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Movies / Upcoming / 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:30

Fresh:21

Rotten:9

Average Rating:6.2/10

Consensus: While not a particularly deep look at the man and his career, this documentary still serves as a nicely done introduction to Kushner.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

Genre: Dramas

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... 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 [More]

Director: Freida Lee Mock

Director: Freida Lee Mock
Studio: Balcony Releasing

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Reviews for Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Beyond it's educational value for those unfamiliar with Kushner's work, politics, and sexuality (like myself), there's not much to grab onto here.

Full Review Source: Film and Felt | comment Comment
09/19/09
Gabe Leibowitz
Gabe Leibowitz
Film and Felt
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
05/12/07
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A rich and uplifting film.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Doris Toumarkine
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

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.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/02/07
Wesley Morris
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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/12/07
Hedy Weiss
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.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
12/30/06
Marrit Ingman
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle

A worthwhile but imperfect film.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
12/08/06
Marc Mohan
Marc Mohan
Oregonian

Wrestling with Angels is personal and intimate, insightful about Kushner as well as instructive about his collection of works.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
12/01/06
Marta Barber
Marta Barber
Miami Herald

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.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
12/01/06
Steven Winn
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.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
11/10/06
Joey Guerra
Joey Guerra
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
11/03/06
Timothy Knight
Timothy Knight
Reel.com

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 Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
11/03/06
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

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.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
11/02/06
Charles McNulty
Charles McNulty
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
11/02/06
Steven Leigh Morris
Steven Leigh Morris
L.A. Weekly

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.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
10/26/06
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
New Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
10/06/06
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An overly adoring but still quite interesting profile of the writer.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
10/06/06
Lou Lumenick
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.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
10/06/06
Elizabeth Weitzman
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.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
10/06/06
Francesca Dinglasan
Francesca Dinglasan
Boxoffice Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
10/06/06
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette
 
 
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