chock-full of tips on how to reconcile our disparate impulses.
  20. Movie Review: The Razzle-Dazzle of Martin Scorsese’s HugoMarty the film buff has built his own matrix.
  21. movie review
    Movie Review: The Double-Edged DescendantsDavid Edelstein on George Clooney’s latest.
  22. movie review
    Movie Review: Werner Herzog’s Remarkable Into the AbyssHerzog portrays not just a single injustice but a whole sick, tragic ecosystem of senseless crime and uncomprehending punishment.
  23. movie review
    Movie Review: Jack and Jill Is a DisgraceSandler passes up every opportunity to play with his own strange, passive-aggressive, adolescent-male persona and imagine what a female version might be like.
  24. movies
    Edelstein on the Joy of Subbing at Turner Classic Movies This WeekHis 9-year-old self could never dream he’d one day be saying, “Here, from 1958, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in the Hammer Classic, ‘Horror of Dracula.’”
  25. movie review
    Movie Review: Footloose and The Thing Pointlessly Revisit the Eighties’Footloose’ is better but only because it has a little dancing. A little.
  26. movie review
    Movie Review: The Tiresome Trajectory of Ides of MarchIn ‘The Ides of March,’ director George Clooney informs us that politics drags down even good people. This is news?
  27. movie review
    Movie Review: The Straw Dogs Remake Lacks a Reason for BeingIt’s bearable but utterly superfluous.
  28. movie review
    Movie Review: The Clichéd, Great WarriorThe movie leaves you a wreck — yet pumped.
  29. movie review
    Contagion, the Most High-Minded Disaster Movie Ever MadeSteven Soderbergh offers compelling, if sterile stuff.
  30. movie review
    Edelstein: Don’t Miss the Mind-Boggling Doc Better This World on PBS TonightIt’s an eerily suggestive and alarming look at two protesters who were arrested at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
  31. movie review
    Movie Review: Apollo 18 Gets Lost in SpaceIt’s 80 minutes of dead air.
  32. movie review
    Movie Review: Higher Ground, Vera Farmiga’s Amazingly Graceful Directorial DebutWhat a delicate balance this movie is, with enough religious fervor to discomfit the skeptics and enough skepticism to discomfit the religious.
  33. movie review
    Nazi-Thriller The Debt Is Both Absurd and GrippingAnd Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain aren’t half bad.
  34. movie review
    Movie Review: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, One of the Most Forgettable Horror Movies Ever MadeNot a lot of scares here.
  35. movie review
    Movie Review: Our Idiot Brother, a Comedy of UpliftPaul Rudd just seems nice to his core.
  36. movie review
    Movie Review: The Lame, Passionless ColombianaLuc Besson’s Jumping Frog Action Factory strikes out.
  37. movie review
    The Spiritually Ugly 30 Minutes or LessIt suits the national mood.
  38. movie review
    Viola Davis Gives the Too-Soft The Help a SpineThe movie is predictable and heavy-handed, but also rich in evocative detail and close observations of the distinctive coping mechanisms of class.
  39. movie review
    Bellflower, a Love-Hate Story Suffused With Bad VibesIt’s like an ‘Alien’ facehugger: It grabs hold of you, gets in your bloodstream, and gestates.
  40. movie review
    The Fast, Tense, Soulful Rise of the Planet of the ApesIt’s an inspired fusion of the classic ‘Apes’ saga with new-style bio-genetic horror.
  41. movie review
    The Appealingly Old Fashioned Captain AmericaThe retro-nostalgic Captain America is miles ahead of its recent competitors.
  42. movie review
    Sarah Palin Looks Defeatable in The UndefeatedThis documentary is straight hagiography, without nuance or ambiguity or the admission of opposing viewpoints.
  43. movie review
    The Colossal, Stupendous, Ridiculously Amazing Transformers: Dark of the MoonThe film is gloriously, passionately synthetic.
  44. movie review
    Cameron Diaz Is All Good As a Bad TeacherShe’s incorrigibly sleazy and opportunistic in the great American degenerate movie huckster tradition.
  45. movie review
    Movie Reviews: The Transfixing Buck and the Overeager Page OneTwo documentaries open today.
  46. movie review
    Movie Review: Green Lantern and the Color of BoredomThis film falls to Earth wicked fast.
  47. movie review
    Movie Review: The Trip Is Full of Good Impersonations and Bad VibeMichael Winterbottom’s and Steve Coogan’s larger agenda is to reveal the tragedy of “Coogan’s” life.
  48. movie review
    Movie Review: X-Men: First Class Is Pleasantly Second RateMichael Fassbender and James McAvoy elevate the proceedings.
  49. movie review
    Movie Review: The Hangover Part II Is Darker, But the Joke’s On UsCan sex slavers pumping drugs into children and necrophiliacs be far away? They can’t be any creepier than Zach Galifianakis.
  50. movie review
    In Bridesmaids, Chick Flick Meets Raunchy Comedy With Hilarious Results“The idea of a ‘female mask,’ of women under pressure to disguise their feelings, is the key to ‘Bridesmaid’’s best scenes.”
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