De Palma
A24 | Release Date: June 10, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 16, 2016
De Palma is a true visionary, even if you might not quite agree with what that vision is. Either way, a trip through his wild and hugely influential filmography is mandatory for any film fan, and that’s just what directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow offer in their new documentary. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiJun 10, 2016
One of the essential documentaries on Hollywood. Read full review
100
New York PostKyle SmithJun 9, 2016
Sharp, funny and as mesmerizing as the master’s notoriously languorous suspense scenes. Read full review
100
HitfixDrew McWeenyJun 9, 2016
DePalma emerges as a charming storyteller, funny and slightly wicked, and he offers up some terrific anecdotes about his casts, his process, and his choices over the years. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 8, 2016
It's more like confession, the director still seething and replaying Vertigo in his head, lost in the curves of his career. De Palma is a public therapy session that upturns all expectations. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 10, 2016
As De Palma shows us, whether he’s got two more films left in him or two dozen — Holy Mackerel — what a career! Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 16, 2016
The hidden magic in De Palma is Baumbach and Paltrow’s editing. The pacing is just right, and the stories flow, one from another. Sit back, relax, watch, listen and learn. It’s a good time at the movies. Read full review
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 15, 2015
You don’t have to love De Palma’s movies to find De Palma a fascinating look at a vital period of American film history, through the eyes of a controversial artist. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJun 17, 2016
It's great to hear a director talking candidly about the actors he's worked with, dishing out good, juicy stuff. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 16, 2016
De Palma is a cinematic sampler that makes you want to gorge on the whole unholy buffet. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 16, 2016
Weirdly touching documentary. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 9, 2016
Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, filmmakers themselves and De Palma fans to the bone, haven't gathered a bunch of talking heads to debate De Palma's significance. They just put the man himself on camera, mic him up and let him rip. The result is heaven for movie lovers. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 2, 2016
Like Hitchcock, De Palma reveals himself to be guided by an unusual mixture of intuition and intellectualization. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 14, 2016
By sprinting through 50 years of features so fast that each of them ultimately feels like a single frame rattling through a projector, they blur De Palma’s body of work into a moving truth that none of his individual films has ever crystallized with such clarity: The movies are real-life; the great filmmakers are the ones who never let you forget that. Read full review
83
ConsequenceBlake GobleJun 8, 2016
At times amusing, at others analytical, De Palma is both an homage and a lecture. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorJun 8, 2016
De Palma is a fascinating, revealing, and compelling overview of a remarkably eclectic career, but it’s also a seldom-heard first-hand account of what it’s like to work inside and outside the Hollywood system. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 12, 2015
De Palma is a joy: a hit of garrulous cinephile cocaine so pure you want to do a Tony Montana, fall face-first into it and inhale it all in one go. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 9, 2016
Suffice it to say that the film is a must-see for fans of the man (who, like many of his gifted colleagues, has given up on what’s left of the Hollywood studio system) and a should-see for anyone who cares about how movies are made, as well as how, in certain near-miraculous cases, really good movies get made. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 9, 2016
Like any good work of criticism, De Palma will be catnip for passionate fans while also serving as a primer and a goad for the skeptical and the curious. Mr. De Palma is remarkable company — witty, insightful and neither unduly modest nor overbearingly vain. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanOct 1, 2015
So many documentaries about artists just want you to accept that their subject is an innovator. De Palma breaks it down and shows you why he is. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 12, 2015
A very basic formula, executed in bare-bones fashion, works a treat because this set of interviews with Brian De Palma on his life and films is so revealing, and entertaining, that little is needed here other than the man, his opinions and some telling illustrations. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 12, 2015
Acolytes of Brian De Palma’s flavorful, flamboyant filmography hardly need reminding of his acrobatic ability as a visual storyteller; what they’ll learn from De Palma is that in front of the camera, he’s a pretty marvelous raconteur, too. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 22, 2016
Since so many of De Palma’s films have become part and parcel with the American cultural consciousness of the last 50 years, I can’t imagine this filmmaker’s insights not providing every viewer with some memorable takeaways. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 23, 2016
De Palma never achieved the box-office and Oscar glory of his contemporaries (Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese), but this documentary is a testament to a talent that merits a place at their table. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJun 16, 2016
It’s a master class with a director who profoundly loves the movies, and, in his best work, has shown dazzling skill at making them. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 16, 2016
A documentary in which one of the most voyeuristic directors in American cinema delivers an engaging, if maddeningly unresolved, tutorial in film production and appreciation. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 8, 2016
De Palma is just De Palma gabbing for two hours into a camera, and that’s its ultimate limitation, but also its great strength. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 9, 2016
De Palma's biggest asset, not surprisingly, is the man himself. A formidable talker who is invariably smart, candid and acerbic, De Palma is a person of considerable self-confidence, and listening to him hold forth gives us an always-involving glimpse inside a singular cinematic mind. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriJun 8, 2016
Paltrow and Baumbach don't get fancy with the filmmaking. They're smart enough to let De Palma's own resonant images — his gorgeous compositions, his smooth camera moves — do much of the work. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 12, 2015
There's a ton of great material here and a nonstop flow of expertly chosen clips. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 12, 2015
De Palma is a timely reminder of one of cinema's most infuriating yet entertaining characters. Read full review
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