- Network: HBO
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 7, 2024
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Outstanding .... Happily “Wise Guy” overcomes this gimmickry [a recreation of the office of Dr. Melfi] because the stories and the clips and the outtakes and audition footage are so incredibly addictive, and because one final gimmick pays off, big. But the big draw is Chase. Reluctant though he may be, he’s a master storyteller.
-
Sensationally artful and engrossing. .... Gibney threads clips from “The Sopranos” throughout the documentary, and does it so deftly that we relive the show in all its hot-wire intimacy, and also reexperience it as the spiritual epic it is.
-
If you're a fan of The Sopranos, from its unpredictable beginning until that frustrating end, Wise Guys is a must-watch that will make you want to revisit Tony and his gang all over again. It also has the most perfect ending for a documentary that this writer has seen in a long while.
-
The viewer experience is all the more enriched because the two-part HBO documentary IS about Chase. Over the course of 160 minutes, “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos” establishes itself as the definitive history of a series that is almost universally regarded as one of the greatest works in the history of television.
-
If you think the story of The Sopranos has been told to death, Gibney’s film is a convincing counter-argument. The definitive chronicle of The Best Show Ever.
-
“Wise Guy” is less biography than investigation, culturally and psychologically analyzing how Chase’s creation met America on the verge of shifting away from the white picket fence dream. But the most fascinating scenes are the ones where Gibney uses his interviewing skills to analyze Chase, or more accurately, has Chase analyze himself.
-
Wise Guy: David Chase And The Sopranos provides a lot of insight into what made Chase tick and what went into the creation of the landmark series.
-
Did it turn this doubter into a Sopranos disciple? Not quite. It’s not a world I’d want to linger in. But you had to respect the integrity of all involved.
-
Wise Guy is a strong celebration of the series, and a fascinating psychoanalysis of the man who dreamed it up.
-
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos isn’t a be-all and end-all documentary, but it’s still an essential glimpse into an essential show through the eyes of its essential creative force.
-
What Mr. Gibney shows us of the audition process for the pilot is oddly, almost morbidly fascinating, insinuating that the final casting was perfect and any alterations would have changed it to the point of mutilation. .... The visuals are always kinetic; the flow is rhythmic. And while “The Sopranos” might be an easy subject, Mr. Chase quite clearly isn’t.
-
The first 10 minutes are saddled with nervous, chaotic, overlapping editing that speeds through Chase’s biography to better focus on the show itself. Once the documentary takes a breath and starts telling a story, it suddenly becomes watchable. But “Wise Guy” ends by mimicking the show’s divisively abrupt final note, which leaves the impression that there’s a deficit of original ideas animating this endeavor.
Awards & Rankings
There are no user reviews yet.