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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
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54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
55
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Changeling
47
Choke
84
Christmas Tale, A
41
Cthulhu
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx
Dostana
62
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46
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63
Eden
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
26
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82
Frozen River
43
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73
Girl Cut in Two, A
54
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30
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84
Happy-Go-Lucky
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How About You
72
I Served the King of England
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I.O.U.S. A
40
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78
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63
JCVD
27
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82
Let the Right One In
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84
Momma's Man
51
Morning Light
34
My Name Is Bruce
xx
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
57
Sixty Six
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Nobel Son
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Boys of Baraka, The
ITVS
FILM:
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
On September 12, 2002 twenty "at risk" 12-year-old boys from the tough streets of inner-city Baltimore left home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, an experimental boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa. Here, faced with a strict academic and disciplinary program as well as the freedom to be normal teenage boys, these brave kids began the daunting journey towards putting their lives on a fresh path. This documentary focuses on four of these boys and captures their amazing journey. (Loki Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Heidi Ewing
Rachel Grady
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 6, 2006
Theatrical: November 30, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
83 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
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
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Warmly funny and very moving.

100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Overflowing with comedy and drama, The Boys of Baraka unfolds on the mean streets of Baltimore and in the wide-open spaces of Kenya.

100
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
The Boys of Baraka leaves you outraged in the way only the best documentaries can.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
There are many tragedies and accomplishments here, without the engineered uplift afflicting any number of lesser documentaries.

80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Ewing and Grady could have done a better job filling in each boy's back story, as well as explaining exactly how Baraka started and what its agenda is. But the film is clearly a labor of love, portraying the lives of its subjects with tremendous intimacy and passion.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A moving, troubling documentary. Moving because of the nature of the problem it explores, troubling because the film can't help but underline that simple solutions are never going to present themselves, no matter how much we want them to.

80
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Rich, sweet, densely layered and deeply satisfying. A film that might have been a dry exercise in earnest nonfiction filmmaking becomes a soaring, artistically complex testament to survival, character and hope.

80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Sensitive, intelligent, enlightening, and sometimes surprising.

80
Film Threat
Eric Campos
An entertaining experience as the filmmakers focus on a few select boys who provide a wealth of charm as they struggle with their new surroundings.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The results are amazing, though bittersweet, and demonstrate how complicated and expensive it is (though not impossible) to break the cycle of poverty, crime and lack of education.

75
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Seventy percent of black boys in Baltimore do not graduate from high school. They're more likely to land in jail -- or a cemetery. But there is hope, according to The Boys of Baraka, an uplifting documentary.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Walter Addiego
Gripping.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Here is a movie that makes you want to do something. Cry, or write a check, or howl with rage.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
The Boys of Baraka is so rich that you wish there were more of it.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
Sura Wood
The docu is not visually innovative, but the content more than makes up for what it lacks in style.

50
Variety
Joe Leydon
Feels achingly sad and frustratingly incomplete.

50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
The most interesting moments in the film are the videotapes sent back and forth between the parents and students, as they communicate the sadness of children separated from their distant families.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Noel Murray
Ewing and Grady practically squander the African material, and The Boys Of Baraka doesn't really come to life until the boys return to Baltimore for what turns out to be a permanent summer vacation, due to political unrest overseas.

50
LA Weekly
Ernest Hardy
The kids absolutely win your heart, but there's something off-putting in the film's lazy juxtaposition of unexamined Negro dysfunction tropes (absent fathers, violent streets) against an idyllic Africa tended by white benevolence.

40
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
The Boys of Baraka's heart may be in the right place, but its portrait of poor Baltimore kids selected to attend boarding school in Kenya is rife with suspect perspectives.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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