78
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Village VoiceMelissa AndersonVillage VoiceMelissa AndersonThe quick-witted malcontent, a Morristown, New Jersey, refugee who arrived at Port Authority in 1969, is the best kind of New Yorker: one with a long memory who's averse to nostalgia.
- 90The New York TimesGinia BellafanteThe New York TimesGinia BellafanteIn “Public Speaking,” Martin Scorsese’s enormously enjoyable and perceptive documentary about her, Ms. Lebowitz’s endearing narcissism is a study in the notion that arrogance and insecurity are largely two sides of the same cocktail coaster.
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearBy the end of this funny, insightful doc, you get a sense of an extraordinary mind that both fueled and fed the zeitgeist. Don't miss it.
- This is a movie with a lot of intelligence and ideas, about someone with a lot of both, for people who, even if they lack one or both of those qualities, appreciate them.
- The film makes a choice: it ignores the psychic wounds that created the witty and prickly bow in which Lebowitz wraps herself. But this approach feels exactly right, and with Public Speaking Martin Scorsese has created a fine film that may be as close as her fans will get to the book Fran Lebowitz seems unable to write.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSan Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandThis may not be Martin Scorsese's most sophisticated film, but it actually takes a smart filmmaker to understand that, with a subject like Fran Lebowitz, the best thing you can do is let her talk.
- 63Slant MagazineSlant MagazineIf you’re a longtime fan of the truly iconoclastic essayist...expecting to learn what makes her tick then Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese’s loving profile of the early bloomer who subsequently spent a decade with “writer’s blockade,” is certain to disappoint.
- 63Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertBoston GlobeMatthew GilbertWithout any framing background information, this affectionate documentary and its continual monologues can feel a little too insidery and indulgent. [22 Nov 2010, p.G9]
- 60VarietyBrian LowryVarietyBrian LowryIntermittently amusing and surely interesting, "Lebowitz" falls victim to the classic faux pas of overstaying its welcome.