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DETROPIAMovie Reviews
Documentary about Detroit residents who strive to make ends meet and refuse to give up hope for the survival of their struggling city. Cast:Tommy Stevens, Crystal Starr, George McGregor, Phil Cooley, Mayor Dave Bing, Steve Coy, Dorota CoyDirector:Heidi Ewing, Rachel GradyRelease Date:September 7, 2012DVD Release:January 15, 2013From:Loki FilmsLength:1 hr 30 min
Detropia played in key cities to very good reviews. • Tom Long wrote in the Detroit News, "...unemployment, corruption, outsourcing, hopeless despair.... offers up a mirror to the country: This is what the future may look like. Now, what do you want to do about it?" • And Cynthia Fuchs wrote for Pop Matters, "Beautiful and strange, more impressionistic than instructive..." More Reviews Below...
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: VERY GOOD(cg) "...offers no solution... This is more eulogy and elegy.... the film wanders the city, contrasting a new automaker's towers with abandoned hotels, derelict theaters..."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 350 words, 09/21/12
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (10 Reviews)
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...in this visual caress of postindustrial blight, disintegration has never looked so gorgeous.... the images seem to say blame and nostalgia are equally futile."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 260 words, 09/07/12
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: EXCELLENT(cg) "...haunting and important -- and near-experimental... what the movie captures overall looks like a scene from a sci-fi, postapocalyptic nightmare."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 121 words, 09/07/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: EXCELLENT "...a striking and moving study of 'what was' versus 'what it has become' as the filmmakers try to get at the whys... The images are haunting..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 716 words, 10/05/12
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...oddly beautiful... subtler and richer than its blunt title suggests.... Ewing and Gray let a handful of subjects trade off as de facto hosts of a bittersweet urban tour."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 380 words, 09/21/12
John Anderson, New York Newsday: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Just as the film finds an aesthetic in its dilapidated setting, the city's residents find hope in a desperate place, a place that once represented hope itself."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 349 words, 09/28/12
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...offers no solution... This is more eulogy and elegy.... the film wanders the city, contrasting a new automaker's towers with abandoned hotels, derelict theaters..."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 350 words, 09/21/12
Karina Longworth, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "...evocative... a portrait of a place that time is in the process of forgetting... Detroit's story is a microcosm of America's -- just, for now, slightly more desperate."(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 823 words, 09/05/12
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT(cg) "...there's a sense that the documentary itself is an elegy for a city that's already passed the point of no return.... plays like a prequel to 'RoboCop.' "(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 184 words, 10/04/12
KEY CITIES (8 Reviews)
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...in the hands of filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, 'Detropia' largely sidesteps the cliches and facile false choices that have beset so many Detroit movies."(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 705 words, 09/14/12
Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) "...reveals the tragedy through impressionist sequences that feel like stanzas of epic poetry, and are shot in rich, saturated colors straight from a Renaissance painting."(See all of Inga Saffron's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 490 words, 11/02/12
Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...feels somewhere between loose (which is good) and aimless (which isn't)... Still, the filmmakers inject several notes of optimism into the final portion of the documentary."(See all of Mark Feeney's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 608 words, 09/21/12
David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...artfully - perhaps too artfully - illustrates the transformation of the Motor City from a middle-class utopia to an urban nightmare of blight, crime and fleeing residents."(See all of David Lewis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 113 words, 09/28/12
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...startling, haunting... Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady wisely focus on several intriguing individuals trying to make sense of their world..."(See all of Tom Keogh's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 246 words, 10/19/12
Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a haunting ode to the diminishment of this once-dominant, ultra-American metropolis.... more elegiac than inventive."(See all of Marc Mohan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 208 words, 11/02/12
Tom Long, Detroit News: VERY GOOD(cg) "...unemployment, corruption, outsourcing, hopeless despair.... offers up a mirror to the country: This is what the future may look like. Now, what do you want to do about it?"(See all of Tom Long's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 398 words, 09/14/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (7 Reviews)
Karina Longworth, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "...evocative... a portrait of a place that time is in the process of forgetting... Detroit's story is a microcosm of America's -- just, for now, slightly more desperate."(See all of Karina Longworth's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 823 words, 09/05/12
Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix: VERY GOOD(cg) "...makes a telling case that Detroit has gone beyond recession to a full-blown Depression... The sadness is softened a bit by a host of appealing on-stage locals..."(See all of Gerald Peary's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 136 words, 09/13/12
Sam Adams, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "It's sobering to watch a woman who rises three hours before the start of her work day plead with city officials not to phase out her bus route..."(See all of Sam Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 361 words, 09/06/12
Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Beautiful and strange, more impressionistic than instructive, 'Detropia' contemplates lives damaged and determined, exploited and evolving."(See all of Cynthia Fuchs's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,011 words, 09/10/12
Jesse Cataldo, Slant: MODERATE(cg) "...seems to be looking for answers, but the ones it finds are too close to the surface to be satisfying... subsists on vague feelings of nostalgia and loss..."(See all of Jesse Cataldo's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 456 words, 09/02/12
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT(cg) "...there's a sense that the documentary itself is an elegy for a city that's already passed the point of no return.... plays like a prequel to 'RoboCop.' "(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 184 words, 10/04/12
HIGHBROW PRESS (3 Reviews)
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...in this visual caress of postindustrial blight, disintegration has never looked so gorgeous.... the images seem to say blame and nostalgia are equally futile."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 260 words, 09/07/12
David Denby, New Yorker: OUTSTANDING "...a lyrical film about the destruction of a great American city... both an ardent love letter to a past vitality and a grateful salute to those who remain in place..."(See all of David Denby's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 637 words, 09/03/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: EXCELLENT "...a striking and moving study of 'what was' versus 'what it has become' as the filmmakers try to get at the whys... The images are haunting..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 716 words, 10/05/12
John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "More impressionistic than enlightening... introduces us to some citizens of Detroit and gives them a welcome opportunity to speak, but reveals little we don't already know."(See all of John DeFore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 364 words, 01/23/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: EXCELLENT "...a striking and moving study of 'what was' versus 'what it has become' as the filmmakers try to get at the whys... The images are haunting..."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 716 words, 10/05/12
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...in this visual caress of postindustrial blight, disintegration has never looked so gorgeous.... the images seem to say blame and nostalgia are equally futile."(See all of Jeannette Catsoulis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 260 words, 09/07/12
13.0 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Detropia's reviews are separated by an average 13.0 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Detropia (25 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Detropia's reviews cover 26.2% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 11,042 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 442 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 4 Days After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Detropia's reviews on average broke 4 days after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Detropia's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
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