Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner Critic Reviews

A canny piece of filmmaking, sure to absorb both audiences familiar with Kushner's plays and those who know little or nothing about him.Read the full review

The filmmaker invites us to reconsider the author as someone warmer and less intimidating than his body of work. On that count, Wrestling With Angels succeeds.Read the full review

Wrestling with Angels could use some brouhaha: It's a bit too much of a pleasant air kiss from a fan, and doesn't engage inquisitively enough with Kushner's often controversial and very political ideas.Read the full review

An adulatory documentary that could well have been titled "Ode to Kushner." As good-looking and well-crafted as it is -- cinematographers Eddie Marritz and Don Lenzer, who were on board for Mock's "Maya Lin," as well as Bestor Cram provide the rich visuals -- the film suffers from a crucial lack of perspective.Read the full review

Best approached as an admiring portrait of a likable, creative powerhouse at midcareer. No disapproving voices interrupt the stream of praise for his politics and his art. Mr. Kushner’s place in the history of American theater and in American culture, in general, is left unexamined. These are subjects well worth exploring in another, deeper film.Read the full review

As it is, Wrestling With Angels is neither compelling enough for people with little knowledge of the playwright's work nor insightful enough for those of us who have followed his career closely.Read the full review