Watching TV with the Red Chinese
Roam Films | Release Date: January 20, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
4
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoJan 29, 2012
So Watching TV is less a story loosely bound by cause and effect than a kind of scrapbook of memories, all of which convey the concerns of being super smart and mostly confused in a culturally mixed Manhattan, circa 1980. The affection is sweet and precise, if even the terms we use to define them aren't. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJan 19, 2012
This quirky indie has an off-kilter, shaggy appeal and a filling story. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDaniel M. GoldJan 19, 2012
The film nicely captures the grad-student vibe: beer-fueled bull sessions about science, religion, probability and destiny; fragile, self-absorbed egos preening even as confidence wavers. Read full review
40
VarietyRonnie ScheibJan 19, 2012
Watching TV feels fundamentally old-fashioned in its storytelling. Thesping is solid, particularly by O'Nan, Nam and Jacobs. But the conversations feel artificial, overly concerned with re-creating period detail or interjecting relevant philosophical life concepts. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerJan 17, 2012
The first half of the film is a virtual compendium of high-culture references, topical concerns addressed almost in passing, and narrative fracturing devices. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreJan 18, 2012
Watching TV With The Red Chinese is based on a Luke Whisnant young-adult novel that co-writer/director Shimon Dotan (Diamond Dogs) seems to have fed into a blender. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNick SchagerJan 17, 2012
Nearly every scene is clunky, and the film's commentary about TV as the unifying glue of American culture is embellished through lame incidents of sex and violence that eventually validate the Chinese tourists' anti-U.S. critiques. Read full review
12
New York PostV.A. MusettoJan 20, 2012
Director-writer Shimon Dotan takes this iffy story and makes it nearly unwatchable by jumping back and forth in time, using screens within screens and bouncing between color and black-and-white. Read full review
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