Sketches of Frank Gehry
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 12, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's a stirring portrait of a singular artist, a gorgeously photographed album of his buildings, and, perhaps most importantly, a film that manages to demystify the way he works without diminishing it.
90
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Sketches was produced for PBS's American Masters series, but it's in theaters now and deserves to be seen on the largest possible screen. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Gehry sketches and free-associates about how he's not nearly the menschy aw-shucks pussycat from Canada he appears to be but rather a wily, complicated L.A. lion. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The camera drinks in the angles, curves and textures, and the way it all shapes the light as if it's yet another of Gehry's non-traditional materials, and Pollack creates his own video sketchbook of Gehry impressions. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Lucid and engaging, Sketches of Frank Gehry provides the enormously gratifying opportunity to spend an hour-and-a-half with an artistic giant. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesChristopher Hawthorne
Pollack does give a substantial chunk of screen time to Milton Wexler, Gehry's longtime analyst, who proves to be a winning, charismatic presence. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Critics, clients, and colleagues all weigh in on the architect, but Pollack is more interested in the mysteries of the creative process, and his studies of Gehry's buildings, deftly edited by Karen Schmeer, capture their dramatic sense of movement and resolution. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The footage of Gehry's work, notably the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, is often startlingly beautiful, and Gehry is forthcoming about how he achieved his effects. But too much of the film is taken up with gushy self-serving talking-head testimonials. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Providing a tart balance to such enthusiastic admiration, Gehry's own blunt musings on his motivations, revelations and desires prove especially interesting. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Rescued from its inclination to smug, celebrity-testimonial-driven hagiography by Gehry's own considerable charm and infectious enthusiasm. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The result is not a formal doc but an extended chat between two professionals who, as Pollack puts it, search for "a sliver of space in the commercial world where you can make a difference." Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob Nelson
This enjoyably breezy portrait of genius architect Frank Gehry is drawn doodle-style by first-time documentarian Sydney Pollack. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
You learn as much as you need to know to understand Gehry's architectural process and to appreciate his enormous contribution to modern art and architecture. Which is not a bad thing. Just sketchy. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
This absorbing documentary, the first directed by Sydney Pollack, is a modest undertaking, offering glimpses of the architect and his work rather than a full-scale portrait or catalogue raisonné. Read full review
70
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
Just when Sydney Pollack's new film about super-architect Frank Gehry, Sketches of Frank Gehry, threatens to get really interesting, Pollack, perhaps unconsciously channeling about 100 years' worth of bad movies about great artists, reverts to fall-back mode. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Gehry is a fascinating subject, a strangely magnetic combination of rumpled, aw-shucks humility and Herculean ambition and hubris, but every time Pollack stumbles onto a fascinating topic like Gehry's battles with anti-Semitism, he pulls away instead of delving deeper. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
Whatever you think of Gehry's architecture, if you have any interest in art, or the interplay between light and shadow, or the way buildings create space and community, you're likely to enjoy this film. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Best of all is the ride through the architect's own domestic space in Santa Monica, dubbed by locals "the house that built Gehry." Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
What benefits the picture early on, giving it a casual air, becomes cloying in the later going, making it feel like a smug exercise in mutual admiration. Read full review
60
EmpirePatrick Peters
A fond and always accessible portrait, but the lack of objectivity and drooling images of Gehry's work deprives this documentary of any objectivity. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
The Sketches of Frank Gehry will appear this fall on PBS' "American Masters," which seems a more appropriate venue than theaters. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleKenneth Baker
When Pollack admits that he is not a documentary filmmaker and that he knows nothing about architecture, Gehry says that makes him perfect for this project. But the joke does not redeem the frustration Pollack creates by the choppy, restless views he gives us of Gehry's buildings. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The film has lovely moments – Gehry buildings can be extremely photogenic, after all – but it doesn't sink its teeth in the way it probably should. Read full review
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