Sweet, sensitive and insightful.
The Same River Twice (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:31
Fresh:21
Rotten:10
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: An insightful documentary about the passage of time for a group free spirits.
Theatrical Release:Sep 10, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: In THE SAME RIVER TWICE, director/writer/producer Robb Moss tells a true story that takes place across two separate decades: the 1970s, when Moss and a group of long-haired, free-spirited friends... In THE SAME RIVER TWICE, director/writer/producer Robb Moss tells a true story that takes place across two separate decades: the 1970s, when Moss and a group of long-haired, free-spirited friends spent a summer rafting and camping along the Colorado River; and the 2000s, when he revisits the friends who have come through the other side of their counterculture youths and into adulthood. By interspersing reels from the original '70s river trip and documentary footage taken 30-some years later, river guide Jim and fellow travelers Barry, Jeff, Cathy, and Danny are seen both as young, idealistic (and often naked) travelers and older (fully clothed) men and women, some of whom have held onto the counterculture's ideals more than others. Moss often films his grown-up subjects as they watch their younger selves on the screen, capturing genuine moments of memory and reflection. [More]
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Reviews for The Same River Twice
Any promise that Same River will make a grand statement about vanished ideals or changes in the culture are dashed quickly ... but it remains a likable portrait of how youth looks from the perspective of middle age.
At its core, The Same River Twice is about a process everyone goes through, and the recognition that change is inevitable and we can't be young forever.
Most of the river rats have achieved lives that they would call happy, but watching their reactions while they view footage of their carefree younger selves will put a lump in many throats.
The Same River Twice is far from an arthritic exercise in hippie nostalgia. There is a seasoned richness and vivid specificity to these lives, for all their hurts and losses.
It's Moss' disinclination to judge that gives what might otherwise be a slight film its genuine poignancy.
Other documentaries have crisscrossed between time frames, but Moss' beguiling The Same River Twice represents one of the most effective uses of the device.
It's a generous document of cultural passage, and not incidentally, the sexiest naturally nudist American movie since Murnau's Tabu.
The documentary The Same River Twice will ring startlingly true to any ski bum who ever went legit.
Treats its audience with unusual intelligence and serves up meaty food for thought.
If you can get past the Big Chill setup, there is a fine piece of moviemaking here.
Succeeds through articulate, nostalgic sequences of introspection linked by poetic camerawork.
A piercingly poignant then-and-now portrait of five friends who worked as summer guides on the Colorado River in the 1970's.
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