Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
International Film Circuit | Release Date: July 6, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 7, 2011
It is a rich, beautifully organized and illustrated modern history of Eastern European Jewry examined through the life and work of the author, born Sholem Rabinovich in Pereyaslav (near Kiev) in 1859. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 25, 2011
Both the man and his times resist a compact 93 minutes. This much anguished history, and Aleichem's inspired literary response to that history, has difficulties being confined to conventional documentary feature length. Yet Dorman's touch is sure, his pacing fleet and his chorus of voices marvelous. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 13, 2011
He's often called the Yiddish Mark Twain; supposedly Twain, upon hearing this, said to tell Aleichem that Twain was the American Sholem Aleichem. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesAug 25, 2011
This absorbing PBS-style documentary by Joseph Dorman follows Aleichem from his early years in the Russian shtetl of Voronko through the pogroms that would drive the Jewish diaspora of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenFeb 23, 2012
Not often does a film double as a literary critic, but this is the Northrop Frye of docs. Essentially, it revises and sharpens the blunted reputation of a great writer. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 28, 2011
In recording the timeless traditions of Jewry, he created a new one: the identity crisis that rides on the back of laughter. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 19, 2011
To borrow just a few of Aleichem's words that are ingrained in Jewish culture: "It could be worse." Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 25, 2011
This is a person you'd enjoy spending time with and learning from. That's certainly the case with Dorman's film. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 24, 2011
There are many scholars and critics here, most of them useful and pleasant, who obviously love him. Most remarkably, there is his granddaughter, Bel Kaufman, still looking terrific at 100, who had writing in her blood and wrote "Up the Down Staircase." Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleLeba HertzAug 18, 2011
What makes the movie succeed is that Dorman doesn't only focus on the life of Aleichem (who had a tendency to build fortunes and then lose them), but a look at a society long gone and the legacy and traditions they and Aleichem left to Jews around the world today. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJul 8, 2011
Offers well-chosen selections from Aleichem's darkly humorous work. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJul 5, 2011
Not only sets up the writer's life as representative of the transitions of early modern Jewish life, but posits his oeuvre as an ongoing chronicle of the shift from a vibrant, unified Yiddish culture to a fractured world-in-exile. Read full review
70
VarietyRonnie ScheibJul 5, 2011
Joseph Dorman's intelligent if conventional bio-doc of Sholem Aleichem proves particularly revealing, since the famed, dandyish Yiddish writer led a life as full of colorful ironies as the motormouth schlemiels that populate his stories. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. HobermanJul 5, 2011
Additional substance comes from Dorman's ongoing use of period photos and newsreel footage. In the spirit of the Sholem Aleichem oeuvre, Laughing in the Darkness is a collective family album. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineMatthew NestelJul 18, 2011
The author's texts are used as biographical inventory, and they're not simply read, they're performed, sometimes to the detriment of the prose. Read full review
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