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Smart and inventive, The Arbor offers some intensely memorable twists on tired documentary tropes. Read critic reviews
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Rent The Arbor on Amazon Prime Video, or buy it on Amazon Prime Video.
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Movie Info
A mix of documentary and fictional elements tells the story of doomed playwright Andrea Dunbar, who wrote about the difficult life she endured growing up in England's Bradford housing projects. Archival footage featuring Dunbar is presented, along with interviews with family members, including her daughter, Lorraine, who led a similarly troubled life. Excerpts from Dunbar's most famous play, "The Arbor," are performed on the streets of her hometown and at Buttershaw Estates, where she lived.
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: English
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Director: Clio Barnard
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Producer: Tracy O'Riordan
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Release Date (Theaters): limited
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $21.3K
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Strand Releasing
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News & Interviews for The Arbor
Critic Reviews for The Arbor
Audience Reviews for The Arbor
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Extraordinary. Landmark filmmaking. Review soon.
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I'll bet you've never seen a documentary quite like "The Arbor." In this movie, ostensibly about the late playwright Andrea Dunbar, it has actors lip-synching testimony given by friends and relatives. But the story does not stop with her death, as it continues with her three children, especially the oldest, Lorraine, whose father is of Pakistani origin at a time when racism was particularly virulent. Actually, "The Arbor" is an incisive documentary about how much a person's life is defined by their environment and how they are raised. There is plenty of archival footage comparing the poverty strewn streets of Andrea's time to the present, along with scenes peformed outside there from one of her plays carried out in front of an appreciative audience. It was presumed by outsiders with the success she had that she would use it to escape but she never did make it out, spending much of her free time in the local pub. When it came to her three children, two would go on to live apparently stable lives. It is Lorraine that has the troubled life of tragedy, as sexual abuse is mentioned also.
walter m Super Reviewer -
Sort of documentary with lip-syncing actors over real voices, scenes played out on a council estate and news clips about the life and times of Andrea Dunbar, a "genius from the slums" and author of THE ARBOR and RITA,SUE & BOB TOO. She wrote her first play, which was performed at the Royal Court Theatre London, when she was just 15, and she died at 29 in the local pub, leaving three kids from three diferent dads to grow up as best they can (and in one case, not very well at all). Absolutely rivetting, especially if you don't know the story. Very recommended.
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Unique documentary uses actors lip syncing subjects' words to create a chilling portrait of a vicious cycle of generational despair. A mother and a daughter's downward spirals are mirrored in each other. One an unlikely playwright, the other unwanted and out of place. It's original style gives a searing glimpse into cycles of self destruction and how it affects successive generations.
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