71
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternIt'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.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumGehry 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.
- 80VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyLucid and engaging, Sketches of Frank Gehry provides the enormously gratifying opportunity to spend an hour-and-a-half with an artistic giant.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerThe 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.
- 75New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanProviding a tart balance to such enthusiastic admiration, Gehry's own blunt musings on his motivations, revelations and desires prove especially interesting.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceThis enjoyably breezy portrait of genius architect Frank Gehry is drawn doodle-style by first-time documentarian Sydney Pollack.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttYou 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.
- 70The New York TimesDana StevensThe New York TimesDana StevensThis 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.
- 67The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinGehry 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.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickThe Sketches of Frank Gehry will appear this fall on PBS' "American Masters," which seems a more appropriate venue than theaters.