Praise for David L. Lewis' THE PLEASURES OF BEING OUT OF STEP

"Brisk and engaging. Hentoff comes off as an amused, amusing, endlessly fascinating man, one with more stories to tell than he could have fit into his almost three dozen books or his half-century of columns. He's a great pleasure to watch, to listen to, and to read, even when you couldn't disagree with him more." - Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice

"This succinct, documentary sticks smoothly to its beat. (Hentoff) established himself as master critic of a uniquely American art...and an indefatigable advocate for civil liberties. As thoughtfully edited by the frequent Spike Lee collaborator Sam Pollard, the film alternates between these two professional pursuits. (It) also pays tribute to a faded era of alternative journalism and to a model for cultural bonds across racial lines. And it's one documentary about 'popular culture' that gets at the potential in that devalued term for true-blue American ideals." - Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times

"A sharp-looking and enjoyable doc that celebrates the writer's legacy."
- John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

"Hentoff presides over a film rich in the sounds and occasional sights of legendary cultural figures, from Lenny Bruce and Malcolm X to Bob Dylan and Coleman Hawkins. It is the vivid testimony of the artists he championed and hung out with that galvanizes the film."
- Ronnie Scheib, Variety

"Engaging. . . Remarkably fluid and never less than compellingly watchable. Like many biographical documentaries, it features an array of talking heads, but I can't think of any such pictures featuring such an eclectic array of such figures: poet and rhetorical firebrand Amiri Baraka, constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams, jazz giant Phil Woods, pioneering feminist journalist Karen Durbin, and many more, including Hentoff's second wife Margot, who seems in many ways as formidable a figure as her spouse." - Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

"America has been lucky to have [Hentoff]. If you're interested in civil-liberties issues, or just want to get to know one of the most engaging personalities of our times, you should see this film."- Michael Potemra, National Review Online

"Probing... Lewis pulls no punches." - Mark Baumgarten, Seattle Weekly

"Brilliant, thoroughly engaging." - D. Schwartz, Cinesource Magazine

"Nat invented jazz journalism -- the art of asking questions and using the answers to build an engaging and poetic narrative." - Marc Myers, JazzWax

"Hentoff carries a deep, sympathetic intellect with the kind of graceful confidence most outspoken cultural critics never know."- S. Edward Sousa, Cinema Sentries

"The seven-decade legacy of one of America's most important and influential journalists is celebrated in David L. Lewis's illuminating documentary." - This Week in New York

"[Lewis] offers an unusually complex and intellectually engaging profile of the NEA Jazz Master."- JB Spins

"In David L. Lewis' no-holds-barred documentary, we get a perfect match between director and subject. Lewis is a veteran New York City journalist with 30 years of experience in print and broadcast media. As a seasoned news writer, he brings a special understanding to the question of how Hentoff became Hentoff, and how it all began." - Sandra Bertrand, Galo Magazine

"A compelling portrait of a specific time and place, easy to view in retrospect as a verdant intellectual oasis amid a vast gray desert. Hentoff is a fascinating figure worthy of our attention. Andre Braugher provides authoritative narration. And Lewis has assembled a congenial and lively group of witnesses, especially the witty, skeptical Margot Hentoff, the fine jazz historian Stanley Crouch, and Hentoff's estranged but apparently still grudgingly affectionate Village Voice colleague Karen Durbin."- Erik Tarloff, The Jewish Daily Forward

"A window onto a generation that witnessed the development of jazz first hand, from the big band era to be-bop and free jazz."- Pat Padua, Spectrum Culture