Visual Acoustics
Arthouse Films | Release Date: October 9, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Shulman was around so long that he even got to weigh in on Frank Gehry's Disney Hall. He was skeptical once but came to love it. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A really terrific, intensely focused documentary on a fascinating personality. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Associated with the modernist architectural movement centered in Southern California during the mid-20th century, Shulman’s still photographs are essential to any study of the style’s vast popularization and commercialism. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
Something of an elegy to modernism. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Shulman photographed buildings as if they were movie stars: He found their best angles and immortalized them. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
This stylish film reminds us that great images endure after bodies and buildings crumble. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Enjoyable as it is, Bricker's giddy hagiography could have used a little pushback, especially in the matter of Shulman's airy dismissal of the postmodernism that, he claimed, forced him into "retirement." Read full review
70
The New York TimesAndy Webster
It’s about lovely photographs of graceful buildings and those who can afford the real estate. But it does pay proper respect to a deserving artist. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Nominally about the life and career of landmark Southern California architectural photographer Julius Shulman, but it's more about the buildings he photographed than it is about him. Which is probably the way he'd like it. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith Uhlich
Visual Acoustics goes out of its way to remain as kindly and pleasing as Shulman himself. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderFred Camper
This documentary tells this story reasonably well, though one might question whether director Eric Bricker's jazzy montages, collages, and rapid camera movements are appropriate to the contemplation of still photographs. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Essential viewing for builders, graphic designers, visual artists, and other optically inclined folk, but it’s a bit of a slog for the uninitiated. Read full review
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