Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 25
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 4
It never gets close enough to its subject, and it's curiously light on music, but this documentary is nonetheless a long-overdue tribute to a brilliant musician.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 2
It never gets close enough to its subject, and it's curiously light on music, but this documentary is nonetheless a long-overdue tribute to a brilliant musician.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 2,349
As one of two major documentaries on hotly debated Senegalese world musician Youssou N'Dour to emerge within a year of one another (see also Youssou N'Dour: Return to Gorà (C)e), this particular chronicle was produced and shot over a period of several years. Helmed by director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, it witnesses the evolution and production of N'Dour's June 2004 album Egypt, on the Nonesuch label -- the recording that details N'Dour fully expressing his newfound Muslim faith. A veritable
PG, 1 hr. 42 min.
Jun 12, 2009 Wide
Apr 6, 2010
$32.6k
Shadow Distribution
All Critics (25) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)
By far the most powerful element is N'Dour's lone voice, a thing of high, pure beauty that feels at once ancient and new. When he sings, an otherwise earnestly conventional film becomes a vehicle of incantatory power.
This documentary by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi could have used more music for my taste, and fewer talking heads. But it's absorbing all the same. N'Dour is the sort of humanitarian bridge that we need in a world so sharply divided.
Be sure to stay through the closing credits as the scenes of Senegalese life act as a captivating coda to a film pulsing with music and memory.
Youssou N'Dour is a beautiful film to watch as it unfolds the life of N'Dour and, by extension, the lives of millions of West Africans who are anonymous to many in the West.
N'Dour is the film's unstoppable force, handsome and radiating joy. He's the kind of performer who is larger than life but always seems like one of the family.
Although his movie often resembles the kind of promotional video one might find as an extra on a concert DVD, N'Dour in full throttle is a sight, and sound, to behold.
Inspirational concert film.
When the music starts playing, it's easy to forgive the film's flaws.
An inspiring and edifying cinematic exploration of the power of music and the soul of a big-hearted African Sufi singer who has used his exceptional talent and creativity to make a better world.
Love looks and sounds great, but in depicting N'Dour as a lofty symbol for music's power to bridge worlds and inspire, it sometimes loses sight of the man.
While the rambling, repetitive look at his life off stage is unevenly edited, his music is gloriously heard and seamlessly presented to an appreciative global audience.
Documentary about a great world-music performer is colorful but also suffers from a certain blandness and repetitiveness. A pure concert movie with biographical interruptions would have been preferable.
A lively, soulful documentary that lacks sufficient insight into the life of Youssou N'Dour.
Fans and newcomers to N'dour's music will be equally enthralled by the finely observed, patiently wrought documentary.
YOUSSOU N'DOUR: I BRING WHAT I LOVE is a gorgeously photographed, music infused cinematic portrait of world famous Senegalese pop sensation Youssou N?Dour. Best known in the West for his collaborations with Bono and Peter Gabriel, N?Dour is one of the most beloved musicians in pop music and his legendary career has
April 20, 2010
YOUSSOU N'DOUR: I BRING WHAT I LOVE is a gorgeously photographed, music infused cinematic portrait of world famous Senegalese pop sensation Youssou N'Dour. Best known in the West for his collaborations with Bono and Peter Gabriel, N'Dour is one of the most beloved musicians in pop music and his legendary career has
March 17, 2010
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