Popular reviews

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★½ 2

  Would gladly watch a 4-hour version

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★½ 3

  hard to overstate just how rich, candid & layered this thing is. i feared a dvd extra, i got a cinematic portrait for the ages. and i say that as a De Palma agnostic.

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 8

  78/100

  This cocaine-infused, blood-splattered rush of a cinematic portrait is cohesive beyond belief. As the title card shouts (D E P A L M A) in bright red coloring, you realize this is going to be different. Each topic is tackled in precise bullet point fashion, with seamless editing and organization carrying the frenzied tempo along, but the conclusion feels mournful, even romantic in a certain sense. We all love the movies, but De Palma just happened to form a filmography as his altar for worship.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 1

  Holy mackerel, that was fun.

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  Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★½

  De Palma worships Hitchcock and it seems that this was his Hitchcock/Truffaut. It’s his chance to work through his filmography, be self critical, air grievances, and explain his thought processes in both his successes and failures. In that sense, it works quite well.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★ 2

  i liked the part where brian de palma says The Birds isn't good

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 2

  More rewarding for neophytes and casual fans than it is for the titular director’s hardcore devotees, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s “De Palma” is nevertheless essential viewing for everyone. Part autobiography and part filmmaking master class, this chronological documentary tour through the life and work of Brian De Palma (“Carrie,” “Blow Out,” “Body Double,” etc.) might initially appear to be nothing more than a glorified DVD bonus feature — it basically consists of a comprehensive interview that’s interspersed with a clips from his movies and a smattering of choice archival footage — but it isn’t long before it begins to pick up speed and snowball into something special.

  READ THE FULL REVIEW ON INDIEWIRE

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 1

  As a movie, this is solidly good. As a commercial for movies, and specifically for De Palma movies, this is maybe unparalleled.

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  Review by kayla ★★★★ 2

  “What’s great about Carrie is they made so many versions of it now and they’ve made so many mistakes that it’s wonderful to see what happens when somebody takes a piece of material and makes all the mistakes you avoided”

  Ahahahahhahahahahahahaa that’s so funny. But yeah I want a documentary like this with every director

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  Review by #1 gizmo fan ★★★★ 5

  "My true wife is my movie, not you."

  I wish I had watched more of De Palma's films before watching this, cause now I'm fucking hooked. What a wonderful asshole. I can't wait to watch his work.

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  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★ 4

  The night light that keeps me up until conclusion.

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  Review by Brian Saur ★★★★ 3

  Absolutely one of the best “portrait of a filmmaker” documentaries and it’s basically just De Palma sitting in front of a fireplace telling stories about the making of all of his films. It’s his disarming frankness & relative humility that make it so effective and engaging. Also, he’s had a heck of a career & this doc makes you want to watch his stuff as soon as you’re done with it.