The Great Buster: A Celebration
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: October 5, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 4, 2018
In The Great Buster, Bogdanovich has provided a brilliantly enthralling primer. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyAlan ScherstuhlOct 25, 2018
It’s a relaxed study of greatness, of exquisite physical comedy, of how’d-he-do-that stuntwork, of a vigorous cinema artist who saw new and enduring possibilities for his medium. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 10, 2018
The mix of commentators is unusual and lively, hardly the usual crowd that often pops up in documentaries like this, the clips are illustrative and on point in addition to often being eye-popping, and the film looks certain to please Keaton aficionados. Most importantly, it's likely to induce newcomers to investigate the great stone face for themselves. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldNov 28, 2018
A conventional but thoroughly entertaining film. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoNov 6, 2018
A new documentary, The Great Buster: A Celebration, shows us why he inspires rhapsodies from critics and film historians, and would be a fine introduction for those who don’t know his work. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 1, 2018
The stone-faced silent comedian’s influence on every possible aspect of physical comedy is wide and deep, attested to in this movie by entertainers old (Bill Irwin, Paul Dooley, Richard Lewis), ancient (Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner), youngish (Bill Hader, Quentin Tarantino), and random (Cybill Shepherd, Werner Herzog). Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 22, 2018
Great Buster turns Bogdanovich’s lifelong appreciation into cinematic adoration, using generous clips of Keaton’s short films, features and late-life TV appearances to remind us that, as Johnny Knoxville says in the movie, “he was funny then, he’s funny now and he’ll be funny 100 years from now.” Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 18, 2018
The Great Buster briskly takes us through the stations of Keaton’s eventful life and career, mostly going the expected chronological route with one key exception. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 3, 2018
The film presents a compact, tactful biography and also a valuable explication of the Keatonesque in its most sublime varieties. Coming ahead of a digital restoration of Keaton’s major films, it serves as both a primer and refresher, as well as a promise that he will not be forgotten. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 31, 2018
Bogdanovich narrates the most extraordinary moments of close-up slapstick and derring-do with equal fascination. But mostly what he does is let them play out with the occasional factoid, so the audience can appreciate just how impeccable Keaton's work was. Read full review
67
IndieWireMichael NordineSep 10, 2018
Keaton was an ahead-of-his-time innovator, and though Bogdanovich honors that legacy he doesn’t always live up to it: You’ll leave the film knowing more about its subject than you did when you walked in, but there’s little here that feels like it couldn’t be found in one of the many other accounts of Keaton’s life and work. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGary GarrisonSep 10, 2018
It aims for simplicity, for a celebration of his unrivaled talents, and often fails to explore the complexity of the very man at its center. Read full review
65
Film Journal InternationalEric MonderOct 4, 2018
Working with Keaton’s own material, Bodganovich is too busy praising the artist to bother saying anything novel about him. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 21, 2018
The Great Buster, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich’s fond if slight appreciation of Buster Keaton, serves as the centerpiece of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s weeklong “Best of Buster” mini-retrospective starting Friday. Read full review
60
VarietyJay WeissbergSep 10, 2018
Structured as a straightforward life story followed by an extended coda looking in detail at the features Cohen is restoring, The Great Buster can’t hold a candle to the 1987 three-part series “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow” but will make do as a decent DVD extra. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 3, 2018
The result feels like a DVD or Blu-ray special feature with a celebrity pedigree, rather than a movie that can stand on its own two feet. Read full review
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