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51 Birch Street
Truly Indie

51 Birch Street reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 77 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.5 out of 10
based on 16 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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 

What The Critics Said

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.
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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.
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91
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A warm and honest portrait of a marriage at its most mysterious, and ordinary.
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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.
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80
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Block, an experienced documentarian, does an outstanding job walking the knife-edge between personal and self-absorbed.
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80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Block has made a sad, delightful and half-accidental movie about his own parents.
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80
Variety Eddie Cockrell
A tonal triumph of true-life storytelling told with equal measures of tension and redemption.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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75
TV Guide Ken Fox
What's best about Block's documentary is how well he captures his own shifting perceptions.
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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.
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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.
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42
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The joys of watching a man carry out his own therapy onscreen are fairly limited.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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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