SummaryIn 1992, teenager Sandi Tan and her friends Sophie and Jasmine shot Singapore's first indie-a road movie called Shirkers-with their enigmatic American mentor, Georges Cardona. Sandi wrote the script and played the lead, a killer named S. After shooting wrapped, Georges vanished with all the footage! 20 years later, the 16mm cans are recovered in ... Read More
Shirkers
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
88
User score
Generally Favorable
7.2
My Score
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
100% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Oct 29, 2018
100
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.
100
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.
User score
Generally Favorable
76% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
15% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
9% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Apr 18, 2022
8
For the love of film, one can perfectly understand all that the creator of this documentary felt and how she saw her dream **** for so many years by someone who took it away from her for reasons that I really believe will never be clear to anyone, but that achieves what could be considered a bittersweet ending that reminds us the power behind our love for this art. And that's priceless.
Feb 7, 2019
8
Shirkers is, perhaps, just as different and unique as the unfinished film it talks about and the venturesome lives that partook in its devolopment.
Sep 2, 2018
91
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.
Oct 21, 2018
88
Sandi Tan's view of what the original Shirkers represented, and what her new film should be, proves surprisingly expansive.
Oct 25, 2018
80
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.
Mar 6, 2018
80
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.
70
As the story of the mysterious Cordona plays out, the persuasive personalities of the three women both then and now strike a chord.
Dec 26, 2018
8
From a documentary feature turn thriller, this craft from Sandi Tan is something to behold. **from me who rarely watches a docu.
Production Company:
- Doc Society
- Shirkers
- Cinereach
Release Date:Oct 26, 2018
Duration:1 h 37 m
Rating:TV-14
Website:
Awards
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 3 Wins & 6 Nominations
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Gotham Awards
• 2 Nominations
