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Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness (2011)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 642

My Rating

Movie Info

A riveting portrait of the great writer whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness tells the tale of the rebellious genius who created an entirely new literature. Plumbing the depths of a Jewish world locked in crisis and on the cusp of profound change, he captured that world with brilliant humor. Sholem Aleichem was not just a witness to the creation of a new modern Jewish identity, but one of the very men who forged it.

Unrated,

Documentary, Special Interest

Mar 11, 2013

$0.9M

International Film Circuit - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (39) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (0)

Not often does a film double as a literary critic, but this is the Northrop Frye of docs. Essentially, it revises and sharpens the blunted reputation of a great writer.

February 24, 2012 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
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Audiences interested in Jewish literature will find Laughing in the Darkness compelling for its deep analysis of Aleichem's works, featuring a selection of experts and the writer's granddaughter, Bel Kaufman.

February 23, 2012 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
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[An] absorbing PBS-style documentary.

December 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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Throughout the film, Dorman uses ethnographic and silent-cinema footage, along with ubiquitous klezmer music, to paint a picture of the era.

October 28, 2011 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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A rich, winning documentary...

October 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
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The film adroitly sets the writer's works, his triumphs and tribulations, against the backdrop of a tumultuous period for European Jewry.

September 29, 2011 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Dorman strikes the perfect balance between the work and the man.

July 11, 2013 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

In the end, you're certainly inspired to read Aleichem, but not necessarily to watch Dorman's film again.

December 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Oregonian
Oregonian

.... a thoughtful, if also conventional, overview of Aleichem's life and work, mixing straight history and biography with quotations from his writings...

October 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Playback:stl
Playback:stl

It's a history lesson that also shows art informing the events, even changing them.

October 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Tampa Bay Times
Tampa Bay Times

... a swift, fascinating 93 minutes ...

October 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

One needn't be a student of the history or literature of the period to appreciate this excellent portrait of a fascinating and important figure.

October 13, 2011 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

It's good, but I'd wait for TV.

September 9, 2011 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Dorman's portrait is engrossing, but his Ken Burns style doesn't match his subject's vitality.

August 31, 2011 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

No Fiddling with 'Sholem Aleichem' Legacy

August 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Boston Herald
Boston Herald

Audience Reviews for Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

A very nice documentary about the man who first wrote the stories of "Tevye the Milkman" which became the basis for the musical "Fiddler on the Roof." The documentary can also serve as an invitation to better appreciate the Romantic movement of the time, which helped produce most of the modern nation states of Europe as well as the modern state of Israel. - http://frdennismoviereviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/sholem-aleichem-laughing-in-darkness.html
March 12, 2013
Fr D
Dennis Kriz
Not bad. Only because I want to make Fiddler on the Roof a real, living woman and make her the mother to our children.
March 2, 2012

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