David Ehrenstein
Tomatometer-approved critic
Shampoo (1975)
75%
“The sixties framework simply drives the irony home all the harder.” –
Film Quarterly
Mar 3, 2025
Full Review
School Daze (1988)
58%
4/4
“The problem isn’t with School Daze; the problem is with a white culture that cannot deal with the spectacle of blacks on-screen on their own terms.” –
Chicago Reader
May 11, 2022
Full Review
Poison (1991)
80%
“Haynes demonstrates an understanding of Genet’s centrality to gay culture while suggesting ways that Genet’s works can be used as a tool for exploring personal and political awareness.” –
The Advocate
Apr 5, 2022
Full Review
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
68%
C
“"The Electrical Life of Louis Wain" isn't even half over by the time its margins start to grow soggy with sadness.” –
IndieWire
Sep 23, 2021
Full Review
Modesty Blaise (1966)
50%
“The whole film -- redolent with pop-and op-art imagery -- suggests nothing less than an Arthur Freed musical on acid.” –
The Advocate
Jul 27, 2021
Full Review
The Times of Bill Cunningham (2018)
80%
“To put it another way, Bill Cunningham is a sort of secular Saint...” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 14, 2020
Full Review
Vita & Virginia (2018)
41%
“It's not a pretty picture, but it's a true one, ad same-sex couples who've "been there" are sure to be thankful for Vita and Virgina as much as the Bloomsbury adepts who'll be certain to flock to it.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 10, 2020
Full Review
Judy (2019)
82%
“Zellweger's womanlike skill is strikingly admirable but the passion of Judy Garland just didn't zing the strings of my heart.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 10, 2020
Full Review
Where's My Roy Cohn? (2019)
87%
“Outside of Adolf Eichmann's trial, I daresay nothing this individually monstrous has been seen on screen before.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 10, 2020
Full Review
Dark Waters (2019)
89%
“Hynes delivers the bad news with added assurance that consciousness and comprehension are the best disinfectants of them all.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 10, 2020
Full Review
The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
82%
“That this hapless, incoherent mess brings down the curtain on a fabled filmmaker's career when it was expected to cap it is lamentable, but not entirely unpredictable.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Nov 30, 2018
Full Review
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
98%
“Melissa McCarthy's turn at the "serious" bat in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is something quite special.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Oct 27, 2018
Full Review
Just Charlie (2017)
100%
“One of most moving and insightful films about the trans experience ever made.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Feb 5, 2018
Full Review
Phantom Thread (2017)
91%
“That Daniel Day-Lewis, whose career was launched when he played a cheeky gay punk with a Pakistani boyfriend in "My Beautiful Laundrette," has elected to end his career with this closet caper is more than a tad depressing.” –
Gay City News
Dec 27, 2017
Full Review
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
95%
“As a gay love story, told without judgment and without apology, it's something that would have seemed unthinkable not so very long ago - and that feels like progress.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Dec 19, 2017
Full Review
Handsome Devil (2016)
84%
“... "Handsome Devil" is a lively gay romance, even though it isn't all that romantic.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Oct 24, 2017
Full Review
Loev (2015)
86%
“... there's also no doubt that Sudhanshu Saria will have a great career if he can continue to make films as tender, insightful and surprising as this one.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Oct 24, 2017
Full Review
4 Days in France (2016)
91%
“... for those who warm to [director Jrȏme] Reybaud's cinematic rhythm will find "Four Days in France" to be one of the best gay films in years.” –
Los Angeles Blade
Oct 24, 2017
Full Review
Ivans Xtc (2002)
77%
“Shot on High Definition video, this exceptionally well-made but exceedingly bleak peek at tinseltown would be unbearable were it not for the sympathetic performance of Danny Huston...” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
Second Skin (1999)
“Though very well-acted, it's not the film it could have been.” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
Km. 0 (2000)
55%
“It's this same disinclination to judge that allows Km. 0 to move from raucous comedy to bittersweet romance...” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
Krampack (2000)
87%
“... the film goes a long way toward dispelling myths of innocence and purity, while showing that teen-agers can sometimes be wise enough to figure out some of life's most important lessons for themselves.” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
Light It Up (1999)
40%
“... it's this sense of the "real" that not only keeps Light It Up lively but that marks it -- for all its visual flair -- as happily out of step with a zeitgeist enamored of naught but money and notoriety as the wildly overhyped millennium turns.” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
50%
“The timing couldn't be better for How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
Head On (1998)
58%
“... the movie demonstrates just how hard coming out can be, especially for those more at war with themselves than with the culture around them.” –
New Times
Oct 3, 2017
Full Review
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