David Edelstein

David Edelstein is a film critic for New York magazine and for NPR's Fresh Air, and an occasional commentator on film for CBS Sunday Morning. He has also written film criticism for the Village Voice, The New York Post, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section.

A member of the National Society of Film Critics, he is the author of the play Blaming Mom, and the co-author of Shooting to Kill (with producer Christine Vachon).

Houston, We Have A Space Flick: A Sentimental Mission In Zero 'Gravity'

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In Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, Sandra Bullock plays Ryan Stone, an astronaut careening through space after an accident.

Credit Warner Bros.

The astronauts (Bullock and George Clooney) were repairing the Hubble Telescope before their shuttle was hit with debris.

Credit Warner Bros.

By David Edelstein

Originally published on Fri October 4, 2013 1:51 pm

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In a season in which we're all talking about AMC's phenomenal Breaking Bad and Netflix's elating Orange Is the New Black, Hollywood needs you, your kids and everyone in Europe and China to get out from behind those TV monitors and into theaters. Movie studios are falling behind on compelling narratives. But they can give you what TV can't: absolute, total bombardment.

10:55 am

Fri September 27, 2013

Gordon-Levitt's 'Don Jon' Is An Openhearted Directorial Debut

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt -- in his writing and directing debut -- plays Jon, a porn addict with no interest in relationships until Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) changes things.

Credit Relativity Media

Tony Danza plays dad to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon. Critic David Edelstein says there's "a lifetime of sitcom precision — and heart — in what Danza does."

Credit Relativity Media

By David Edelstein

Originally published on Fri September 27, 2013 1:15 pm

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In phe last decade, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has worked hard to establish himself as a serious actor, and he's been so successful it's easy to forget he came of age in the '90s sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. The guy has comedy chops, and he's exercising them again in a smart new movie he wrote and directed called Don Jon.

12:42 pm

Fri September 20, 2013

Gandolfini Is So Vivid In 'Enough Said,' You Forget He's Gone

James Gandolfini plays a divorced TV archivist who falls in love with a divorced masseuse, played by Julia-Louis Dreyfus, in Nicole Holofcener's Enough Said.

Credit Lacey Terrell / Fox Searchlight

By David Edelstein

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Nicole Holofcener's Enough Said is her most conventional comedy since her 1996 debut, Walking and Talking. I don't love it as much as her scattershot ensemble movies Friends With Money and Please Give, but it has enough weird dissonances and hilarious little curlicues to remind you her voice is like no other. I love it enough.

12:27 pm

Wed August 28, 2013

Reaching Across What's Broken, 'Short Term' Fix Or No

In Short Term 12 — named for the youth facility where it's primarily set — John Gallagher Jr. and Brie Larson play young counselors not too far removed from their own adolescent struggles.

Credit Cinedigm

By David Edelstein

Originally published on Fri August 30, 2013 3:02 pm

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It's easy to make fun of a certain kind of therapeutic language — the kind you hear all through the movie Short Term 12.

That title comes from the name of a group home for abused and/or unstable teens. Early on, a young counselor named Grace (Brie Larson) tells one smart-mouthed kid that "your attitude is not helping either one of us" — which would tend to make her a repressive drag in a typical Hollywood teen picture.

11:31 am

Fri August 23, 2013

Boozy Bromance 'World's End' Rises Above Its Lowbrow Tactics

Nick Frost (from left), Eddie Marsan, Simon Pegg, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman play a group of friends who reunite for a pub crawl challenge in The World's End.

Credit Laurie Sparham / Focus Features

By David Edelstein

Originally published on Fri August 23, 2013 2:30 pm

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The World's End is a world-shaking, genre-bending, sci-fi comedy, and a splendid capper to what British writer-director Edgar Wright and actor-writer Simon Pegg call their "Cornetto trilogy," for an ice cream they eat on their side of the Atlantic. This one's arguably the best of the three, but who wants to argue over gorgeous satires like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End? It's like ice cream flavors: Have them all.

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David Edelstein

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Movie Reviews

12:58 pm

Fri October 4, 2013