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Marya E. Gates

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Marya E. Gates is a freelance film and culture writer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She studied Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley, and also has an overpriced and underused MFA in Film Production. Before pivoting to writing full time, she worked in social media marketing for Warner Archive Collection, Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies, FilmStruck, and Netflix.

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Speed Sisters (2015) 92% EDIT “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.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Moses the Black (2026) EDIT “Is it good? Um, no not really. Is it unique? Yes. ” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Natchez (2025) 100% EDIT “For much of this film I was like "these white people are crazy."” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Foragers (2022) EDIT “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.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review The Devil Is Busy (2024) EDIT “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.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review H Is for Hawk (2025) 80% EDIT “Foy gives a committed performance and I would be lying if I said the flashback scenes with her and Gleeson didn’t make cry.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Leila Khaled: Hijacker (2006) EDIT “Slowly, through through these conversations, Makboul begins to see the ways in which she has been raised to see history through a bias lens.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Seeds (2025) 97% EDIT “Poetic. . .captures rural Black agrarian life in the United States like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Sound of Falling (2025) 95% EDIT “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. ” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review The Future (2011) 73% EDIT “[Packs] quite a wallop as she explores not only the possible dissolution of a relationship, but also the entire nature of time itself.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Permanent Record (1988) 50% EDIT “ Reeves' performance in this early film really sets the tone for the vulnerable emotionality he would bring to the rest of his career. ” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind (2019) 89% EDIT “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. ” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Bright Star (2009) 83% EDIT “Their initial flirtation is shockingly modern with its verve and sass, while the chemistry between Whishaw and Cornish buzzes with erotic electricity.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) 88% EDIT “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.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Jan 30, 2026 Full Review Big Girls Don't Cry (2026) 100% EDIT “But what really makes this film special is the way Schneideman subtly indicates how painful it was in that era to grow up queer without any real support system, even if you never experienced any actual violence. ” – RogerEbert.com Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Tell Me Everything (2026) 80% EDIT “I almost wish the film had ended with Boaz’s comeuppance, rather than the prickly, but ultimately tidy ending that Rosenthal grants him.” – RogerEbert.com Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Hold Onto Me (2026) EDIT “You might think you know how the events of this last act will unfold, but Aristidou’s film finds new paths to forge, and I found myself holding my breath more than once as I watched these two work through the hurdles that life throws at them. ” – RogerEbert.com Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Time and Water (2026) 91% A EDIT “A poetic musing on intergenerational memory, a whimsical, yet staunchly political elegy for the glaciers, and a mournful look at the Earth in all her majesty and mystery. . .and ow craven capitalism over the last several hundred years has destroyed her” – IndieWire Jan 29, 2026 Full Review Silenced (2026) EDIT “It’s an infuriating watch for anyone with a conscience but will also be triggering for anyone who has faced sexual harassment or abuse (it definitely was for me). ” – RogerEbert.com Jan 27, 2026 Full Review One in a Million (2026) 100% EDIT “By following the girl for a decade, we not only watch her grow into a young woman, but the film also offers a rare glimpse at both the joys and strains of a life lived between two worlds. ” – RogerEbert.com Jan 27, 2026 Full Review Birds of War (2026) EDIT “The only major missteps of the doc are the overwrought score and the cold open . . .both artistic choices transform the doc from something intimate and raw into the world of sensationalism.” – RogerEbert.com Jan 27, 2026 Full Review People We Meet on Vacation (2026) 76% 1.5/4 EDIT “It’s all just really bizarre, limp copies of better films. . .a movie that seems to have been crafted for viewers to turn into steamy fan cams on TikTok and GIF sets on Tumblr. ” – RogerEbert.com Jan 9, 2026 Full Review The Best You Can (2025) 87% 2/4 EDIT “It’s clear that the irrepressibly charming Sedgwick and Bacon love to share the screen, and it is an absolute joy to watch their effortless chemistry. I just wish it were in a better picture. ” – RogerEbert.com Dec 24, 2025 Full Review The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) 95% 4/4 EDIT “ "The Voice of Hind Rajab" exists not just as a clarion call to say never again, it also asks you to sit with this violence. Not with the bloodshed, not with the abstraction of a number in a news article. But with this violence.” – RogerEbert.com Dec 17, 2025 Full Review Corner Store (2010) EDIT “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.” – Cool People Have Feelings, Too. (Substack) Dec 13, 2025 Full Review
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