Smash His Camera

Name: Smash His Camera
Director: Leon Gast
Released: 2010

Synopsis

A film centering on the life and work of Ron Galella that examines the nature and effect of paparazzi.

91
The A.V. Club
So what happens when people forget about all those people he stalked and snapped? Will his collection still be seen as an invaluable store of late 20th-century art, or the work of a celeb-obsessed hoarder?
80
Movieline
Fittingly, there is something both thrilling and deeply unpleasant about looking at Galella's body of work -- there is casual genius in some of the captured moments, a combination of access, timing, and luck, with the subject almost always carrying most of the image's weight.
80
Salon
Highly entertaining and skillful documentary.
70
Variety
This entertaining docu by "When We Were Kings'?" Leon Gast is more eccentric personality portrait than the in-depth scrutiny of celebrity-culture madness afforded by fellow Sundance preem "Teenage Paparazzo."
70
Village Voice
Gast's documentary portrait has a freewheeling charm that perfectly matches its subject.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Filmmaker Leon Gast ("When We Were Kings") paints an entertaining portrait of the still-working 79-year-old photographer.
60
The New York Times
In Smash His Camera Mr. Galella emerges as a kindred soul for the curious documentarian and as a large, complicated personality in his own right, not entirely likable but admirable for his persistence and the quickness of his index finger.
60
New York Daily News
There's no denying that paparazzo Ron Galella is a New York character. What's at issue in Leon Gast's entertaining documentary is whether he's an artist or a creep.