Crazy Horse 2011

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Mr. Wiseman's particular genius has always been to convey, through judicious editing and dogged filming, the tedium, busyness and quiet intensity of group labor. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: You doubt Wiseman's sense of pacing. Still, he must have had a good time shooting. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes view, right down to the delivery man who blandly deposits a bag of takeout backstage. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Part performance film, part backstage documentary, Crazy Horse is familiar in form, yet remarkable both for its subject and for who's sitting in the director's chair. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The most interesting dynamic exists between director Philippe Decoufle and artistic director Ali Mahdavi. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Wiseman's are the movies to show to the aliens when they arrive. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: So warm, colorful, and sensuous that it seems like a real anomaly for the highly disciplined filmmaker. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The performers, who (spoiler alert) look pretty good, are neither sentimentalized nor unduly ennobled by Wiseman. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: If nothing else, you'll surely relish the extravagant rhetoric used by Ali Mahdavi, the club's artistic director, to describe what is basically a tasteful nudie revue. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: If there's one thing that's both surprising and predictable about "Crazy Horse" it's how thoroughly unsexy the film is. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Wiseman freely, unobtrusively prowls the joint to create a movie that respects the serious work involved in simulating the sensations of pleasure. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Revealing, impressionistic peek at the creation of a new show at Paris's famed erotic dancing club. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It is a deft revelation of shared humanity, the kind of thing no one does better than Frederick Wiseman. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: Crazy Horse could be condensed to its advantage. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The spectacle lodges somewhere between erotic reverie and the perfection of a revolving sculpture. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: A film that firmly belies the assumption that "fly on the wall" implies an absence of cinematic effect. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's undeniably interesting to watch each element come into place, from choreography to costumes. But the truth is, most viewers will best appreciate the retro-sexy dance numbers themselves. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Sexploitation and art blend uneasily in "Crazy Horse,'' by the renowned documentarian Frederick Wiseman. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The idea is to be erotic, seductive, but often, through Wiseman's unforgiving lens, the effect is more anatomical, aloof, amusing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris is famous for its "erotic chic" revues, but I found nothing either erotic or chic in this reduction of body parts to geometrical displays. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The revue and the film are chic, antiseptic and curiously asexual. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Wiseman is a still-prolific luminary of what has been dubbed "direct cinema," a documentary style in which the director intrudes as little as possible and conducts no on-camera interviews. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Wiseman's methodology favors the vocal, so we hear more from the choreographers and the directors than we do from the actual performers, and that somewhat throws off the balance of what we learn about the goings-on here. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: There's little sense of the discipline involved, or the struggle for perfection that makes dance docus so engrossing. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Every shot and edit in Wiseman's film also suggests without over-explaining, allowing a viewer to lose herself in pleasure... Read more