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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
67
$9.99
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Song of Sparrows, The
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What Goes Up
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Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
51 Birch Street
Truly Indie
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Mike Block,
Mina Block,
Kitty Block,
Ellen Block,
Karen Block Engwall,
and
Marjorie Silver
Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block’s unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family. (Copacetic Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Doug Block
Amy Seplin
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Doug Block
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: October 18, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Germany / USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Block's hypnotic documentary, among the finest of the year.
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
51 Birch Street, like the best of the recent wave of personal documentaries, is both a compelling story and an eye-opening bit of social history.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A warm and honest portrait of a marriage at its most mysterious, and ordinary.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Through haunting home movies, Mina's diaries and interviews with Mike, a raw, riveting portrait emerges of what a child sees in his parents' relationship and what lies beneath.
80
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Block, an experienced documentarian, does an outstanding job walking the knife-edge between personal and self-absorbed.
80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Block has made a sad, delightful and half-accidental movie about his own parents.
80
Variety
Eddie Cockrell
A tonal triumph of true-life storytelling told with equal measures of tension and redemption.
80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Mr. Block has put his parents’ life, and his own, into this film with such warmth and candor that it may take more than one viewing to recognize it as a work of art.
80
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Open-minded, probing but never prurient, 51 Birch Street is much more than a portrait of suburban ennui. It's a loving, painful map of the gulf between thought and word, between word and deed, that props up good marriages, and sends bad ones to hell.
80
Los Angeles Times
Sam Adams
What makes 51 Birch Street a moving revelation rather than a therapeutic exercise is Block's commitment to understanding his parents, Mike and Mina, on their own terms, regardless of what it does to his image of them.
75
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The intimate history of Doug Block's parents becomes fodder for a broader look at family secrets in this complex documentary.
75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
The film has a compelling way about it. All five of the immediate Block family members emerge in full and affecting portraits.
75
TV Guide
Ken Fox
What's best about Block's documentary is how well he captures his own shifting perceptions.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
This isn't always adept as storytelling, and Block's coming to terms with his own denseness occasionally tries one's patience, but he manages to make the overall process of his reeducation fascinating and compelling.
70
Village Voice
Melissa Levine
Begins shakily, with a naked self-consciousness that can be off-putting, but quickly develops into an absorbing and ever deepening drama.
42
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
The joys of watching a man carry out his own therapy onscreen are fairly limited.
 The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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