The Exiles 1961

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The Exiles ... presents one boozy night in the lives of Homer, Cliff, Tommy and Yvonne, from a convertible joy ride through the Third Street Tunnel, to an early-morning powwow. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A cinema verite look at the rootless Native American community that once upon a time lived in Bunker Hill and hung out in downtown bars such as Club Ritz, this Kent Mackenzie film is a brooding picture of a darkly beautiful, long-gone Los Angeles. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: You can only brood on the near half-century since The Exiles was shot -- and be grateful that someone went to that place and captured it all. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Its moving portraiture is refreshingly free of cliches and moralizing platitudes, and the high-contrast black-and-white photography and dense, highly creative sound track are equally impressive. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Compared to the slick approach that Hollywood took even to the 'social problem' films of the era, The Exiles is bracing and raw, more akin to the French New Wave and British kitchen-sink dramas. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Kent Mackenzie's magnificent, long-undistributed, unclassifiable first feature, The Exiles, stands as a rare consideration of the inner and outer lives of American Indians in a big American city. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: A semidocumentary account of native Americans living in Los Angeles's downtown Bunker Hill, its evocations of loneliness and despair and renewal are among the most eloquent in American cinema. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Rife with astonishing black-and-white images of an unknown L.A. and clashing sounds of bars, cinemas and poker games, The Exiles is one of those movies that functions as both artifact and fresh discovery. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A ghostly and startling tale of Native Americans in Los Angeles -- a fusion of documentary and fiction -- in the late '50s. Never previously released, it's a revelation. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: It took nearly 50 years, but an important piece of film history is finally getting its due. Read more

Dennis Lim, New York Times: Despite its compact time frame the film conjures a powerful sensation of purgatory: a night like many others. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is like cracking open a time capsule. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: In the secret, unwritten history of alternative American culture [Mackenzie] stands as a hero, alongside the Indians of Bunker Hill and the generations before them. Read more

Jim Ridley, Village Voice: This 50-year-old film about a Los Angeles neighborhood on the skids and its barely tethered dwellers stands as the freshest movie in theaters. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A fascinating hybrid of art and life, The Exiles may not hew entirely faithfully to literal truth but nonetheless conveys a form of artistic honesty that is inescapable. It's a mesmerizing marriage of poetry and prose. Read more