Maineland

Name: Maineland
Genre: Documentary
Released: March 16, 2018
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 60

2018

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Mixed or average reviews based on 6 Critic Reviews

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Maineland

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Movie Details & Credits

Abramorama | Release Date: March 16, 2018 | Not Rated

Summary: Filmed over three years in China and the U.S., Maineland is a multi-layered coming-of-age tale that follows two affluent and cosmopolitan teenagers as they settle into a boarding school in blue-collar rural Maine. Part of the enormous wave of "parachute students" from China enrolling in U.S. private schools, bubbly, fun-loving Stella andFilmed over three years in China and the U.S., Maineland is a multi-layered coming-of-age tale that follows two affluent and cosmopolitan teenagers as they settle into a boarding school in blue-collar rural Maine. Part of the enormous wave of "parachute students" from China enrolling in U.S. private schools, bubbly, fun-loving Stella and introspective Harry come seeking a Western-style education, escape from the dreaded Chinese college entrance exam, and the promise of a Hollywood-style U.S. high school experience. As Stella and Harry’s fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, they ruminate on their experiences of alienation, culture clash, and personal identity, sharing new understandings and poignant discourses on home and country.

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Director: Miao Wang

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 90 min

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Critic Reviews

A.O. Scott

Mar 14, 2018

Maineland takes up a large and complicated set of topics — the global economy, the shifting relations between East and West, the commodification of American education — and addresses them with understated delicacy. Read full review

Alan Scherstuhl

Mar 15, 2018

That relaxed joyfulness is balanced by the challenges of the states: weight gain, being stereotyped, the emphasis on fun with friends rather than preparation for all the life ahead. You can see, over the school year Wang documents, the kids’ certainties about what matters most eroding. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

Jun 7, 2018

While it scratches an admittedly reflective surface, you keep hoping the nicely photographed Maineland would have dug a bit deeper. Read full review

Justin Lowe

Mar 14, 2018

Wang’s verite approach attempts to strike a tone somewhere between revealing and contemplative, but her principal subjects are too young and inexperienced with the world to have much of import to say. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Godfrey Cheshire

Mar 16, 2018

A documentary that offers some fascinating if glancing insights into a rich and timely subject but ends up being more frustrating than enlightening. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

May 29, 2018

Maineland is informative in the most basic ways. But the big hole in Wang’s film is in failing to capture the disconnect, the true culture shock of children of neon bedecked skyscrapers, mansions and coddling parents packed off to the backwoods of Maine. And the second biggest hole is missing the frison that must have been experienced by both sides in this exchange. Read full review

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