51
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoThis is compelling stuff, but Lilien is less successful in trying to link Pale Male's story to his own.
- 70VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibFamily-friendly holiday fare.
- 63Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrIt's notable for some astounding urban wildlife footage and for the way it unintentionally reflects the giddy narcissism of the primate known as homo sapiens.
- 60New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanYou won't find a tale more true to our city than the extraordinary history of Pale Male. It's just unfortunate that Frederic Lilien's documentary is as clunky as his subject is graceful.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeRemains mostly fascinating even in an amateur storyteller's hands.
- 50Village VoiceNick SchagerVillage VoiceNick SchagerDespite spending nearly 15 years documenting this phenomenon, Lilien proves wholly uninterested in investigating his human subjects' habit of vigorously anthropomorphizing, and projecting their personal hopes, dreams, fears, and Daddy issues onto the striking hawk.
- 50The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisA sugary, aggressively anthropomorphized story of one avian interloper and a whole bunch of human obsessives.
- 40Time OutEric HynesTime OutEric HynesLilien certainly captures Pale Male's wild animal beauty in loving close-up. What his film needs, however, is distance.
- 38New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoLilien is an amateur filmmaker, and his movie -- which at times is more about Lilien than Pale Male -- shows it.