44
Metascore
5 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 60The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe proceedings have a certain haunted quality, thanks to the dramatic setting and the stark black-and-white cinematography by Steve Cosens that fully conveys its bleakness.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceIt finally feels too cautious, as if digging a little deeper might compromise the prevailing tone of tentative uplift.
- 50Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleEven with a gripping subject like blues-singing convicts, the documentary Music from the Big House has a disconcerting emotional distance.
- The filmmakers hesitate at going deeper into the dark places of the prisoners' biographies and the storied prison itself. The one wouldn't exist without the other, and Ms. Chiarelli's rambling platitudes are no substitute.