66
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSidewalk Stories weaves a spell as powerful as it is entertaining.
- 88Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneCharles Lane’s 1989 indie Sidewalk Stories doesn’t just hark back to The Kid; it formally revives the Chaplin classic in the street theater of Dinkins-era Greenwich Village.
- 80Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumLane’s conceit is handled with such unassuming sweetness and charm that it never comes across as presumptuous or pretentious, and the simple authority of his conclusion–which uses dialogue in order to point out what most of us refuse to hear when we’re walking down the street–is unimpeachable.
- 80The DissolveNoel MurrayThe DissolveNoel MurrayLane approaches New York’s unbalanced, inhumane economy the same way he approaches filmmaking: by putting a new frame around familiar sights, and forcing the audience to reconsider them.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinEven more impressive than the tact, warmth and humor of Sidewalk Stories is the fact that it exists at all. Mr. Lane has flown quite fearlessly in the face of fashion, and done this so confidently that any comparisons with Chaplin deserve to be appreciative.
- 75Miami HeraldMiami HeraldIt's the gentlest of tales in the grittiest of surroundings. Charles Lane's remarkable feature film debut, Sidewalk Stories, merges the sensibilities of Charles Chaplin and Spike Lee, fashioning a moving examination of homelessness from eloquent silence. [29 Dec 1989, p.5G]
- SIDEWALK STORIES has more heart than art, but its heart is large, and Lane proves himself an ambitious, impassioned filmmaker.
- 67Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittAs an experiment in filmmaking, the movie is too self-conscious and sentimental to be entirely successful. But it has a lot of heart, and the unexpectedly pungent ending makes a powerful comment on today's urban problems.
- 50Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrToo sympathetic to really dislike, but too benign to leave an impression. [05 Jan 1990, p.G7]
- 50Time OutGeoff AndrewTime OutGeoff AndrewAn ambitious but sadly misguided attempt to make a contemporary silent comedy which opts for simplistic plotting, sentimentality and mime as it tells of a homeless, black New York street artist's attempts to trace the mother of a baby girl whose father's murder he has witnessed.