As fascinating as it is frustrating, docu raises a raft of nicely unresolved questions about parenting and parentage.
Following Sean (2006)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:19
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7/10
Theatrical Release:Jan 13, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck first met Sean while living as a graduate student in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood at the height of the 1960s. The city was awash with the trappings of... Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck first met Sean while living as a graduate student in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood at the height of the 1960s. The city was awash with the trappings of America's cultural revolution-the San Francisco State University campus flooded with cops in riot gear, the Haight filled with drifters and idealists, and, on the third floor of Arlyck's building, a come-one-come-all crashpad apartment. It was from this top floor commune that the precocious 4-year-old Sean would occasionally wander downstairs to visit and talk-and one day Arlyck turned on his camera. Sean's casual commentary on everything from smoking pot to living with speed freaks was delivered in simple sincerity throughout the soon-to-be famous 15-minute film. This First Child of the notorious decade may have shaken the audience with his simple sentence- "Sure, I smoke pot"-but it was his barefoot impishness which would encapsulate the hope that lay in front of the nation: a promise of infinite possibility. Thirty years, three generations, and a lifetime later, Arlyck has returned to San Francisco in search of who the adult Sean might have become. And what he finds, to his surprise, tells him as much about his own east-coast migration as it does about the Californian life he left behind-that the choices we're handed and the choices we make are, very often, quite odd bedfellows. --© Official Site [More]
Director: Ralph Arlyck
Director: Ralph Arlyck
Reviews for Following Sean
At its exhilarating best, Following Sean is reminiscent of the lauded British documentaries that began with 7 Up and continued to follow a cross-section of 7-year-olds into adulthood to see how they turned out.
Following Sean is an almost shapeless film. But it's clever enough to know that its multiple reflections eventually reveal something profound.
Without belaboring his narrative shaping, Arlyck asks big questions about life paths and philosophical drift.
Underlying subtexts of idealism, utopianism, the power of fate, the interconnectivity of all life emerge...taking Arlyck's original rather small quest into much deeper philosophical territory.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 83% 83% | The Princess and the Frog | 12/11 |
| 83% 83% | A Single Man | 12/11 |
| 60% 60% | The Lovely Bones | 12/11 |
| | Invictus | 12/11 |
| | Avatar | 12/18 |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Following Sean at Rotten Tomatoes
- Following Sean at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

MSN Movies offers a little background on the success of Disney Animation.

TIME takes a look back at the history of vampires on film.

Techland examines the visual splendor of Peter Jackson's upcoming film.

AOL put together a list of 10 recent news items that would be perfect as TV Movies.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


