Stuart Klawans

Film Critic

Stuart Klawans was the film critic for The Nation from 1988 through 2020

He Took a Village He Took a Village

In the role of New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell--source and subject alike of Joe Gould's Secret--Stanley Tucci adopts the hesitant drawl of a displaced Southern aristocrat, who ...

Apr 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Legionnaire’s Disease Legionnaire’s Disease

If you squint long enough at Claire Denis's amazing Beau Travail--you'll have to squint, given the African sunlight--you will make out the faint contour of a story.

Mar 30, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Pigeons Home to Roost Pigeons Home to Roost

Star vehicle?

Mar 22, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Independents’ Day Independents’ Day

The most important day in the history of American independent film was May 8, 1947, which witnessed the opening of a picture so personal--no, so heedlessly self-revelatory--that ...

Mar 16, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Planetary Realignments Planetary Realignments

Last night a teenager killed himself below my bedroom window. I heard it happen: first a crescendo of police sirens coming up the avenue at two in the morning, then a crash.

Mar 9, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

On Leo, Gio and Tobey On Leo, Gio and Tobey

It's a sign of age: Mention 1985, and I will sometimes think you're talking about last year.

Mar 2, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Dog Days Dog Days

The first thing Jim Jarmusch asks you to do in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is to look up and down.

Feb 23, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Craven Idolatry Craven Idolatry

For someone who misspent his youth in film societies and revival houses, where mushrooms develop more readily than social skills, a job as a movie reviewer wonderfully eases the ...

Feb 16, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

To Her, With Love To Her, With Love

I like a filmmaker who walks you into a story.

Feb 10, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

The Original Valley Girl The Original Valley Girl

Bette Midler got her first starring role in the movies in 1979, playing the lead in The Rose, a thinly disguised biopic about Janis Joplin.

Feb 3, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

x