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MOVIES / ON DVD / WRESTLING WITH ANGELS: PLAYWRIGHT TONY KUSHNER
Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner

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Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner (2006)

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Reviews Counted: 29 Fresh: 21  Rotten:8 Average Rating: 6.3/10
 
Consensus: A nicely done introduction to the playwright. While not a particularly deep look at the man and his career, this documentary still serves as a nicely done introduction to Kushner. more
 
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 4, 2006 Limited
Synopsis:
One of our greatest living playwrights, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America) is a consummate artist and indomitable political activist committed to equality and social justice. A Jewish homosexual raised in the heart of the Deep South, Kushner has become a... [More]
One of our greatest living playwrights, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America) is a consummate artist and indomitable political activist committed to equality and social justice. A Jewish homosexual raised in the heart of the Deep South, Kushner has become a compassionate voice for outsiders in a climate of repression and censorship. Wrestling with Angels covers three years of Kushner's life from 9/11 to the 2004 presidential election, capturing the fierce moral responsibility that pervades this passionate artist's work. Perhaps the greatest compliment to Freida Lee Mock's film is that she does justice to her brilliant subject, entwining interviews with leading theatre artists and personal moments from Kushner's life with scenes from his plays. Watching Marcia Gay Harden as Laura Bush in a scene from one of Kushner's lesser-known plays is worth the price of admission itself. Hearing Meryl Streep read a prayer that Kushner wrote asking–no, demanding–God to cure AIDS will tear your heart out. Fiercely political, deeply personal, incredibly intelligent, funny, poignant, hopeful, and immensely spiritual, Kushner's work is a bright shining light. Like Tony Kushner himself, Mock's film about him is a multifaceted gem that sparkles as it enlightens on so many levels. -- © Sundance Film Festival [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Director: Freida Lee Mock

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Full Review | Comment
05/12/07 05:38 AM
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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A rich and uplifting film.

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03/01/07 03:54 AM
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International
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This is an exceedingly friendly portrait, a disarming one, too. 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.

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02/02/07 02:39 PM
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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The final portrait is unquestionably entertaining, very occasionally teasing and largely adoring. Because Kushner is a devoted political commentator, his thoughts on everything from America's role in the world to the nature of Zionism are on full display.

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01/12/07 02:55 PM
Hedy Weiss
Chicago Sun-Times
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[Director Freida Lee] Mock’s approach to Kushner is so casual and friendly that it never steps outside of his own life for a glimpse of its context.

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12/30/06 08:10 AM
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle
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A worthwhile but imperfect film.

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12/08/06 03:16 PM
Marc Mohan
Oregonian
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Wrestling with Angels is personal and intimate, insightful about Kushner as well as instructive about his collection of works.

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12/01/06 02:58 PM
Marta Barber
Miami Herald
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Wrestling With Angels is a canny piece of filmmaking, sure to absorb both audiences familiar with Kushner's plays and those who know little or nothing about him.

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12/01/06 02:57 PM
Steven Winn
San Francisco Chronicle
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A sentimental valentine to a man who, underneath it all, simply wants to move people with his message.

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11/10/06 04:17 PM
Joey Guerra
Houston Chronicle
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Flaws aside, Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner is still worth a look for its glimpse at one of the leading voices of 21st century American drama.

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11/03/06 04:23 PM
Timothy Knight
Reel.com
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While Wrestling With Angels is definitely a worthwhile experience, you'd expect it to be a more dramatic one, considering what Kushner has produced.

Full Review | Comment
11/03/06 04:22 PM
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News
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This uncritical cinematic embrace doesn't do justice to a playwright who never met a Brechtian dialectic he didn't want to ponder more deeply.

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11/02/06 08:05 PM
Charles McNulty
Los Angeles Times
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It’s a loving film, but Kushner’s own characters are more richly textured than Mock’s depiction of the playwright and the divided, divisive world he’s trying to fathom.

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11/02/06 11:26 AM
Steven Leigh Morris
L.A. Weekly
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The essence of the film is that [Kushner], with not a touch of evangelistic pomp, cannot conceive of life as anything other than a campaign to improve life.

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10/26/06 02:16 PM
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic
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Wrestling With Angels paints an intimate and detailed portrait of playwright Tony Kushner, in the years since he became the most important living American dramatist.

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10/06/06 07:45 PM
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
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An overly adoring but still quite interesting profile of the writer.

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10/06/06 07:25 PM
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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Freida Lee Mock's adulatory portrait makes for pleasant viewing -- but should it? Her subject is a professional rabble-rouser, an intellect determined to provoke a sleeping world into action.

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10/06/06 07:24 PM
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
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Although the analysis is far from deep, Mock's film succeeds as an above-average introduction to the playwright, especially to an audience unfamiliar with his work.

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10/06/06 07:23 PM
Francesca Dinglasan
Boxoffice Magazine
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Even if you're not a fan of his work, it's a good thing to see, and is worth a view when it gets on TV sometime in the new year.

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10/06/06 12:49 PM
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette
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Mock is good at seizing a subject and exploiting it for her own purposes. But one doesn't get the feeling that she, unlike Tony Kushner, wants to get her hands dirty.

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10/05/06 02:01 PM
John Anderson
Newsday
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