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The Projectionist
nymag.com/daily/movies
52
A movies blog by New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein, featuring reviews and musings on cinema and the business of Hollywood.
#26182 in All , #13 in General Movies

Edelstein on the ‘Unworthy’ Oscar Nominations

The Oscar nominations prove that the endless prognostications and odds-making (including my own) are, piece by piece, line by line, worthless, a waste of time and bandwidth, and that the voters of th...

24 jan 12

The Wheel

In the old days, kids would have to hide their love of comic books from grown-ups. Now, grown-up critics have to hide their lack of love of comic-book movies from kids. The punishment for not giving ...

27 jul 11

Texans Against Texting: Remember the Alamo Draft House

It happens in the screenings I generally go to, which are mostly for critics and media types. It happens in theaters I go to that you also go to, arthouses and multiplexes: fireflies to the left of y...

06 jun 11

The Slow Part of Fast Five and Every Other Damn Sequel

Critics will be falling all over themselves to evoke the thrilling kineticism of Justin Lins Fast Five, but amid the high-decibel crashes and brain-swooshing whip pans, there is another, flabbier ele...

29 apr 11

The New Speed of Assimilation

Last year, I could think of nothing more vile, nothing more nihilistic, nothing more soul-draining, than The Human Centipede, which I could barely bring myself to write about. And now, in the last 24...

28 apr 11

Ayn Ever Got an Invite

This weekend I hope to catch up with Atlas Shrugged Part 1, but Im a little dismayed to read this from its businessman producer John Aglialoro, who says that after the mediocre box-office showing hes...

28 apr 11

Show Trigs Birth Certificate Now

Its not my bailiwick, but I want to say Im on board with Andrew Sullivan and others who want to see Trig Palins birth certificate, especially now that President Obama has put his own "birther"...

28 apr 11

Elvis Leaves, Morons Gloat

Critic Elvis Mitchell’s departure from Movieline has spawned the usual flood of “What use are critics, anyway?” comments on various websites. Nikki Finke, for whose work I feel enor...

26 apr 11

Where I Stop Reading an Abusive Comment...

Its where the person says, "Rotten Tomatoes critics averaged..." Its where you should stop reading, too--or break off your live conversation and cut your losses. You know youre dealing with p...

11 apr 11

Infinite Stench

As kind a corollary to the samizdat in Infinite Jest, there are jokes so terrible they have the capacity to haunt our dreams, grateful only that we weren’t the ones to spring them on an unforgi...

07 apr 11

Nice Work, Counselor: The Case for The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer has been out for a couple of weeks, and even though it’s low-key and got so-so reviews that compared it to TV law shows, it’s hanging on and building an audience. I kno...

01 apr 11

The Ballad of Sticky Randian Shit

I sympathize with Rand Paul and his rage at all these newfangled water-saving toilets, I really do. I just got rid of an old toilet in my Park Slope dwelling that had been there since, I kid you not,...

30 mar 11

Whoopis Narcissistic Injury

It’s no big deal, it’s not Egypt or Libya, but for the last week I’ve been haunted by Whoopi Goldberg’s embarrassing hissy fit on her television show, The View. If you somehow...

24 feb 11

A Q&A with the great Frank Langella

If you’re near Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville on Thursday, February 10 (or even if you’re not), come see the wonderful 2009 film Starting Out in the Evening and its even more wonder...

09 feb 11

John Barry: License to Thrill

If the success of multiple lousy “franchises” is any indication, moviegoers can be conditioned to salivate on cue—and nothing made us drool like the James Bond theme of John Barry, ...

31 jan 11

Edelstein: The Oscars Have Thrown Me a (Winter’s) Bone

Given the non-stop Oscar odds-making and chatter, it feels, minutes after the 2010 nominations have been announced, as if they’re old news. But that’s not entirely the case: Now, it has a...

25 jan 11

16 Days into 2011 the Worst of 2010

I’d planned to accentuate the positive this year and refrain from making a ten-worst list, but the folks at Vulture asked for my input on a poll of critics’ ten-worst films, and it’...

16 jan 11

Best New York Movie: The Directors Cut

[This often happens: Pieces I like get shortened for space in the print mag and go online in their cut form. So heres my Best New York Movie Ever piece as originally written. (Apologies for omitting ...

10 jan 11 1 person likes this

The Projectionist’s Best Performances of 2010

This blog has been on a hiatus while I wrote about a slew of November-December movies and gave extra reviews to this magazine’s expanded Vulture site, which is also your one-stop shop for all t...

21 dec 10

Buffy the Heartbreaker

Like everyone else, I’m appalled that Buffy the Vampire Slayer will come back as a feature film without the participation of Joss Whedon, who had the brainstorm for the character and never let ...

23 nov 10

The Public I

Thanks to those who came out to the Q&A with Stanley Tucci at the tony Hamptons Film Festival last weekend: I know you were there for him but you sent some like my way, too, which isnt aways the case...

14 oct 10

Takk Takk: Warming up to Iceland

It felt strange to board a plane to Iceland for the Reykjavik Film Festival last week with our own prestige New York fest in progress, but it’s a safe bet that Lincoln Center wouldn’t be ...

06 oct 10

Penn and Curtis: They Were Good for the Jews

Fast (these &%*&$# deadlines) thoughts on the loss of two famous Jews who’ve just left us, Arthur Penn and Tony Curtis. One seminal, game-changing masterpiece like Bonnie and Clyde is not too b...

30 sep 10

Not So Vulture-Eyed

Im back from Iceland where the talk on Jim Jarmusch went very well and before I flew out I was treated to a personal tour of geysers, water falls, and kilometer after kilometer of vistas that looked ...

29 sep 10

By the Time I Got to Iceland...

Theres a festival in New York, but who could say no to a weekend trip to balmy Iceland for the Reykjavik International Film Festival, where Im giving a talk (Im still cramming! It will take place Sun...

25 sep 10

Quelle surprise

Yeah, so, Casey Affleck says it was an act but doesn’t like the word “hoax.” Where have I read that before? (The Times goes with my "performance art" designation, too, in it...

17 sep 10

Real Time/Reel Time

I dont usually bring yall into my process, but as I struggle through a review of Catfish (no spoilers), Im feeling gun-shy. Am I being gulled, like those champions of memoirs by J.T. Leroy and James ...

10 sep 10

The Great Fake Book: I’m Still Here

After a bit of a time-delay, my review of I’m Still Here is finally here, online. I enjoyed the movie hugely: I love watching nutty exhibitionists act out their insecurities, safe, in this case...

08 sep 10

A Tough Lesson in Parenting

Two weeks ago I wrote: "And I can’t wait to spend a couple of days at the Film Forum with Roy Ward Baker’s Inferno and my 78th viewing of William Castle’s The Tinger—I hop...

06 sep 10

Butt-Ugly: Machete

Whether we’re conscious of it or not, part of the suspense when we a watch a violent movie comes from fear that the leading man or woman will have his or her nice face battered and go from beau...

03 sep 10

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