The Interrupters (2011)
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 84
Fresh: 84 | Rotten: 0
Impeccably crafted and edited, The Interrupters is a tough and honest documentary about street violence that truly has the power to inspire change.
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 25
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 0
Impeccably crafted and edited, The Interrupters is a tough and honest documentary about street violence that truly has the power to inspire change.
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 4,179
Movie Info
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. From acclaimed director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities. Shot over the course of a year out of Kartemquin Films, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in
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Cast
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Eddie Bocanegra
Eddie Bocanegra -
Ameena Matthews
Ameena Matthews -
Ricardo Williams
Ricardo Williams -
Tio Hardiman
Tio Hardiman -
Gary Slutkin
Gary Slutkin
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All Critics (84) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (0) | DVD (3)
Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra used to instigate Chicago street violence. Now they live for nipping it in the bud, block by treacherous block.
Top CriticWhere James's film excels is as direct experiential cinema -- without narration, onscreen interviews or acknowledgment of the presence of the camera -- it is an intensely dramatic window into a world.
A sobering but not hopeless look at how the Windy City is attempting to turn around a rising tide of street shooting, through the work of a unique group called CeaseFire.
There's no doubt The Interrupters do some good; but there's also no doubt the problem they're facing is enormous.
Realistically inspiring and, thankfully, not overly dramatized.
The immediacy and caprice of violence in "The Interrupters'' are just as strong as in nearly every documentary I've seen about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For about $1,000 every two weeks, these people try to make a concrete, palpable change in a community that fights them at every turn. What's amazing is not whether or not they're effective; what's amazing is that they even try at all.
If the lack of progress in Chicago is upsetting, the reassurance of James' unparalleled talent is inspiring. He is not just one of the United States' most vital and humane filmmakers, but one of the world's.
The Interrupters is a heavyweight film about a heavyweight subject of clear interest well beyond the United States.
It's lazy critical shorthand to point out that good documentaries often feature better characterizations than even the best fiction films, but The Interrupters certainly justifies such a cliché.
The cameras take us where few people dare go.
The revelations and examples of this positive influence seeping into the skin of the city creates enormous cinematic and community excitement.
Much like the director's seminal doc, this is a richly-drawn slice of real life that's weaved with the finesse of a fine Hollywood drama.
Present[s] a gratifyingly non-cynical take on the troubles facing the species, uplifting without being cloying.
Though formally conventional, it carries a powerful message about the reality of life in the inner city and the struggles of thise who live there to break the cycle of violence.
Reality movie-making at a high point.
The courage, determination and intelligence of these violence interrupters is inspiring, but even more inspiring are the people trying so hard to overcome this plague of violence and live decent lives.
Chronicles 'one year in the life of a city grappling with violence,' when Chicago was labeled a 'war zone.' Laments a funeral home director: 'How can the President of the United States be a black man... but I'm still burying black kids?'
A cry of hope from communities of despair.
James and Kotlowitz are unsparing in their depiction of how rough life in Chicago's mean streets can get. Nonetheless, they also have a deep compassion for the people they follow.
The Interrupters is a film that offers an unflinching look at urban violence but also introduces a ray of hope.
There are moments when The Interrupters feels like a real-life version of The Wire, with weary heroes trudging forever uphill to make their ugly world a slightly better place. The problem is that it's a very repetitive film.
It's a year in the life and death of the fight against the streetwise status quo, and James' doc brings it all horrifically home.
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