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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
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (2025) Marya E. Gates This isn’t a perfect doc by a long stretch (the ending is particularly creaky), but it definitely captures something important about the era.
Posted Apr 17, 2026  Edit critic review
Roommates (2026) Marya E. Gates There’s a lot of rich kid stuff in this movie, which I also found hard to relate to, although I do think clashing with your college roommate is a pretty universal experience (if you didn’t good for you!!)
Posted Apr 17, 2026  Edit critic review
Mile End Kicks (2025) Marya E. Gates If you enjoy films where a young person makes a lot of cringey mistakes, you will likely enjoy this one.
Posted Apr 17, 2026  Edit critic review
Blue Heron (2025) Marya E. Gates A meditation on family, time, trauma, and memory, this film is simply the best narrative feature of the year so far by a wide margin.
Posted Apr 17, 2026  Edit critic review
You, Me & Tuscany (2026) Marya E. Gates While You Were Sleeping but make it Tuscany. . .Coiro’s film is fun and breezy, and filled with delightfully kooky, if slightly stereotypical, Italian characters.
Posted Apr 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Bunnylovr (2025) Marya E. Gates I'm bit mixed on writer-director-star Katarina Zhu’s directorial debut. . .but I do appreciate what it was trying to do, even if I think the execution is lacking.
Posted Apr 10, 2026  Edit critic review
1000 Women in Horror (2025) Marya E. Gates Once you finish the film you will definitely get hyped for the (female) future of the genre, but also add lots of films to your watchlist.
Posted Apr 10, 2026  Edit critic review
My Sweet Land (2024) Marya E. Gates Hairabedian crafts an elegy for her land, for her people, and for a way of life that has been needlessly destroyed by the dogs of war.
Posted Apr 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence (2025) Marya E. Gates Hers is a story not only of the pioneering female spirit, but also one of the power immigration and the importance of archives in every form.
Posted Apr 10, 2026  Edit critic review
Late Shift (2025) Marya E. Gates Volpe’s film deftly examines one of the many cracks in the modern healthcare system: the overworked and underpaid frontline care workers who are just trying to keep it together while keeping their patients alive.
Posted Mar 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Esta Isla (2025) Marya E. Gates While the film follows certain genre tropes, it also cleverly subverts them as a way to critique the damage done to the island and its people under the thumb of American imperialism.
Posted Mar 27, 2026  Edit critic review
The Serpent's Skin (2025) Marya E. Gates Another evocative and stylish trans twist on genre from Mackay.
Posted Mar 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Forbidden Fruits (2026) Marya E. Gates A delicious piece of post-girl boss feminism satire. . .this one is for the Dark Betty fans.
Posted Mar 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Alpha (2025) Marya E. Gates As someone who was sick as a teenager and nearly died, the film tapped into some specific emotions that I’ve hidden pretty deep and am always shocked when they resurface.
Posted Mar 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Tow (2025) Marya E. Gates At times feels a bit rote, but it’s heart is in the right place, and it’s the rare film to really examine the entire economic and social system that continues to keep people down.
Posted Mar 22, 2026  Edit critic review
Dead Lover (2025) Marya E. Gates Part low-budget DIY theatre, part "Frankenstein," part Kenneth Anger, and yet wholly its own creation.
Posted Mar 22, 2026  Edit critic review
Slanted (2025) Marya E. Gates While Wang’s satire is sharp, especially the visual skewering of rancid American culture via advertisements, business names, and even a white supremacy karaoke video, the film’s the characterizations are weak.
Posted Mar 14, 2026  Edit critic review
THE BRIDE! (2026) Marya E. Gates I’m sure it will be a clarion call for a certain kind of straight white woman. For me, though, the results are muddled, whether by studio interference or Gyllenhaal’s own lack of scope within her own feminism.
Posted Mar 06, 2026  Edit critic review
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2025) Marya E. Gates A wonderful peek into the process behind and work that went into these live shows. I’m all shook up.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Yellow Letters (2026) Marya E. Gates Pointedly about the rise of fascism in Germany, but could be about the rise of fascism everywhere at the moment and the pressure artists face to choose working/paying their bills over their ethics
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
The Blood Countess (2026) Marya E. Gates The result is a wonderful film that has comedy, maximalism, fashion, style, eroticism, queerness, and a climax at Prater to boot! Needless to say, Ottinger still has IT, and we should once again all feel blessed.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Mouse (2026) Marya E. Gates These filmmakers are on another level when it comes to making grounded, emotionally complex dramas about grief.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Say Amen, Somebody (1982) Marya E. Gates The cinematography, partially shot by the great Ed Lachman, is sone of the most gorgeous I have ever seen in a documentary.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
All to Play For (2023) Marya E. Gates You might think you know where this film is headed, but it absolutely had an ending that I was no expecting at all.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Undercard (2025) Marya E. Gates Sykes adds humor and an unexpected layer of pathos to the whole thing, while DP Ana M. Amortegui captures the vibrancy of Liberty City’s lively neighborhoods with a loving touch, giving the movie a lived-in touch that elevates it above its rote trappings.
Posted Mar 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Somersault (2004) Marya E. Gates A visceral exploration of neglect, connection, identity, shame, isolation, sexuality, and love in all its many forms.
Posted Feb 20, 2026  Edit critic review
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
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