I missed Tom Hayes‘ Smiling Through The Apocalypse, a doc about Harold Hayes‘ legendary tenure as editor of Esquire from the early ’60s through early ’70s, when it played at the 2013 Palm Springs Film Festival. And I didn’t hear zip about yesterday’s New York theatrical release in advance. Ben Kenigsberg‘s N.Y. Times review complains that the film is too short (98 minutes) and too obsequious. “Cramming more than 40 interviews into an unreasonably brief running time, [pic] overflows with dishiness [while] the son chimes in with fawning praise, offering barely any personal insight. It’s both a credit to, and a shortcoming of, the movie that it suggests an illustrated bibliography. It makes you want to stop watching and, instead, read or reread all of the pieces mentioned.”

Wells to distributor: “I’ve been at the Toronto Film Festival for the last 10 or 11 days. Pic opens in NYC today but I won’t be there until 9.25. Pic doesn’t open in LA until 9.26, or a day after I fly back to NYC. May I get a screener so I can watch it this weekend or early next week? Is it watchable via a private Vimeo feed?”