The Arbor 2010

Loren King, Boston Globe: [An] exquisitely crafted docudrama. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Like a Ken Loach drama stripped to bare bones, "The Arbor" springs to life in the bright bitterness of Dunbar's prose, showcased in alfresco performances of contentious scenes from the play. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Tough, worthy stuff. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Brings the Dunbar story to life through a technique known as "verbatim theater," in which actors lip-synch testimony from the real people they're portraying. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Barnard's boldest move is to unveil the irresponsible chaos of the playwright's private life, and to make us wonder if the art was worth the suffering, after all. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: A bold experiment that doesn't quite work. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Arbor is a factual documentary that uses fictional techniques to retell a sad truth: The cycle of poverty and violence and addiction is vicious and near impossible to escape. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Numerous celluloid experiments have fudged reality and fiction lately, but few are as formally inventive or socially revelatory as The Arbor. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Barnard revisits the foredoomed career and tragic afterlife of this slum-born self-educated writer to electrifying effect, shooting mainly on location in Bradford, with actors lip-synched to actual recordings of the people they portray. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: For the morbidly curious, it's mesmerizing. But it's also a singularly watchable story for the strange, and strangely fitting, way in which it's told. Read more