The Booksellers

Name: The Booksellers
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2019-10-08T08:02:56-07:00
Rating: 85

Critics Consensus

Inviting viewers into a fascinating world of bibliophiles, The Booksellers is a documentary that's easy to curl up and get lost in.

85%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 41

Coming soon

Release date: Mar 6, 2020

Audience Score

Ratings: Not yet available

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The Booksellers Videos

1:59

The Booksellers: Trailer 1

View All Videos (1)

The Booksellers Photos

View All Photos (6)

Movie Info

Antiquarian booksellers are part scholar, part detective and part businessperson, and their personalities and knowledge are as broad as the material they handle. They also play an underappreciated yet essential role in preserving history. THE BOOKSELLERS takes viewers inside their small but fascinating world, populated by an assortment of obsessives, intellects, eccentrics and dreamers.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Documentary
Directed By:

D.W. Young
In Theaters:

Mar 6, 2020 limited
Runtime:

99 minutes
Studio:

Greenwich Entertainment

Cast

Parker Posey

Fran Lebowitz

Gay Talese

Critic Reviews for The Booksellers

All Critics (41) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (6)

For those that can stick it through, they'll find a unique gem of a movie that they might not know they're missing.

May 12, 2020 | Full Review…

Noëlle D. Lilley
Chicago Reader
Top Critic
"The Booksellers" looks at where the trade has been, the psychology of why it has survived generations and how it can move forward. It's as warm and inviting as a good book.

May 12, 2020 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Adam Graham
Detroit News
Top Critic
"The Booksellers" shares a few of those stories and a little of that learning. And I have to tell you: It feels really good to be roaming those aisles of bookshelves again, even if it's just through a screen.

April 18, 2020 | Full Review…

Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
Though it opens with a quote from Susan Sontag invoking Jorge Luis Borges's belief... the film is not about the content, but the container - the tactile, redolent artifact essential to book lovers and sought by collectors.

April 9, 2020 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Peter Keough
Boston Globe
Top Critic
Do not be misled by the comic charm of this film. It's a ghost story, brooded over by the rustling wraiths of bookstores dead and gone.

March 13, 2020 | Full Review…

Anthony Lane
New Yorker
Top Critic
I finished the film and felt compelled to turn off the screen and pick up a book.

March 12, 2020 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Mark Medley
Globe and Mail
Top Critic
Even if you're not an avid reader, you'll enjoy this engaging documentary that takes a look at the last of a dying breed, the antiquarian bookseller.

May 13, 2020 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Joe Friar
The Victoria Advocate
An engrossing documentary that lovingly demonstrates the importance of books within our culture and our evolving relationship to them.

May 12, 2020 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Robert Daniels
812filmreviews
While this hazy, shifting quality lets The Booksellers feel lighter on its feet, it also makes its inquiries seem insufficiently honed.

May 8, 2020 | Full Review…

George Elkind
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
The overall experience is like wandering through an antiquarian book store, picking up a volume, starting to flip through in a leisurely fashion, and then having your arm jostled, losing your place, and picking up another tome.

April 30, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Richard Whittaker
Austin Chronicle
If an overall structure is lacking, it can be forgiven. Perhaps Young is trying to replicate the random experience of wandering through an old bookstore and finding diversions and delights where one may.

April 29, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Randall King
Winnipeg Free Press
If you have been personally victimized by Marie Kondo's book disposals, let's giggle about a glorified "very special episode" of Antiques Roadshow.

April 24, 2020 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Ryan Syrek
The Reader (Omaha, NE)