[7] McElhinney’s first feature film, Magdalen,[8] was about "a world-weary young woman who earns her living in a bar, telling stories to lonely people for money.
[13] Dennis Lim, in The Village Voice, wrote that A Chronicle of Corpses was "[e]asily the most peculiar American indie to play New York theaters this year… alternately flamboyant and minimal… Abe Holtz's resourceful camera switches between fussy, iconic frescoes and showboat prowls.
"[18] McElhinney's Christmas Dreams (2015) is a children's holiday musical fantasy, the movie was a shot entirely on a soundstage and features extensive special effects and CGI.
…[It] is an epic tour though five radically different, yet adjacent, neighborhoods… The experience is a history of the city 1960–2010, with each neighborhood shot in a different physical film format (4K HD, 35MM, 16MM negative/reversal, Super 8MM, iPhone 5, miniDV and VHS).
[25] October 2013, the Zoetropolis Art House, in collaboration with Franklin & Marshall College, presented a revival of McElhinney's debut feature, Magdalen, projected on film.
[26] In December 2019, Woodmere Art Museum presented screenings of the original version (without the post-release producer-added narration) of McElhinney's fifth feature, Christmas Dreams.
In 2017, McElhinney and writing partner Greg Giovanni were commissioned by New Yiddish Rep to create a screen adaptation of Sholem Asch's drama, God of Vengeance.