75
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyRogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyIs the human brain built to absorb so much of "the world"? How do we filter anything? Matt Wolf's new documentary, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, is an interesting meditation on these ideas, as well as a character study of a fascinating news-junkie with a mission.
- 83IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandThe results are fascinating, weird, and often quite moving.
- 83The PlaylistJonathan ChristianThe PlaylistJonathan ChristianThankfully, ‘Recorder’ salvages its lack of narrative control with enough emotional weight to earn its memorability.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck[A] fascinatingly oddball story.
- 80Film ThreatMatthew RoeFilm ThreatMatthew RoeWolf’s directorial command when selecting material to showcase and contextualize the anecdotes spun throughout the film further affirms his mission to paint the most compendious picture possible, and he succeeds quite admirably.
- 80Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleWolf’s strange, sad and finally exhilarating portrait is one of radical consumerism turned into a searchable legacy — the viewer as activist.
- 70VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanMatt Wolf directs “Recorder” with a lot of lively skill. He presents the eccentricity of Marion Stokes’ personality with supreme sympathetic understanding, or maybe you could say a bit more romanticism than it deserves.
- 70Screen DailyStephen WhittyScreen DailyStephen WhittyThis is a small, carefully crafted film that tries hard to pierce the protective armor of a recluse known to be difficult and domineering. In the end, Stokes still remains slightly unknowable, as she’d undoubtedly prefer. Yet the documentary’s deep dive into her extraordinary archives, and the grainy video treasures it unearths, make for fascinating viewing.
- 70The New York TimesGlenn KennyThe New York TimesGlenn Kenny“Recorder” doesn’t explore the extent to which Marion’s original project of analysis was subsumed by the compulsion to tape everything. But her taping of everything created an irreproducible archive that is enlightening and the stuff of madness.
- 70TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanTheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanStokes recorded every story she possibly could, from 1977 to 2012. By then, it had become a lot easier to chronicle both the minutiae and the magnitude of life in the 21st century. But has that been an improvement? Wolf leaves it to his audience to decide, after gently pushing us past any instinctual answers.