
Cinema Verite
2011, Drama, 1h 30m
41 Reviews 500+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
Cinema Verite is a disappointingly incurious dive into the birth of reality television, but terrific performances and the inherent intrigue behind the making of An American Family keep this drama compelling. Read critic reviews
You might also like
Where to watch
Show all servicesCinema Verite Photos
Movie Info
Cast & Crew
Pat Loud
Bill Loud
Craig Gilbert
Alan Raymond
Mary
Critic Reviews for Cinema Verite
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (16)
-
The film's real fascination is with the documentary's maker, Craig Gilbert, played with wonderful faux innocence by James Gandolfini.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review… -
Like a history lesson in the genre that's taken over so much of cable and broadcast network programming. It's also the sort of intelligent drama that has to compete with the cheaper, flashier shows that An American Family eventually spawned.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review… -
Cinema Verite is smart and often moving, but unsatisfying overall. It compresses seven months of shooting, 3,000 hours of raw footage, and 12 hours' worth of televised story into a little over 90 minutes, losing complexity along the way.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review… -
Just as 12 hours probably wasn't enough time to establish the Louds as real people, not soap opera stick figures, two hours isn't quite enough to explain exactly what went wrong with An American Family, either.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review… -
They'd found good matches for the original participants, and there was a certain fascination in watching the segues between documentary artifice and artificial documentary. But the script was so clunky it virtually came with visible bullet points.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review… -
An informative but somewhat plodding re-creation of the 1970s PBS special, An American Family. James Gandolfini steals the show as the producer who persuades the naive parents to invite cameras into their soon-to-be shattered house.
June 10, 2020 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for Cinema Verite
There are no featured reviews for because the movie has not released yet ().
See Movies in TheatersCinema Verite Quotes
Pat Loud: | The hardest thing that I cn think of in life is disappointing the people I love the most in the whole world. |
Craig Gilbert: | No one has ever done this before. So if anyone should be asking what the point is, it should be me of having to beg to finance what could be the most grounding breaking ten hours of TV ever put on the air. |
Pat Loud: | When Bill would go away, I was just left at home with my own worst fears. Finally, I decided what I needed to do was to keep Bill home, and show him and the world that his family was an indestructible thing. |
Movie & TV guides
About Tomatometer
The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review
About Audience Score
The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher.
Verified