60
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorEnthralling documentary.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleA proper labor of love profiling many of the principles involved in the making of the films, peppered with a generous helping of wonderful clips.
- 70The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThe director Yan-Ting Yuen revisits the country's recent past to explore the history and legacy of one of the strangest byproducts of totalitarian madness: the revolutionary spectacular.
- 63New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoEntertaining and informative, but it suffers from distracting voice-overs of what are supposed to be Madame Mao's thoughts. Too bad.
- 63TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxYuen would have been better off exposing more of that reality and celebrating less of the joyful silliness of the model works, let alone staging pointless hip-hop-inflected dance numbers set to Yang Ban Xi musical themes.
- 60Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanBoth frustrating and fascinating, Yuen's documentary is something of a stray footnote. It requires not only the context of the yang ban xi but the perspective of other movies on the subject of entertainment and utopia.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterWill intrigue art house audiences unfamiliar with modern Chinese history. But sinophiles and followers of Chinese cinema will be shocked by the lack of historical detail and context.
- 60Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustLos Angeles TimesKevin CrustOverall, the film lacks cohesion and a true point of view. Further muddling the film's meaning is a voice-over attributed to Jiang Qing, which we learn at the end is fictionalized.
- 50SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirPerhaps understandably, these artifacts of a vastly different ideological and economic era -- have become kitsch objects, the focus of a half-horrified nostalgia, in the midst of the feverish Chinese boom.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDespite the fascinating topic, director Yan-ting Yuen offers relatively little history or criticism of the works themselves, squandering screen time on such gimmicks as mock voice-over and scenes of young people performing hard-rock and hip-hop versions of vintage songs. It's enough to make you pine for the good old days when irony was illegal.