The Swell Season 2012

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Like any home movie, "The Swell Season" is uneven, but it's full of vivid moments between two painfully honest, likable people, learning some hard truths about fame and love. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: What emerges is a poignant commentary on the uneasy commingling of love and fame. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: If you can trick yourself into a state of amnesia, this double profile might resonate with you. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It's too focused on capturing a bygone moment and portraying it as the present, while the band and the couple have inevitably moved on, to a new album, a high-profile suicide at one of their concerts, a band hiatus, and well beyond. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: For Once lovers who needed a "what happened next?" epilogue, this one moves even as it chastises. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: An emotional erosion captured by the trio in decidedly unromantic black-and-white. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Sensitive doc manages to show Once duo as both blissed-out lovers and post-romance partners without overdramatizing the transition. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: It's an accomplished piece of filmmaking from the trio, who are making their feature-length documentary debut. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [A] disarming and intimate documentary... Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Like "Once," this film is a tender little piece of heartbreak. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Overall the film seems like a collection of bits and pieces, and it's hard to see how it could have much resonance for non-fans. Read more

Guy Dixon, Globe and Mail: The Swell Season wins the documentary prize for beating viewers over the head with gentleness, with the duo accentuated in rich, photographic chiaroscuro. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A poignant documentary that tracks the fast rise and slow fall of the Hansard-Irglova fairy tale, through both tunes and tears. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Swell never really gathers momentum, remaining a collection of moments, some more privileged than others. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: To viewers without a preexisting emotional relationship to the couple and their saga, that everyday angst is just banal. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A documentary that is every bit as intimate and disarming as the movie that made them famous... Read more