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Protagonist (2006)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 6

Protagonist skillfully intertwines its subjects' lives through an unexpected common thread -- Euripedes.

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 2

Protagonist skillfully intertwines its subjects' lives through an unexpected common thread -- Euripedes.

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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 768

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Movie Info

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu offers an unusual look at the simultaneous diversity and commonality of four very different men in this documentary. In Protagonist, Yu recalls the structural format of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides -- whose stories were often marked by human tragedy, the commentary of a chorus of independent observers, and the sudden and unexpected intervention of the divine -- as she chronicles the lives of a thief, a student of martial arts, a preacher who

R, 1 hr. 30 min.

Documentary, Special Interest

Directed By: Jessica Yu

Written By: Jessica Yu

In Theaters: Nov 30, 2007 Wide

On DVD: Jun 10, 2007

IFC Films

Protagonist Trailer & Photos

More Photos (7)

Cast

Critic Reviews for Protagonist

All Critics (38) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (6)

Many will be moved by Protagonist and its reminders that we are all struggling to find versions of ourselves to live up to.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune

| Comment

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

At first, the technique seems gimmicky, but finally it's as compelling a perspective as any to understand how these men passed through agony to some sort of peace.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Walter V. Addiego

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Yu's film may be challenging to synopsize, but it's thoroughly engrossing and wildly surprising.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Carina Chocano

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

None of the talking heads is as interesting as [director] Yu thinks they are; and it's difficult to build sympathy for any of them.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Post

| Comment

V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Top Critic

While [director] Yu's experimental approach brings valuable insight to the human condition, the interviews themselves too rarely measure up to her ambitious structure.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Daily News

| Comment

Elizabeth Weitzman

New York Daily News

Top Critic

Protagonist is an enthralling documentary exploration of people with obsessive needs for control and self-mastery.

November 30, 2007 Comment

Stephen Holden

New York Times

Top Critic

[Jessica Yu] combines the interviews with such skill that themes begin to emerge, a tangled thicket of men seeking to define themselves through strength, discipline and self-transformation.

June 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine

| Comment

Robert Davis

Paste Magazine

Truly artistic documentary about 4 men who led life at the edge and came back from the brink.

April 22, 2008 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews

| Comment

Louis Proyect

rec.arts.movies.reviews

fascinating, troubling, and scathingly brilliant in both concept and execution

January 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews

| Comment

Andrea Chase

Killer Movie Reviews

... far more thought-provoking and engrossing than the usual run of flatly journalistic docs.

December 21, 2007 Comment

Andy Klein

Los Angeles CityBeat Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

Perhaps Yu's greatest achievement was finding four individuals with equal passion about and insight into their own journeys, and thereby demonstrating that all lives are fascinating when properly examined.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News

| Comment

Bob Strauss

Los Angeles Daily News

Stepped up in edginess from the Errol Morris template, Yu's Greek tragedy of modern extremists weaves four disturbing stories into a cautionary tale in step with the times

December 7, 2007 Comment

Ron Wilkinson

Monsters and Critics

It's a particularly elegantly made film, with sharp lensing by cinematographers Russell Harper and Karl Hahn.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International

| Comment

David Noh

Film Journal International

Suffers for the same reasons that a lot of 'issue' documentaries are problematic -- it is way too heavy-handed, only in style and concept rather than preachiness.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Cinematical

| Comment

Christopher Campbell

Cinematical

...an audacious and remarkably assured documentary that weaves together four seemingly unrelated portraits of four contemporary men whose very different lives follow the course of Euripidean drama.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Ken Fox

TV Guide's Movie Guide

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Audience Reviews for Protagonist

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I'm a sucker for a piece like this: the film-maker takes a set of subjects, usually a small amount in the range of 3 to 6 and interviews them all seperately, never has them meet or needs to see them meet, but uses some central theme, some shared condition to unify true stories that one would usually consider to be in

August 20, 2010

_kelly .King

Super Reviewer

By taking a page out of Errol Morris' playbook, with the documentary "Protagonist," Jessica Yu has made a mildly successful and occasionally perplexing film(sorry, but I don't get the whole Greek puppets thing...) with four ordinary men, Mark Pierpont, Hans-Joachim Klein, Joe Loya and Mark Salzman testifying about

August 14, 2008

Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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