Shirkers
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): October 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerOct 29, 2018
It’s about how reality invades our dreams, and how the people we trust teach us to be less trusting as we get older. Tan plays these themes out with a rare emotional honesty, never allowing the fact that it’s a deeply personal work to prevent her from indicting herself alongside any of the other key players involved. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloOct 26, 2018
In her search for closure to this bizarre chapter in her life, Tan recreates Cardona’s steps to make sense of why he would steal the teens’ work. Her journey takes several dark turns, which she captures in a crisp digital format which contrasts nicely against the dreamy footage of the original “Shirkers,” which was its own twisted take on melodrama, surrealism and existentialism. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 25, 2018
A knotty detective yarn, a funny valentine to Singapore and one of the year’s most ardent expressions of movie love, it tells a story of cinematic theft, and in the process, becomes an entrancing feat of cinematic reclamation. Read full review
100
The GuardianCharlie Phillips
This is so much more than a film about a film, it’s about young women breaking the rules set in a conservative country - the process of doing that was a lot more powerful than finishing the actual film. Read full review
94
TheWrapApril WolfeOct 25, 2018
Like another breakout independent film this year, “The Tale,” Tan’s documentary attempts to portray her own narrative with objectivity and distance, but she discovers along the way that such a thing may not be possible, that memories will wait years or decades to snag you in their truths. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiOct 24, 2018
The original "Shirkers" might be a product of a bygone era of pop culture, but its new nonfiction form scans as a second attempt to reach those fellow weirdos who are desperate to make something real, established structures be damned. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRyan OliverSep 2, 2018
Shirkers is a film that should be experienced more than explained. That sounds like a cop out, but it’s an inspiring documentary about the process of filmmaking, the love of outsider art, but also a cautionary tale about trust and shadiness in the filmmaking world. Read full review
90
VoxAlissa WilkinsonNov 1, 2018
It’s a mesmerizing, fascinating story that also feels like an attempt, on Tan’s part, to reclaim the film from Cardona, putting it back in the hands of its rightful owners: herself and her friends. In that way, the new Shirkers is a kind of punk feminist project — a deeply personal, fabulously engrossing, visually assured bit of first-person creative nonfiction filmmaking. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaOct 26, 2018
Shirkers is a joy, but it also feels haunted, as if Tan had the unique opportunity to unearth a perfectly preserved clone of her younger, more idealistic self. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 25, 2018
Like a photograph slowly developing before our eyes, Shirkers (which was also the title of the original picture) is both mystery and manhunt, a captivating account of shattered friendship and betrayed trust. The skill of the editing (by Tan and two colleagues), though, is key. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 21, 2018
Sandi Tan's view of what the original Shirkers represented, and what her new film should be, proves surprisingly expansive. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 7, 2018
It’s a charming, wistful movie, and I trust Tan will not have to wait another 20 years to direct her next film. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric Kohn
Shirkers becomes a paean to the pivotal moment when the idealism of young adulthood faces a harsh reality check. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonOct 25, 2018
Where Tan describes the process of making Shirkers as an exorcism (presumably of Georges), the final product is more akin to a séance, a communion with a lost soul keen to still be heard from beyond the veil. Read full review
80
Time OutTomris LafflyOct 25, 2018
Shirkers is at its most gripping when it doesn’t overestimate Cardona’s narrative worth—the multifaceted women at the documentary’s heart are far more appealing. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 24, 2018
What Tan has given us is an incredible, sui generis tribute to the international lingua franca of D.I.Y. cinempowerment. She’s also telling us the story of how one person stole a big part of her youth. This documentary is her stealing it back. Victory, finally, is hers. Read full review
80
VarietyScott TobiasMar 6, 2018
Shirkers isn’t about Cardona, but about Tan reclaiming the film and the story that he had taken away from her. Her energized, rough-hewn documentary style doesn’t seem that far removed from her lost debut, but she and her friends have enough perspective to look back at that period in their lives with touching fondness and good humor. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoNov 28, 2018
The old “Shirkers” is gone, but long live Tan’s new version. Read full review
75
The Film StageDaniel Schindel
Shirkers finds the emotional grounding and even universality in a very strange story. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala Halligan
As the story of the mysterious Cordona plays out, the persuasive personalities of the three women both then and now strike a chord. Read full review
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