56
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyRogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyWithout being explicit, without being overtly angry, Kabakov's installations are a critique of the entire system, a critique leavened with irony, wit, and fantasy. It's powerful stuff. You go into Kabakov's labyrinths of associations and you don't come out.
- 70Village VoiceMichelle OrangeVillage VoiceMichelle OrangeNo longer silent but still the lesser talker between them, Ilya is marvelously fluent in spatial forms.
- 70The DissolveAndrew LapinThe DissolveAndrew LapinAt times, it’s hard to imagine how a real, physical visit to a Kabakov exhibit could improve upon Wallach’s film, which plays like the world’s trippiest docent.
- 70The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldMs. Wallach has fashioned a multifaceted, informative portrait conveying the emotional urgency of the Kabakovs’ work.
- 60Time OutTime OutKabakov’s life story reads like a Pasternak novel, from his hardscrabble upbringing in Stalinist Russia to his double life as a government-sanctioned “official” artist and an underground cultural revolutionary.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeArt doc's stylistic quirks detract slightly from a sometimes fascinating portrait.
- 12Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneThe research that went into the film seems a largesse, but it's compromised at every turn by filmmaker Amei Wallach's sloppy, pedantic delivery.