74
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyLos Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyIt's a great trick the filmmakers have pulled off to make us feel as if we're there sorting through the memories with him. The movie's editing is especially artful with Maya Hawke and Casey Brooks doing the nipping and tucking.
- He was many things, the documentary reveals, but self-serious was not among the late writer’s lengthy list of descriptors.
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearIt’s to the filmmakers’ credit that we also see how insecurity and proximity to fame both drove him and drove him crazy, resulting in a layered look at a man who was a jack of all trades, but a master of one: being George.
- 80The New York TimesAndy WebsterThe New York TimesAndy WebsterA skilled portrait of a literary light shadowed by his public profile. The film, written and directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling, tacitly suggests a reconsideration of its subject, who deserves it.
- 70VarietyEddie CockrellVarietyEddie CockrellAn entertaining profile of the self-avowed participatory journalist and his tumultuous life and times.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe ironies of Plimpton's life are handled delicately, made just obvious enough for viewers to mull themselves.
- 70Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDirectors Tom Bean and Luke Poling never shy away from the possibility that Plimpton at times was more a personality than a serious writer.
- 70The film portrays Plimpton as someone devoted to illuminating how talent and creativity work — both for himself, and for the rest of us.
- 60New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanPlimpton recorded many of these adventures in books that are well worth seeking out. But if you don’t have enough time to do so, Bean and Poling have assembled a delightful cheat sheet.
- 50Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierIts looseness adequately portrays Plimpton as an inwardly conflicted figure, but it fails to make much of a case for his legacy outside of The Paris Review's still-noticeable brand.