X
  • 2015
  • Not Rated
  • The Criterion Channel
  • 1 h 5 m
  • 2015
  • Not Rated
  • The Criterion Channel
  • 1 h 5 m

Summary A cinematic essay in defense of remembering, The Royal Road offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity, the pursuit of unavailable women and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo - all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California ...

Directed By: Jenni Olson

Written By: Jenni Olson

  • 2015
  • Not Rated
  • The Criterion Channel
  • 1 h 5 m
  • 2015
  • Not Rated
  • The Criterion Channel
  • 1 h 5 m

The Royal Road

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 6 Critic Reviews
65
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary A cinematic essay in defense of remembering, The Royal Road offers up a primer on the Spanish colonization of California and the Mexican American War alongside intimate reflections on nostalgia, butch identity, the pursuit of unavailable women and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo - all against a contemplative backdrop of 16mm urban California ...

Directed By: Jenni Olson

Written By: Jenni Olson

Where to Watch

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 6 Critic Reviews
65
67% Positive
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 6 Critic Reviews
65
67% Positive
4 Reviews
33% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Oct 27, 2015
As personal as it is political, Olson's meditative project offers a profound lesson on intimacy and history — and the ways in which both are distorted and remade by memory.
By Melissa Anderson FULL REVIEW
83
Oct 26, 2015
What keeps The Royal Road from feeling like its trapped in amber is the genuine heartbreak that Olson clearly feels, the rawness of her emotions and her dedicated willingness to share.
By Drew Taylor FULL REVIEW
70
Oct 26, 2015
While this free-ranging agenda might easily have seemed overly random or pretentious, Olson’s confessional tenor lends it all a stream-of-consciousness intimacy.
By Dennis Harvey FULL REVIEW
70
Oct 26, 2015
If this ambitious film never quite coheres into a single whole, something that an artificial division into several chapters only helps to underline, it does provide a lot to chew on along the way.
By Boyd van Hoeij FULL REVIEW
50
Oct 26, 2015
The cumulative effect is altogether perplexing, as it's difficult to tell if Olson's trying to upend clichés or settle for them.
By Clayton Dillard FULL REVIEW
40
Oct 29, 2015
Ms. Olson’s images are often captivating, but too often undercut by the aforementioned aspiring-to-the-dialectical voice-over, which is awkwardly written, and delivered with a lack of affect that grows tedious over the course of an hour.
By Glenn Kenny FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Jenni Olson Productions
Release Date Oct 30, 2015
Duration 1 h 5 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Website https://www.facebook.com/RoyalRoadMovie
View All Details

Awards

Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Ann Arbor Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Dokufest International Documentary and Short Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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