Critic Reviews

Elstree 1976...is a sweet, quietly funny, fascinating and contemplative study.

"Star Wars” fans will, of course, love this film, but it’s also a thought-provoking exploration of the dawning of our current age.

Without patronizing or condescending, it’s an examination of how fame can change us and haunt us, and of the complicated relationships that survivors of something like “Star Wars” can have with it.

The whole adds up to a charming portrait of the micro-fame and full, rich (not that rich) lives of the big actors who played little roles in the most carefully watched and memorized movie since “Citizen Kane.”

Visually, Elstree 1976 is often striking, thanks to some haunting extreme close-ups of these actors’ Star Wars action figures.

The best parts of "Elstree," not surprisingly, are the war stories these nine men and one woman share, their vivid memories of a shoot one calls "as primitive as it gets."

Elstree 1976 entertainingly explores the world of the character actor and bit-part player.

There are some stretches of the film that are frankly a bit boring and wouldn’t be missed if they were cut.

While Elstree 1976 appears to target a niche audience of Star Wars aficionados, you may be surprised to find it’s just as informative for cinephiles seeking insight into the industry as a whole.

At 105 minutes, Elstree 1976 became a bit of a slog for me. Visually, the talking heads-style of documentary can be very dull.