Meet the Fokkens Reviews

Despite the pleasure of spending a little over an hour with these two warm, loving women, Meet the Fokkens often falters as a film.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.7/10

The film is about two old ladies, still cackling despite the sadness that trailed in the wake of the lives into which they were forced.

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Year by year, they've shared every part of their lives, and now the Fokkens sashay into the future, sharing memories and viewpoints as well as their neon-bright identical outfits.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

If there's a tug of sadness to this (off-)colorful tale, it has less to do with sympathy for these resilient women than with how easily their compromised lives can be related to our own.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Amusing and even liberating to watch, but lacks sufficient insight and revelations. How often do you get to see a doc about elderly prostitutes?

Full Review | Original Score: 7.79/10

Few recent studies of commercialized sex have been character profiles, so Rob Schröder and Gabrielle Provaas's doc is an unusual and welcome polemic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

"Meet the Fokkens" holds your interest, mostly because the sisters (who turned 70 in May) are good company, no matter who they are.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

To what degree the seductive senior siblings for sale are leveling with audiences is up for grabs, but certain truths vividly come into play. Namely, their refusal to act old, along with challenging the cultural norms of what it means to be beautiful.

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A racy, thoroughly enjoyable docu about a pair of 69-year-old identical-twin hookers in Amsterdam, Meet the Fokkens bounces along with defiant joie de vivre.

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The doc gives a rare look at the business of plying the world's oldest profession over the past 50 years in the famously tolerant city, but the directors are a bit too hands-off and the narrative wanders.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The sisters' struggle for autonomy (they opened Amsterdam's only independent brothel until they were forced out by organized crime) reveals a touching commitment to mutual survival.

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The feminist documentary takes up the battered-wife syndrome, low pay for female workers, forced separation of mothers and children and-finally-a woman-owned business. Gloria Steinem must be happy, though the film centers on 69-year-old twin hookers.

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Schröder and Provaas frame their conversation well, making good use of the color, the reflective surfaces, and the surfeit of exposed younger flesh in the District.

Full Review | Original Score: B

The filmmakers follow the sisters around town, creating a delightful portrait of good-natured extroverts.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Despite the occasional stumble, the doc never falls, thanks to the sheer strength of its subjects' undaunted and indomitable character.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4