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Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack)

Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Marya E. Gates.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Wuthering Heights (2026) Marya E. Gates Like her previous films, Fennell has proven herself to be a lover of maximalism, of artificiality, of feelings first filmmaking.
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Alhelm: Martin Luther King in Palestine (2012) Marya E. Gates The film can feel a bit dated at times, especially given everything that has happened in the last few years, but its got a lot of heart and truly show the power that art has to both heal wounds, bring people together, and also change minds.
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA (2016) Marya E. Gates Although this film is very lo-fi, it is a rich text that explores the film movement known as the L.A. Rebellion
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Marjoe (1972) Marya E. Gates A marvel of a film.
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Jimpa (2025) Marya E. Gates The aim here is clearly to look at intergenerational conflicts and connections, but the results is largely a jumble that could have used a sharper focus
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Speed Sisters (2015) Marya E. Gates While the film can be at times a little too breezy, it is nevertheless and interesting peek into a little seen slice of life in Palestine.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Moses the Black (2026) Marya E. Gates Is it good? Um, no not really. Is it unique? Yes.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Natchez (2025) Marya E. Gates For much of this film I was like "these white people are crazy."
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Foragers (2022) Marya E. Gates Using a mixture of fiction, documentary and archival footage, Manna’s film shows [how] various laws created under the guise of environmental protection. . .have led not only towards prosecution, but also a loss of cultural heritage and knowledge.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
The Devil Is Busy (2024) Marya E. Gates While it’s a chilling film that should hopefully lead towards reform, Gandbhir is also able to use the footage to paint a moving portrait of the vibrant community that was let down by system that should have prevented this tragedy.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
H Is for Hawk (2025) Marya E. Gates Foy gives a committed performance and I would be lying if I said the flashback scenes with her and Gleeson didn’t make cry.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Leila Khaled: Hijacker (2006) Marya E. Gates Slowly, through through these conversations, Makboul begins to see the ways in which she has been raised to see history through a bias lens.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Seeds (2025) Marya E. Gates Poetic. . .captures rural Black agrarian life in the United States like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Sound of Falling (2025) Marya E. Gates This is a film that is meant to be felt, meant to lead you towards transformation, and I think can best appreciated by going into it knowing as little about it as possible, so that you give yourself over to its singular rhythm fully.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
The Future (2011) Marya E. Gates [Packs] quite a wallop as she explores not only the possible dissolution of a relationship, but also the entire nature of time itself.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Permanent Record (1988) Marya E. Gates Reeves' performance in this early film really sets the tone for the vulnerable emotionality he would bring to the rest of his career.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind (2019) Marya E. Gates Not only a thorough portrait of Lightfoot’s unparalleled career as one of the world’s most popular and fêted singer-songwriters of all time, but it’s also a sharp self-portrait of a man coming to terms with his own demons.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Bright Star (2009) Marya E. Gates Their initial flirtation is shockingly modern with its verve and sass, while the chemistry between Whishaw and Cornish buzzes with erotic electricity.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) Marya E. Gates Like their previous film The Brutalist, this film explores fanaticism, extreme commitment and sacrifice for a dream, and the rot at the heart of modern America.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Corner Store (2010) Marya E. Gates A fascinating look at both life in Occupied Palestine, but also a hard look at the myth of the American Dream in the face of our intense immigration process.
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
The Summer of Flying Fish (2013) Marya E. Gates [Features] dreamy cinematography by Inti Briones (who also lensed Francisca Alegría’s The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future) and sharp political satire
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Atropia (2025) Marya E. Gates The romance stuff doesn’t quite gel with the strong sense of satire, which is where the film really excels.
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Little Trouble Girls (2025) Marya E. Gates I love the way that Djukić uses cinematic language (especially sound) to explore the feeling of disassociating, as well as the way she shows the oppressiveness of purity culture.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
A Private Life (2025) Marya E. Gates I will say, it’s very queer, it’s weird in the same way that Zlotowski’s Planetarium was, and both Foster and the great Mathieu Amalric are fantastic.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
The Chronology of Water (2025) Marya E. Gates Style-wise, the film felt like watching a sexually charged film by provocateur Catherine Breillat by way of avant-garde pioneer Hollis Frampton. Take that as you will.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Hamnet (2025) Marya E. Gates The universality of death and mourning. Unfortunately, the heft of that universality is undercut by the technical aspects of the film.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Viva Verdi! (2024) Marya E. Gates A wonderful love letter to humanity, community, and the arts.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow (2024) Marya E. Gates I can’t say this film made me feel better about the way the integrity of the media is eroding here in the U.S., but it definitely made me feel a solidarity with those around the globe who are doing what they can to slow fascism’s grasp on all our lives.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
The Tale of Silyan (2025) Marya E. Gates A fiery screed against capitalism and industrialization and legislation that puts profits over maintaining ancient ways of life and puts our connections with nature at risk.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night (2022) Marya E. Gates Combines an Arabic-language opera about loss, mourning, and inherited trauma performed. . .with Sansour’s signature flare for striking, layered visuals and a unique use of archive material to evoke the deep melancholy of a future differed.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Rental Family (2025) Marya E. Gates A real old fashioned charmer.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Selena y Los Dinos (2025) Marya E. Gates Hardcore fans might not find much new information here, but the sheer amount of footage of Selena, both performing and just hanging out with her family, makes this a worthwhile watch.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Left-Handed Girl (2025) Marya E. Gates Knowing how much Tsou has worked with Baker in the past, the film offers an interesting opportunity to ponder how much her sensibilities actually influenced his work over the years, and vice versa.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Belén (2025) Marya E. Gates Films like this remind us that we need to know our history, and the women who have fought for us, in order to even just keep what little ground we’ve won.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) Marya E. Gates There are still shades of colonialism left in the film, but largely it is a love letter to the place that raised her and the profound effect those early years had on the rest of her life
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Die My Love (2025) Marya E. Gates Ramsay is a master of mood, and her use of sound design in particular does create a nightmarish sense of dread and tension that never once lets up.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025) Marya E. Gates This decision to keep the technology that connects, and occasionally disrupts, their conversations is a strong artistic choice to make the audience acutely aware of the fragility of their connection.
Posted Dec 05, 2025  Edit critic review
Lesbian Space Princess (2025) Marya E. Gates Think an animated Tank Girl, that’s a little more sapphic, and made for twenty-something Tumblr girlies, and you’ll be on the right track.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (2024) Marya E. Gates It’s a gorgeous film about an artist’s journey toward self-acceptance and personal freedom told with the same verve and non-conformity as its subject.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
Calle Málaga (2025) Marya E. Gates This is a sensual film in every sense of the word, and Touzani’s brings the same tender heart and poetic eye she’s brought to her first two films.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
The White House Effect (2024) Marya E. Gates The film takes a wrecking ball to any nostalgia anyone has for the 1980s, laying bare not just the rampant capitalism, but the way ecology and conversation of our natural resources was sacrificed on its alter.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
I Am From Palestine (2023) Marya E. Gates It’s a quietly effective way to show that cultural erasure can come in ways as seemingly benign as a map in a school room.
Posted Oct 29, 2025  Edit critic review
River of Grass (2025) Marya E. Gates Wortzel weaves together Douglas’ writing, archival footage, present-day interviews with Miccosukee educator and activist Betty Osceola, and more to craft an poetic ode to her home and plea for conservation before it’s too late.
Posted Oct 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Mistress Dispeller (2024) Marya E. Gates This is a complex film that will sneak up on you and leave you with a greater understanding of our shared humanity, despite restrictive cultural norms.
Posted Oct 29, 2025  Edit critic review
The Falling Sky (2024) Marya E. Gates The film encourages us as viewers to reassess our own materialistic worldview and the unsuitability of a lifestyle so entrenched in capitalism that it is threatened the wellbeing of whole world.
Posted Oct 29, 2025  Edit critic review
The Mastermind (2025) Marya E. Gates Pointedly, James is a bored white aesthete who feels entitled to a better life despite having not worked towards achieving it while also has ignoring the politics of the world around him to the point of apathy
Posted Oct 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Stallions of Palestine (2019) Marya E. Gates In the end, the doc makes a pretty broad statement that a shared love of raising horses can be a place where both sides can put away their differences and just enjoy these beautiful animals.
Posted Oct 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Alabama Solution (2025) Marya E. Gates It’s a harrowing film that takes a cold, hard look at the system
Posted Oct 11, 2025  Edit critic review
There Was, There Was Not (2024) Marya E. Gates The film stands as a stark reminder that cultures all over this world are being erased and people are being ethnically cleansed from their homelands under the watch of global powers who do little to deter these tragedies.
Posted Oct 11, 2025  Edit critic review
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) Marya E. Gates Mary Bronstein’s frenetic and surreal ode to the anxieties and pressure of motherhood, is my favorite narrative film of the year.
Posted Oct 11, 2025  Edit critic review
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