HOUSE OF CRITICISM

(director/writer: Alison Chernick; editors: Helen Yum, Sabine Krayenbühl, Melinda Pinecone; cast: Roberta Smith, Jerry Saltz, Lena Dunham, Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas, Larry Gagosian, David Zwimmer, Adam Platt, Laurie Simmons, Carroll Dunham; Runtime: 83; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Alison Chernick, John Del Cecato, Ku-Ling Yurman; YouTube; 2026)

“Smart documentary.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
 
Alison Chernick (“Matthew Barney: No Restraint”/”Itzhak”) directs this smart documentary about the married NYC art critics, since 1992, Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith. The more enthusiastic Jerry Saltz works for the New York Magazine, while the more reserved Roberta Smith works for the NY Times. Though they generally agree, they still have at times different viewpoints.

The gracious film is a love letter to the intelligent loving couple, to the art rich city they work in, and all the artists they meet.

Every walk of life is better off having critics, and really good ones like this couple do an invaluable service for the art world.

Saltz won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and made his way to the city from Chicago, while Smith hails from Kansas. The couple are good friends with Lena Denham and Cindy Sherman.


Much of the film was shot in their modest Manhattan apartment.

The thoughtful and intimate film has a limited audience, but is efficiently made and should be appealing to that target audience.

It played at the Tribeca Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 7/26/2026  GRADE: B
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