Philip Roth: Unmasked (2013)
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67% of critics liked it
(15 reviews) -
83% of users liked it
(95 ratings)
Philip Roth, arguably America's greatest living novelist, turns 80 on March 19. In 1959, his collection of short stories, Goodbye, Columbus, put him on the map, and 10 years later his hilarious, ribald best-seller, Portnoy's Complaint, gave rise to the first of many Roth-related… More Philip Roth, arguably America's greatest living novelist, turns 80 on March 19. In 1959, his collection of short stories, Goodbye, Columbus, put him on the map, and 10 years later his hilarious, ribald best-seller, Portnoy's Complaint, gave rise to the first of many Roth-related controversies in which Judaism, sex, the role of women, and the parent-child relationship would take center stage. In candid interviews, the Pulitzer Prize-winner discusses his distinctly unliterary upbringing in Newark, NJ, his admiration for Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud, his "brutal and lurid" first marriage, and how Zuckerman may or may not be his alter-ego. Nathan Englander, Mia Farrow, Jonathan Franzen, and Martin Garbus are among those who talk about the man and his writing. Franzen in particular praises Roth for "how brave he must have been to have methodically offended everybody and to have exposed parts of himself no one had ever exposed before."
- Directed By
- William Karel
- Written By
- William Karel, Livia Manera
- Genres
- Documentary, Special Interest
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Mar 13, 2013 Limited
Critic Reviews
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Tom Beer, Newsday
It's great to see extensive interview footage with the relaxed and funny author, but Philip Roth: Unmasked shies away from controversy and, as a result, feels a bit sanitized.
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Kyle Smith, New York Post
Frustratingly little light is shed on either Roth's life or his work by this series of interviews with the novelist and a curious selection of admirers.
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Stephanie Zacharek, NPR
For some 90 minutes, it's pretty much just one guy talking. But what a guy!
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Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
This dully conventional biography doesn't do justice to its subject.
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Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
Philip Roth may be unmasked but is only partially revealed in this very personable documentary portrait of one of the leading American literary figures of the past half-century.
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