51 Birch Street Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: 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) Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Block's hypnotic documentary, among the finest of the year.
  2. 80
    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.
  3. 80
    Block has made a sad, delightful and half-accidental movie about his own parents.
  4. 42
    The joys of watching a man carry out his own therapy onscreen are fairly limited.

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