Owen Gleiberman
Variety
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Owen:
Best of Sundance: 17 Must-See Movies From the 2023 Festival
From 'Fair Play' to 'Past Lives,' Variety critics select the best movies of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. → Read More
The Best Documentaries of 2022
For decades now, one of the buzziest things you’ll hear at a film festival is, “The best movies here are the documentaries.” It’s often a true statement, but maybe it’… → Read More
The Worst Films of 2022
When film critics hand out negative judgements, we’re often called "mean." And if that were actually the case, our list of the year’s worst movies would be the meanest thing we do. → Read More
Best Movies of 2022: 'Tár,' 'The Batman,' 'The Fabelmans'
This fall, the story of how prestige films, awards films — whatever you want to call them — underperformed at movie theaters was more than a box office story. It was, potentially, the story of a paradigm shift. An essential question was raised: If a drama as acclaimed and exciting to watch as “Tár” — […] → Read More
Best Movies of 2022: 'Tár,' 'The Batman,' 'The Fabelmans'
This fall, the story of how prestige films, awards films — whatever you want to call them — underperformed at movie theaters was more than a box office story. It was, potentially, the story of a paradigm shift. An essential question was raised: If a drama as acclaimed and exciting to watch as “Tár” — […] → Read More
2021's Best Movies: House of Gucci, Dune, Spencer
Our critics' picks for the best films of 2021 range from House of Gucci to Dune to Zack Snyder's Justice League. → Read More
Critics Debate: Is ‘No Time to Die’ a Triumph or a Letdown? And Where Does the James Bond Series Go From Here?
The release of "No Time to Die" marks a crucial turning point for James Bond. Variety critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge discuss. → Read More
After Oscars Ratings Tank, Do the Academy Awards Need Another Makeover?
The 93rd Academy Awards broadcast was a dud. Five Variety editors and critics debate what went wrong with the Oscars. → Read More
‘Voyagers’ Review: It’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ in Space, and in Hip Black T-Shirts
Every era gets the youth sci-fi action movie it deserves. Twenty-five years ago, Paul Verhoeven made “Starship Troopers” (1997), and whatever you thought of that self-consciously over-the-top high-cheese parable of pinup actors battling giant bugs, there’s no denying it packed a wallop that was very late ’90s — a revel in teen-idol decadence fused with […] → Read More
‘Giants Being Lonely’ Review: A Moody Poetic Riff on Baseball and the Dark Side of Being a Teenage Jock
Movies about American teenage life tend to be jumpy and exuberant, as if they were unfolding in a hive. In the usual high-school comedy, even the most out-of-the-loop dweebs are right there in the jammed hallways, getting tweaked by the mean girls (or mean boys) and hanging out with their fellow quick-witted losers. There are […] → Read More
‘Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition’ Review: An Authentic Arctic Adventure, But Mostly a Rather Icy Biopic
The famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to reach the South Pole (on Dec. 14, 1911), so when you watch “Amundsen: The Greatest Expedition,” you may think you’ve got a good idea of the movie you have in store: an adventure at once exciting and treacherous, set in the frozen wilderness, with […] → Read More
'The Unholy' Review: A Religious Horror Movie You Can Believe In
Cricket Brown makes a splash in a rare good megaplex nightmare, in which the spirit of the Virgin Mary appears to show up in Massachusetts. → Read More
‘Every Breath You Take’ Review: Casey Affleck Plays a Shrink Terrorized by Sam Claflin’s Psycho Charmer
For a thriller that's overly designed and under-scripted, it's got the twists and good actors to carry you along. → Read More
‘The Oxy Kingpins’ Review: A Muckraking Documentary Reveals How the Scandal of the Opioid Crisis Really Worked
Brendan Fitzgerald's film looks at the drug dealers and the drug executives and asks: What's the difference? → Read More
‘The Seventh Day’ Review: Guy Pearce Is the Exorcist as Hipster Cynic in This Week’s Demonic-Possession Potboiler
The actor's cool-cat attitude is the only innovation in a movie that spews the usual devil-is-here tropes at us. → Read More
'Islands' Review: A Lonelyheart Drama as Honest as It Is Touching
Rogelio Balagtas inhabits the soul of a middle-aged Filipino-Canadian janitor who still lives with his parents. → Read More
‘Nobody’ Review: Bob Odenkirk Gets His Death Wish On in an Action-Geek Fantasy That’s Not What It Seems
Before there were superhero films, there were don’t-get-mad-get-even films. You might say that the two genres have nothing to do with each other. But in the early-to-mid-’70s, when the revenge film as we know it was coming into being with “Dirty Harry,” “Walking Tall,” and “Death Wish,” part of the premise of the new pulp […] → Read More
Will Zack Snyder Be Invited to Make a ‘Justice League’ Sequel? The Answer Is a Test of Whether Hollywood Still Works (Column)
For 45 years, Hollywood has churned out sequels to more or less any movie that makes a big enough splash at the box office. The rationale has always been simple: The fans want it. Starting in the mid-’70s, with “Jaws” and “Rocky” and “Star Wars,” fan service became the model, the engine, the economic blueprint […] → Read More
‘The Lost Sons’ Review: A Documentary Mystery About a Kidnapped Baby…and the Haunted Adult He (Maybe) Grows Into
Paul Fronczak's journey of identity anchors a nonfiction suspense film whose key revelation is its humanity. → Read More
‘Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free’ Review: Newly Unearthed 16mm Footage Catches a Rock Star at a Crossroads
Newly unearthed 16mm footage captures the recording of "Wildflowers," the solo album Tom Petty thought was his finest achievement. → Read More