Paris Is Burning

The way that [director Jennie Livingstone] looks at the subculture and just lets them tell their own stories is just so wonderful.

Paris Is Burning preserves in cinematic amber a pre-'90s, pre-Giuliani New York City that looks and feels more hard and hostile, and yet seems more innocent.

Truly remarkable.

For a little documentary, it has stayed with me for decades.

Even better for last year's book release, if you did not get a chance to see this movie thirty years ago, do not miss it now.

All these years later, 'Pose' fans will enjoy tracing its characters (not to mention plots) back to their inspirations...

More than anything, Paris is Burning is a thoroughly entertaining performance film. Beneath the theatrical trappings, though, sits layer after layer of poverty and abuse. Livingston manages to navigate those dueling moods of celebration and depression.

Paris Is Burning is a masterpiece that works as well as it does because its point of view is not that of someone instructing the audience like a tenured professor.

At times intimate and raw, Paris is Burning tries to capture the powerful essence of walking the floor to thunderous cheers and sometimes boos.

For anyone who's ever felt like an outsider, Paris is Burning is a reassuring reminder that someone somewhere totally gets you.