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Sidewalk Stories Photos

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Movie Info

In this almost entirely silent film, a homeless artist (Charles Lane) is forced to play surrogate parent when the father of a young girl (Nicole Alysia) is murdered. Taking the child into the depths of the slums that he calls home, the artist keeps the little girl healthy and happy while doing his best to search for her living relatives. As the artist and the child venture through the streets together, they meet a strange assortment of characters while slowly developing an intimate friendship.

Rating:

R
Genre:

comedy
Original Language:

English
Director:

Charles Lane
Producer:

Charles Lane, Howard M. Brickner
Writer:

Charles Lane
Release Date (Streaming):

Oct 6, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA):

$13.5K
Runtime:

1h 37m
Production Co:

Palm Pictures
Sound Mix:

Surround

Cast & Crew

Charles Lane
Artist

Nicole Alysia
Child

Sandye Wilson
Young Woman

Darnell Williams
Father

Trula Hoosier
Mother

Tanya Cunningham
Girlfriend

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Sidewalk Stories

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (7)

The interplay between Lane and his real-life daughter Nicole Alysia-who plays the foundling-is touchingly tender.

October 22, 2014 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Noel Murray
The Dissolve
Laughs, romance, and even something of an adventure flower in Lane's New York.

November 5, 2013 | Full Review…

Alan Scherstuhl
Village Voice
Charles Lane's follies are enmeshed within bigger pictures of reality, reestablishing the film's thesis of comedy as a mode of survival.

November 5, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Steve Macfarlane
Slant Magazine
Lane is endlessly inventive in the ways he finds to create humorous situations and tell his story through images, and the soundtrack music, by Marc Marder, reinforces everything that happens.

May 24, 2003 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Lane's heartfelt and endearing film plays like a time capsule love letter to the eternal city.

November 3, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
It's funny, it's touching, it's very clever and it has a quite remarkable lightness of touch.

March 26, 2020 | Full Review…

Pamela Hutchinson
Silent London
This lively forgotten film, which says so much without speaking, is certainly worthy of DVD salvation. Criterion, are you listening?

November 8, 2009 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

View All Critic Reviews (7)

Audience Reviews for Sidewalk Stories

Nov 11, 2013

While there is rioting happening over a taxi on Wall Street, things are much more peaceful a couple miles north as a homeless street artist(Charles Lane, who also wrote and directed) plies his trade while waiting for the IFC Center to open. As he observes the world going by, he also witnesses a brutal murder in an alley. During which, he shields an infant girl(Nicole Alysia) from danger. First off, I applaud Charles Lane trying to do something different by doing something retro where he gives the homeless characters the only spoken words of "Sidewalk Stories." And I am always a sucker for views of a bygone New York City, in this case, from a movie made in 1989. However, there is also the sad irony of a film steeped in realism having a story, especially involving one incident, that does not really ring true at the same time.

Walter M Super Reviewer