Reviews

" **** Amazing. Stone Reader is one of the most satisfying experiences you’re likely to have in a movie theatre this year. It’s a tribute to the transforming power of reading and a reminder of the Sisyphean task that reading can be."

-Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe [full review]

"A film about the power of literature, the obscurity of genius and the enormous demands of art. Stone Reader is a debut of enormous craft, surety and resourcefulness -- a superlative, soul-baring non-fiction work that will generate torrential word-of-mouth."

-Scott Foundas, Variety [full review]

"It’s rare enough when a documentary achieves cult status. Rarer still when it actually changes lives. Stone Reader, a movie about the love of reading, manages to do both."

-David Ansen, Newsweek

"...a loving and lovely filmed ode to obsession."

-Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times [full review]

" *** 1/2 A wonderful film about readers, writers and writing."

-Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times [full review]   

“Stone Reader is more than a film – it’s a labor of love in the best sense and a gift to civilized life on this planet. Stone Reader is, quite simply, an unalloyed treasure for any viewer who has ever felt transformed by reading a good novel. An exquisite tapestry made up of the many troubled lives and hard times of serious writers in America over the past 30 years.” #1 Nonfiction Movie of the Year.

-Andrew Sarris, New York Observer [full review]

" A Must See! Fascinating and compulsively watchable. "

-Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader [full review]

"A-. Stone Reader makes you want to pick up a great novel and consume it in one long gulp. It’s a love letter to literature and literacy, a bibliophile’s dream film, dedicated to the joys of fiction and the passions of those who need books like they need food, water and air. It should delight anyone who loves to curl up with a book. Get this guy on Oprah, and quick."

-Chris Vognar, The Dallas Morning News [full review]  

"Magnificent...the movie equivalent of a page-turner."

-Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer [full review]

"[Moskowitz] makes the sale...it's hard not to weep in honor of one small battle won for the written word."

 -Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly [full review]

"A great literary mystery. I've never seen a movie that paid more heartfelt tribute to the power of artistic invention."

 -J. Hoberman, Village Voice [full review]   

"Riveting!...a fascinating film, one that fuels the imagination..."

-John Kenyon, The Gazette [full review] 

"Stone Reader reheats the fevers of the freewheeling, icon smashing l960s. Anyone who gives a damn about the state of popular culture and the future of language will want to take heed."

-Bill Gallo, San Francisco Weekly [full review]  

"A marvelous literary thriller that gets at the way books can stay with people forever. Director Moskowitz subscribes to the cult of the novel, and I suspect that most people who will love this movie do, too."

-Peter Rainer, New York Magazine [full review]   

" Stone Reader radiates intelligence and compassion. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't on the edge of my seat the whole time. "

-Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Press