Protagonist (2007)
84 %
Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 26 Rotten:5 Average Rating: 7.1/10
Consensus:
Protagonist skillfully intertwines its subjects' lives through an unexpected common thread -- Euripedes.
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Theatrical Release: Nov 30, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Filmmaker Jessica Yu explores human obsession and extremism in this riveting and provocative documentary. Yu interviews four men with seemingly disparate backgrounds, and then mirrors their experiences to what happens in a Greek tragedy by Euripides, THE BACCHAE. One of the men is Mark... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Director: Jessica Yu
Screenwriter: Jessica Yu
Producer: Jessica Yu, Elise Pearlstein, Susan West
Composer: Jeff Beal
Screenwriter: Jessica Yu
Producer: Jessica Yu, Elise Pearlstein, Susan West
Composer: Jeff Beal
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
[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.
Comment
06/09/08
Truly artistic documentary about 4 men who led life at the edge and came back from the brink.
04/22/08
Click to read the article
01/14/08
Top Critic
fascinating, troubling, and scathingly brilliant in both concept and execution
01/11/08
... far more thought-provoking and engrossing than the usual run of flatly journalistic docs.
12/21/07
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.
12/14/07
Top Critic
Yu's film may be challenging to synopsize, but it's thoroughly engrossing and wildly surprising.
12/14/07
Top Critic
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.
12/14/07
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
12/07/07
It's a particularly elegantly made film, with sharp lensing by cinematographers Russell Harper and Karl Hahn.
12/04/07
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.
11/30/07
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.
11/30/07
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.
11/30/07
Top Critic
...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.
11/30/07
Protagonist is an enthralling documentary exploration of people with obsessive needs for control and self-mastery.
11/30/07
Top Critic
Proves so savvy at connecting the hidden dots between eclectic subjects that even the puppets seem human.
11/29/07
The film bears the mark of a real directorial talent, eager to push the documentary form in inventive directions, just like Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, and for that alone, it deserves a nod of appreciation.
11/29/07
A highly original and at times thrilling use of the documentary medium, and one of the most revealing films about the troubled nature of contemporary manhood I've ever seen.
11/29/07
Top Critic
Yu displays keen instincts for assembling disparate parts that viewers will be completely engrossed in the narratives of her subjects and just may wish to brush up on Bacchae.
11/29/07
Top CriticRelated Forums
(2007/Docu)-Jessica Yu's PROTAGONIST re-skedded to open on Friday, Nov. 30th!!!
by: ReelReviewer.com 12/6/07
by: ReelReviewer.com 12/6/07
(2007/Docu)-Jessica Yu's PROTAGONISTwill open in NYC on Wednesday, Sept. 26th!!!
by: ReelReviewer.com 8/8/07
by: ReelReviewer.com 8/8/07
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