My Architect
New Yorker Films | Release Date: November 12, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Obviously a profoundly personal film, but it's also a smartly conducted tour through the world of building and design that Kahn towered over during the most successful phases of his career. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Not only is it the best documentary in a vintage season for nonfiction films (see "American Splendor," "Capturing the Friedmans," and "Spellbound"), it's also one of the best films of the year. It's as lyrical about the particulars of Kahn as it is about the universals of fathers and sons. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A first-person documentary with the subterranean pull of a superb confessional novel. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Movies today rarely touch chords that are spiritual or deeply emotional, but Nathaniel Kahn's remarkable documentary My Architect: A Son's Journey does both. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The journey comes together to be one of the very best of the "in search of" documentaries: open-minded, informative, immaculately crafted, full of moving and highly privileged moments of discovery. Read full review
90
VarietyDavid Rooney
This fascinating portrait of an eccentric visionary and his chaotic triple family life is an accomplished, enormously satisfying non-fiction work. Read full review
90
Village VoiceLeslie Camhi
An inspired homage to his father's work, and a bracing, bittersweet testament of filial love mixed with pain and compassion. Read full review
90
Washington PostBenjamin Forgey
This is a bittersweet story, no question. But to the son's great credit, what emerges from his patient investigation is a remarkably rich, even sympathetic, portrait of the father. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderDavid Schwartz
Absorbing, beautiful documentary. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The result is an immensely enjoyable portrait of a strange-looking, non-comforming genius who loved women as much as designing masterpieces but was never able to commit to them. In other words: great architect, lousy family man. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Nathaniel fares well with his father's fellow masters, although Frank Gehry seems evasive. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What a sad film this, and how filled with the mystery of human life. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The son is obsessive and petulant, punishing and self-pitying, and by the time he gets to a talk with his hurt old mother, we understand why. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
The most telling moment comes when his mother reveals that, despite all the subterfuge and false promises, she wouldn't have had it any other way. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJoe Mader
Tinged with sorrow, compassion, forgiveness and, ultimately, love. More than 25 years after his father's death, Nathaniel visits his father's architectural works and speaks to the people who knew him. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The son's search is one of three strands of a story that the movie weaves into a meticulously structured portrait of a complicated man who remains elusive even after key elements of the puzzle have been pieced together. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Touring his father's magnificent structures, Nathaniel shows signs of coming around to his mother's point of view, and of realizing that Kahn's towering contributions to art and humanity perhaps exceed (if not altogether excuse) his shortcomings as a father, a husband, and a lover. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
What makes it enthralling is the younger Kahn's openness to a range of emotional responses (his own and others') to his father's life above and below board, and his readiness to turn his own predicament into both entertainment and a provisional kind of puckish wisdom. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Fathers and families and the impossibility of ever fully understanding either are at the heart of My Architect, and like Nathaniel Kahn, we come away from the film with a renewed appreciation of both. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Apparently Louis Kahn was not much of a father, raconteur or businessman. But he was a genius, and he left his mark on all the people whose lives he touched. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A twofold story of heroic achievements and personal failings. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
It is a stunning work that captures with elegance -- and touches of lyricism -- the challenge of finding the man through the artist. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
This touching documentary is many things at once: a fascinating biography, a gorgeously shot travelogue, a provocative disquisition on the relevance of architecture and, above all, the record of a son's poignant search for a father. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The son has served the father well, though he faced an odd difficulty: the architect's life was so unusual that his son's understandable absorption with it steals a bit of time from his treatment of the work. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Nathaniel Kahn is very much a presence in this film, at times too much so. The title is properly read with the emphasis on the "my," and the work itself is a plea, understandable but disconcerting at times in its nakedness, to be linked irrevocably to his father. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Nathaniel will sometimes take it too far. It's particularly distracting, and even a little distancing, when he waits till the end of a lengthy interview to tell one of his father's former collaborators and friends that he is Louis' son. Read full review
70
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Fascinating and heartbreaking film. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid Parkinson
You'll be left as much in the dark as the director about the personality traits that inspired the loyalty of three strong, intelligent women towards this self-centred, physically-resistible enigma. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A fascinating look at a bizarre man and a brilliant talent. But a good deal of the movie is described by its subtitle -- "A Son's Journey'' -- and to the extent it is, the movie sags. Read full review
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