Give A Gift
MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

David Edelstein

Senior Movie Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
david.edelstein@nymag.com
  1. movie review
    Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell Is Full of Rage and SpinIt can’t be an accident that the film shows the enemies of truth and justice to be the FBI and the press.
  2. what were the 2010s?
    Every Movie of the 2010s, RankedOur critics pored over 5,279 of the decade’s films. Here’s the best, worst, and mehst.
  3. best of 2019
    The Best Movies of 2019Our critics celebrate the latest Tarantino, a South Korean black comedy, and the return of Eddie Murphy.
  4. movie review
    In Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, Rich White Bigots Get Their ComeuppanceMacabre as it is, there’s something comfy about the universe of this ensemble whodunit.
  5. movie review
    Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman Is His Most Satisfying Film in DecadesThe director has made his most stylishly daring movie: one that is pointedly sapped of style.
  6. movie review
    Todd Haynes’s Dark Waters Shows You Hell on EarthIs this what happens every day in a country controlled by companies with vast coffers, armies of lobbyists, and politicians leased by the year?
  7. movie review
    A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Ought to Make You Roll Your Eyes, and Yet …Our nicest Hollywood star playing our nicest-ever children’s show host: There’s peer pressure to succumb.
  8. movie review
    The Report Is a Dry, Arm’s-Length Movie That Seeps Into Your BloodAccidentally or on purpose (or a bit of both), Scott Z. Burns’s movie reminds us how hard it is to be a whistle-blower.
  9. movie review
    Ford v Ferrari Is an Old-fashioned RouserJames Mangold doesn’t misuse his head-rattling techniques. He brings a lot of new-fashioned virtuosity, too.
  10. movie review
    In Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach’s Self-Pity Comes With Stretches of BrillianceThe best parts of this divorce saga are the small moments that resonate like mad.
  11. movies
    The Movies We Loved in 2019Including Bong Joon Ho’s acid black comedy, Brad Pitt in space, and the gentle Pain and Glory.
  12. movie review
    The Current War Is an Absorbing Biopic That Never Quite Snaps Into FocusWhile alternating current is a fine principle for lighting the world, movies require a current more direct.
  13. movie review
    Dolemite Is My Name Gives Eddie Murphy a Second ActThe writers of Ed Wood provide the actor with his best material in years.
  14. movie review
    In Terminator: Dark Fate, the Cornball Franchise Returns With a VengeanceThe sixth — er, third — Terminator film has gotten much better reviews than it deserves, but I understand why people want to embrace it.
  15. movie review
    Even If You Don’t Love Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, You’ll Love That It ExistsFor extratextual reasons, support your local Nazi comedy.
  16. movie review
    Parasite Is an Acid-Black Comedy That Eats at the MindAt the heart of Bong Joon-ho’s latest film is the most gnawing evolutionary fear of all.
  17. movie review
    In The King, Timothée Chalamet’s Emo Angst Is UnderwhelmingDavid Michôd’s Netflix movie is a dull morality play — with one exception: a Plantagenet Jack Reacher moment.
  18. movie review
    Natalie Portman Gives an Astronomically Intense Performance in Lucy in the SkyEven when we don’t know what the hell is going on in Noah Hawley’s astronaut epic, Portman is a blast.
  19. movie review
    Joker Is One Unpleasant Note Played Louder and LouderJoaquin Phoenix is impressive, but the film panders to selfish, small-minded feelings of resentment.
  20. movie review
    In Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, the Meek Are Absolutely ScrewedIs The Laundromat a poor man’s The Big Short? I would say it’s a heavily mortgaged middle-class man’s The Big Short, and that’s not such a bad thing.
  21. movie review
    Rambo: Last Blood and the Limits of the Macho-Male FantasyNo, I don’t know why I had high hopes for Sylvester Stallone’s latest.
  22. movie review
    Ad Astra Is Mostly Brad Pitt and Nothing ButJames Gray, even more successfully than in Two Lovers and The Lost City of Z, steeps you in his protagonist’s psyche.
  23. toronto film festival 2019
    The Goldfinch: When Adaptation Is Way Too ReverentThe movie is too artful to deserve outright rejection, but too arty to keep you from saying, “What did I just see?”
  24. the devil and daniel johnston
    What Fresh Hell Is This?In honor of the late Daniel Johnston, we’re revisiting the 2006 documentary that brought his defiant life to screen.
  25. toronto film festival 2019
    The Resentment of JokerI’m not arguing that Todd Phillips’s movie will inspire killings, only that it panders to selfish, small-minded feelings of resentment.
  26. fall preview 2019
    The Best and Biggest Movies to See This FallCats, Frozen II, Little Women, and more.
  27. movie review
    Official Secrets Is a Low-key, Paranoid Procedural Drama Done WellPasty white men debate whether a Bush-era whistle-blower, Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley), is a hero or a traitor.
  28. movie review
    Brittany Runs a Marathon Is a Conflicted Go-for-It MovieDirector Paul Downs Collaizo and star Jillian Bell dare to tell an emotionally convoluted story.
  29. movie review
    American Factory Gestures Toward the End of the Working World As We Know ItThe Obamas’ Netflix doc is an eye-opening prelude to the rise of machines.
  30. movie review
    Where’d You Go, Bernadette? Nowhere, Damn ItNot even Cate Blanchett can save this out-of-focus adaptation.
  31. movie review
    Comedies End With Weddings, But After the Wedding Is No ComedyBart Freundlich’s family drama hasn’t been well-received, but tearjerkers rarely have this kind of stuffing.
  32. movie review
    Cold Case Hammarskjöld Presents a Conspiracy You’ll Want to BelieveThis tricked-up documentary about a suspicious 1961 plane crash in Zambia reminds you that conspiracy theories make for great yarns.
  33. movie review
    Brace Yourself for the Devastating Documentary One Child NationNanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s first-person film chronicles China’s one-child policy in infuriating, tragic, grisly detail.
  34. movie review
    Luce Review: Doubt Everything and AnythingJ.C. Lee’s eerie story demands to be discussed, debated, embraced, or (perhaps) rejected.
  35. movie review
    In The Nightingale, There’s No Escaping the Rankness of Male DepravityThe Babadook director returns with a graphically violent, Australian-frontier revenge thriller.
  36. movie review
    The Horror Is Real in the Syrian Doc For SamaThe film doesn’t feel like raw footage — it has been carefully shaped, with a bit of movie-­ish suspense during the final hours.
  37. movie review
    Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is a Seductive Pipe DreamThe director’s dream world is a sadistic place, but in a way it’s sublime, like heaven nestled inside hell.
  38. vulture lists
    All 10 Quentin Tarantino Movies, RankedOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood is a jubilant, wistful, altogether exhilarating comeback for the director. But where does it fit into this ranking?
  39. review
    In the Surreal Horror Movie Luz, the Devil Is in the 16mmIf Tilman Singer’s low-budget haunt had been a play, I’d probably have walked out, but as a film I found it eerie enough to stay rooted.
  40. movie review
    Practice The Art of Self-Defense Against This MovieRiley Stearns’s anti-macho black comedy is cringeworthy in a good way, and hilarious in a not-good way.
  41. movie review
    Jasmin Mozaffari’s Firecrackers Is a Debut Film to WatchWhat the director does better than almost anyone I can think of is dramatize the illusory nature of control.
  42. movie review
    Marianne & Leonard Tells the Story of the Greatest Breakup Song Ever WrittenLeonard Cohen’s “So Long, Marianne” is the tender heart of Nick Broomfield’s latest documentary.
  43. movie review
    Spider-Man: Far From Home Delivers a Single, Scary, Brilliant Answer to EndgameSay what you will about Marvel, but the people at the top are frighteningly in tune with what its audience wants.
  44. movie review
    Ari Aster’s Midsommar Is an Ambitious, Blurry Horror TripThe Hereditary director seems sure of only one thing: that he wants to make you feel as if your head is being sawed off.
  45. movie review
    Ophelia: The Female Gaze Is Strong in This OneDaisy Ridley makes a fine, modern heroine, but it’s Naomi Watts who goes big and waltzes away with the movie.
  46. movie review
    Yesterday Has a Fun Premise, But Doesn’t Know What to Do With ItOnly the first half of Danny Boyle’s Beatles fantasy-comedy works.
  47. movie review
    Wild Rose Rests on the Extraordinary Performance of Its Country GirlDirected by Tom Harper from a script by Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose has more than three chords, but the impulse is to keep it plain.
  48. movie review
    Shaft Review: Another Lame, Mismatched Buddy Action ComedyIt’s so aggressively puerile and phallocentric (big swinging dicks, big guns) it could be taken as a parody.
  49. movie review
    Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die Is a Heavy-Footed Zombie ComedyIt’s not unenjoyable but not quite enjoyable, either.
  50. remembrances
    “Honey, you shouldn’t be showing that to anyone:” Why Pauline Kael Was My CriticHer writing always seemed like a journey, an elevated form of thinking out loud.
More Articles