"Shockingly funny, disturbing
and tragic ..."
(Susan Josephs,
The Jewish Week, New York)

"Very beautifully done, in Gimme A
Kiss, Lilly Rivlin exhibits remarkable
access to her family.
It's a story about love, where it is
and where it isn't. The filmmaker is
very skillful in noticing love where
it doesn't appear  to be." 
(Albert Maysles, filmmaker) 

"It seemed to me quite the most
interesting, bravest and most
complex family portrait among
the many I have seen.
It reminded me of Gray Gardens."
(Professor Michael Roemer, 
Film Making and American Studies, 
School of Art, Yale University)

"Powerful, fascinating, engrossing,
honest, painful story of a family
betrayed by a  husband and father."
(Lucy Komisar, author)

"Brilliant moving, disturbing, thought  
provoking, inspirational, wistful, raw
-would like to see it again, and again.
It has depth, a real tribute to  the
 triumph of the human spirit and the 
quest for understanding (which we 
never do completely) our parents."
(Ana Freiberg )

"Gimme a Kiss starts with a journey
of discovery urged on by the
threatened loss of a beloved parent,
and the anxious sense that all is not
what it once seemed to be in the heart
of post-war Jewish American family.
Lilly Rivlin takes us gently and
courageously down the road of
family secrets, exposing how love,
desire, propriety, and less tolerant
historical times conspire to create
convenient fictions. This is a personal
narrative that opens up brave if
disturbing questions that intersect
many family dramas."
(Faye Ginsburg, Director,
Center for Media, Culture and History,
New York University)

"The best noir film I've ever seen "
(Amy Stone, writer)

"Gimme a Kiss was totally unique,
compelling and very brave. "
(Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author)

"It is a powerful and compelling film."
(Nick Fraser, Commissioning Editor, 
Storyville, BBC)

"Lilly Rivlin has crafted a smart,
funny and disturbing tale of her
emotionally distant father and the
discovery of his long history of
incessant womanizing while wife
and mother looks on stoically...
GIMME A KISS is an in-your-face
and up-a-little-too-close reminder
of the balancing act of family relations."
(Alex MacKenzie, Director 
Vancouver Underground Film
Festival )

"Superb. Painful. Necessary."
(Leonard Wolf, author)

"That was moving, I was touched -
what a family story.
I ran home to give my son a bath
and tell him I love him."
(Mark Benjamin, Director of Photography)

"...a wonderful, magnificent,
sensitive, feeling, revealing
compassionate, and above all universal piece of work...
A classic, a moving and enduring
portrait of a family and modern
family relationships that will touch
everyone...a real search into the
hard pieces of the soul."
(Professor Alan Rosenthal, author,
filmmaker & film critic
Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

" The film is a profoundly moving
look at issues of family life, lifelong
struggles, and family secrets as
viewed through Lilly's own parents
and siblings. I am still thinking of
the ways in which her painfully
open and undefended willingness
to air difficult feelings can touch
us as children, parents and siblings
in our own lives."
(Larry Zelnick, psychologist)

" Gimme a Kiss has layers under
layers, and each viewing alters the
viewer. The first time seeing the
film the father is the villain, clearly.
The second time, one sees not only
the rage of the family but, at his
death, their tears. And the father
is such a life-force that the picture
pales without him, and yet there he
is care-taking, who knows why?,
laughing, tickling, and, without
limbs, so physical. And his Black
mistress describe him as a friend
of the Black community and seen
as the enemy by the Whites.
Who was he? It is, in a strange way,
a love story and a mystery.
All honor to the film-maker
who could conquer her rage enough
to see through the end."
(Esther M. Broner, author)