Double Take (2009)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 8
It's neither as profound nor as enlightening as it wants to be, but this stylishly edited Hitchcock homage brims with its subject's singular spirit.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2
It's neither as profound nor as enlightening as it wants to be, but this stylishly edited Hitchcock homage brims with its subject's singular spirit.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 228
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Movie Info
Filmmaker Johan Grimonprez draws a surprising parallel between the anxieties of the Cold War and the Master of Suspense in this fusion of documentary and dark comedy. In Double Take, Grimonprez explores the paranoia of America during the Cold War while using clips of the classic television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents as a commentary on America's mood during the 1950s and '60s. As Grimonprez ponders the symbiotic nature of politics and popular culture, he also presents a fictional narrative
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All Critics (28) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (8) | DVD (2)
Hardly earth-shattering enough for a 5-minute short, much less an 80-minute movie.
Top CriticHitchcock was a master of mischief and misdirection, and no film so thoroughly infused with his spirit could be dull or predictable.
This isn't a normal movie; it's an art installation. And whatever it may have been meant to be, it takes its real meaning from you.
A way of showing how the Master of Suspense's work captured the zeitgeist, and how the zeitgeist responded by getting dumberer.
... more entertaining than enlightening.
An impossible to pigeonhole production certain to generate a sense of nostalgia about a bygone era while only adding to the already lofty legacy of the legendary Alfred Hitchcock.
The message is muddy, but that doesn't feel as important as the delivery method, which ends up redeeming this as a film experiment that succeeds for its sense of derring-do if nothing else.
the most indefinable film currently playing in theaters; it also happens to be the most madly entertaining
By contrasting Hitchcock's explanation of "The MacGuffin" with TV commercials and old arguments over who's winning the Cold War, Grimonprez makes a case for how historical events can be driven by threats more perceived than actual.
Mildly entertaining, stylishly edited, but neither synthesized nor provocative enough to be a truly enlightening experience
A marvelous, multi-media mockumentary about Hitchcock certain to add to the already lofty stature of the revered cinema icon.
Johan Grimonprez sure knows his Hitchcock! Double Take is a dazzling and dizzying avant-garde documentary homage--and then some.
The connections that Grimonprez makes among his various areas of inquiry seem mightily tenuous.
Johan Grimonprez ("dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y" - 1997) proves himself a master of the art of montage as he balances compounding strands of logic in a seemingly staggering display of seamless critical analysis. "Double Take" is an art film of the highest order. Do
Drawing hazy parallels between the Cold War and the rise of consumerist culture, the film implies ideological battles are won by those best able to exploit the media in insidious ways.
Double Take is a very entertaining film and is at times very funny -- aside from the Hitchcock intros, there is also the strange comedy double act of Nixon and Khrushchev.
So here it is: an essay film it's okay to like.
Hitchcock fans and die-hard moviegoers will enjoy this offbeat collage-style movie, which is expertly assembled but struggles to engage us with a coherent story or theme
A single viewing only scratches the surface of this dazzling montage-based Hitchcock quasi-doc.
This is arguably a rather cerebral and indulgent reverie, but there is fascination, and something genuinely disturbing, in every frame.
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June 4, 2010:
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