Maria Garcia

Maria Garcia is a New York City-based film critic and feature writer, and the author of two books, most recently Cinematic Quests for Identity: The Hero’s Encounter with the Beast (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). She is the cinema columnist for Ambassador magazine, and a frequent contributor to Cineaste. Her reviews and features have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including the LA Times, Film Journal International, The Brooklyn Eagle and The Progressive, and on Biography.com. Maria is a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic.

Interview: Award-winning documentarians Julie Cohen and Betsy West take on the culture-changing and original celebrity chef Julia Child with ‘Julia’

When Julia Child’s “The French Chef” premiered on the Boston public television network in 1963, celebrity chefs were unheard of,… Read More

November 13, 2021

NYFF Review: ‘Unclenching the Fists’ in an uncompromising tale of female resistance from Cannes winner Kira Kovalenko [Grade: B]

Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching of the Fists is set in North Ossetia, in the Russian Caucasus, the site of the horrific… Read More

October 6, 2021

NYFF Review: Not everything is black and white in ‘Passing,’ the feature directorial debut of Rebecca Hall [Grade: B-]

Passing, Rebecca Hall’s debut film as a writer-director, is a studied adaptation of Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen’s eponymous 1929 novel set… Read More

October 1, 2021

NYFF Review: Engrossing ‘Prism’ doc examines how photographic technologies favor white skin, questions the “neutral camera” [Grade: A]

Eléonore Yameogo, An van Dienderen, Rosine Mbakam’s Prism may spark an entirely new conversation about racial bias in filmmaking, namely the “problem”… Read More

September 25, 2021

TIFF Review: With ‘Julia,’ Julie Cohen and Betsy West whip up a charming confit of cooking’s most fearless and unlikely personality [Grade: A]

Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Julia opens with a clip of Julia Child introducing her TV audience to “the chicken… Read More

September 18, 2021

Interview: ‘Respect’ director Liesl Tommy on Aretha Franklin, celebrating Black women and her Hitchcock moment

AwardsWatch spoke with director Liesl Tommy earlier this week via Zoom, a lover of Black people, a longstanding Aretha Franklin… Read More

August 20, 2021

‘Respect’ review: Jennifer Hudson honors Aretha Franklin and belts out another Oscar-worthy performance

Liesl Tommy’s Respect opens in Detroit, in the home where Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) lived for much of her childhood. It is 1952,… Read More

August 8, 2021

‘Ailey’ review: Well intended and researched, but ultimately reveals little of the most influential Black dancer/choreographer of the 20th century

Jamila Wignot’s Ailey celebrates its subject, the late modern dance iconoclast Alvin Ailey (1931-1989), in his own words and through… Read More

July 20, 2021

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