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).
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David Mitchell's exquisite novel Cloud Atlas has been adapted for the screen by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. The film is never dull, but critic David Edelstein found that unlike the book, the film fails in its attempt to tie six distinct stories together. -
Writer Mark O'Brien spent most of his life in an iron lung. He was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary , and now his story is told again in the semi-fictionalized feature The Sessions. Critic David Edelstein reviews the story of how one man lost his virginity — and found out how to love. -
Ben Affleck's Argo, which is based on the declassified story of the CIA's mission to save six American diplomats trapped in Iran in 1979, is gripping, compelling and, at times, hilarious. But, as critic David Edelstein explains, the best parts of the "true" story are the parts that aren't true at all. -
Critic David Edelstein reviews a film that may sound a lot like a campus-bound version of Glee, but has more to it than that label might suggest.
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Rian Johnson's action-thriller can't dodge the frustrating elements of most time-travel tales, but the film's characters, performances and stylization add up to an experience that critic David Edelstein believes is the right amount of happy and tragic. -
Writer-director Stephen Chbosky brings his 1999 young adult novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower to the screen. Critic David Edelstein says the result may be better than the book — a project that communicates the trials of high school in a way that is both painful and elating. -
Many comparisons have been made between Paul Thomas Anderson's film The Master and the history of Scientology. But, as David Edelstein explains, the challenge of balancing the search for surrogate family with American individualism dominates the film. (Recommended) -
Leslye Headland makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of her own play about three bridesmaids whose bad habits and emotional issues threaten to undermine their friend's impending wedding. It's tonally uneven but engrossing, says critic David Edelstein. -
In Hope Springs, Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) seek out a couples therapist (Steve Carell) to try to rekindle the spark in their marriage. Critic David Edelstein says it's a post-reproductive chick flick for audiences who are no longer spring chickens. -
Ruby Sparks and Killer Joe tell of an author who conjures a woman from his typewriter and a corrupt detective hired to kill an aging mother, respectively. But Fresh Air's David Edelstein says the films share a common trait: Both take their stories beyond common reality to more fascinating parts of the psyche.
