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Examined Life (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:25
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: With Examined Life, Director Astra Taylor has turned a seemingly weighty subject into a fascinating documentary.
Theatrical Release:Feb 25, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academic journals and classrooms, and puts it back on the streets... In Examined Life, filmmaker... [More]
Reviews for Examined Life
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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For those interested in seeing philosophers on the screen, this engaging movie offers the opportunity to see eight of them walking the streets. Full Review |
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3/5 |
The ones that work, Cornel West and Peter Singer for example, are intriguing and compelling but they don't all hang together so effortlessly. Full Review |
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 3/5 |
You can’t help but feel that director Astra Taylor fails at her own challenge of making an academic subject come truly alive as cinema. Full Review |
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4/5 |
A fascinating introduction to the big issues in modern philosophy, presented with a pleasantly light touch. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Never dull, but it will make your head hurt. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Each of the half-dozen or so thinkers gets around 20 minutes to maunder on - simultaneously not long enough and far too long. Frustratingly, no subject is investigated in depth, and the glibness is dull. Full Review |
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4/5 |
This is an addictive and stimulating experience all round. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Eccentric but always accessible, Taylor’s boff-doc avoids the idiosyncrasy that her work has previously exhibited. In bringing philosophy into the real world, Examined Life is at once illuminating and intellectually stimulating. Full Review |
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4/5 |
A film that can haunt you for the rest of your life. Full Review |
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2/4 |
Although a sporadically stimulating and thoroughly challenging exercise, Examined Life too often feels like a forum for brainy big-thinkers' annoying penchant for being as inscrutable as possible. Full Review |
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Taylor's stimulating film, enlivened by creative location shooting, will surely find an appreciative audience among highbrow cinephiles. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Director-writer Astra Taylor wisely avoids turning this talk fest into a talking heads fest by filming these effusive intellectuals in a variety of visually diverting, real-world environments. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Yes, examining philosophy for the greater effect it can have is admiral but it seems to get lost as the film jumps from one personality to another. Full Review |
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There's plenty of food for thought here, though the movie is more a buffet than a meal. Full Review |
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3/4 |
To [director Astra] Taylor's credit it's as inviting and accessible as a smart conversation with fascinating friends. Full Review |
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2/4 |
She gives eight thinkers 10 minutes each to unload on tough topics like the meaning of life and right and wrong and comes up mostly with a lot of platitudes about treating other people nice. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Watching "Examined Life" is sort of like sitting on a plane next to a total stranger who insists on making conversation. Except this is that one time out of 100 when the stranger turns out to be a completely fascinating person. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Illuminating, even moving. Full Review |
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7/10 |
In Examined Life, a lively assembly of philosophers ponder the question: "What's at stake here?" Full Review |
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4/4 |
Endlessly thought-provoking at every turn, this iconoclastic documentary offers the opportunity for a transcendental experience amounting to this critic's most satisfying cinematic experience of 2009 thus far. Full Review |
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