Sketches of Frank Gehry 2006

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: Gehry's theory -- the less technical the approach, the more human the end result -- is proven time and again in this diverting portrait of America's most famous living architect. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Not just instructive, but reassuring for anyone who does creative work, and who worries, as everyone does, about being equal to the task. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It meanders agreeably, through some striking buildings and pleasant conversations, and by its end you feel as if you've met somebody. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: I think every time Gehry comes into a city and adds his signature, it just makes the people in the city proud of it. Read more

Catherine Fox, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As fascinating and faceted as its subject. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: An overly reverent but intermittently compelling homage to an iconoclastic genius... Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: A refreshingly small-scale film, almost a home movie made by the director of such films as Tootsie, Out of Africa and The Way We Were. Read more

Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times: Even the professional critics who take part have been rendered toothless by Pollack's approach to the subject -- or simply by Karen Schmeer's editing. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Pollack directed with mixed results this adulatory documentary about his famous architect friend. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Genius is complicated. But it's also simple, and director Sydney Pollack bounces us back and forth between those indisputable truths with intelligence and flair. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Danged if the seductive documentary -- Pollack's first -- doesn't come to resemble a Gehry building itself, all brash, eye-catching, a tad vain, and attractively neurotic. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It is a few meaningful glimpses into the mind and life of a man who resists being seen as complex and singular. Read more

David Dillon, Dallas Morning News: In its own relaxed, meandering way it offers valuable insights into how a major artist thinks and works. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Though Gehry and Pollack have long been friends, the veteran Hollywood director confesses early on to being an architecture neophyte, and so much of the film's sprightly energy stems from its combination of expert research and amateur enthusiasm. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: We are seduced by the rules-busting fabulousness of Gehry's output -- all a-tumble with cubist edges, spirals and crinkle-cut effects, done up on a massive scale. But we are also disarmed by the architect's persona. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's a low-key, intimate conversation between two buddies who, as Pollack -- the Oscar-winning director of Out of Africa -- puts it, are 'trying to find ways of creative expression within industries that make stringent demands.' Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There are also a few critics brought in to provide balance, although Pollack's opinion is clear: Gehry is a genius. Having gazed upon the Guggenheim and the Disney and sat happily on the grass beneath the Spider's web, I think so, too. Read more

Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle: How much more persuasive Sketches of Frank Gehry might have been had Pollack differentiated degrees of achievement in Gehry's work. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: What benefits the picture early on, giving it a casual air, becomes cloying in the later going, making it feel like a smug exercise in mutual admiration. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: What the filmmaker omits are precisely the laymen the movie set out to explain Gehry to. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: Pollack's documentary is a friendly affair that presents some stunning footage of several Gehry projects. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Lucid and engaging, Sketches of Frank Gehry provides the enormously gratifying opportunity to spend an hour-and-a-half with an artistic giant. Read more

Rob Nelson, Village Voice: [An] enjoyably breezy portrait. Read more

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post: The parameters of Gehry's genius, as suggested by Pollack, are essentially the same as those captured in generations of cliched artist biopics. Read more