Tchoupitoulas (2012)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 347
My Rating
Movie Info
TCHOUPITOULAS is a lyrical documentary that follows three adolescent brothers as they journey through one night in New Orleans, encountering a vibrant kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, and revelers parading through the lamplit streets. The filmmakers fully immerse us into the New Orleans night, passing through many lively and luminous locations and introducing us to the people who make the city their home. (c) Oscilloscope
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All Critics (17) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (2) | DVD (1)
The city's seedy charm has not often been captured so atmospherically.
Top CriticThe film can be seen as simply a kind of impressionistic travelogue, but it slowly and irresistibly conveys that we're also seeing a rite of passage.
"Tchoupitoulas" is a jewel-bright whoosh of a ride through nighttime New Orleans.
It is alive with the risk and curiosity of youth, and unapologetic in insisting that the pursuit of fun can be a profound and transformative experience.
Questions about the literal truth of Tchoupitoulas are thorny and perhaps besides the point. After all, the filmmakers aren't hiding the artifice.
Even at this short running time, there's a looseness to the kaleidoscopic adventure that becomes slightly wearying.
It makes perfect sense for Oscilloscope to release Only The Young and Tchoupitoulas together. Both beautifully portray youthful exuberance in American landscapes that are changing as quickly as the films' adolescent subjects.
A lovely, lyrical film that wondrously captures a very specific time and place -- that is, New Orleans at night, as seen through the eyes of a child.
At 80 minutes, the film feels a bit long. That's probably an example of the filmmakers' affection for their subjects, both the Zanders brothers and New Orleans.
Tchoupitoulas feels like a cinematic exercise grasping blindly for reason and statement -- a beautifully crafted paragraph in search of a topic sentence.
With wide-eyed wonder, three young brothers are charmed by New Orleans' spectacular nightlife for the first time.
Without offering much context or addressing obvious social issues, it's an evocative tribute to its setting and to childhood innocence.
The Rosses are happy to trade cohesion for a rich, varied immersion in New Orleans nightlife. It's less a documentary than a feature-length vibe.
The film is entirely immersive, thanks not only to the handheld camera, but also to the illusory nature of the staging.
Tchoupitoulas posits time and space as internal experience, embracing subjectivity and uncertainty, not so much recording what happens as helping you to imagine possibilities.
Shooting in what sometimes approximates a semi-inebriated haze, and emphasizing the overlapping of diverse sounds coming from different quarters, Tchoupitoulas almost does manage to transcend the sight and sound limitations of cinema.
Audience Reviews for Tchoupitoulas
Super Reviewer
Of the three boys, we get to know William the best through his thoughts and dreams, in his case winning six Super Bowl rings. Unlike other kids of his age, he seems genuinely interested in playing the recorder which is usually just foisted onto all children, comparing notes with a young flutist at one point.
Super Reviewer
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Latest News on Tchoupitoulas
December 7, 2012:
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