Critic Reviews

Sidewalk Stories weaves a spell as powerful as it is entertaining.

Charles Lane’s 1989 indie Sidewalk Stories doesn’t just hark back to The Kid; it formally revives the Chaplin classic in the street theater of Dinkins-era Greenwich Village.

Lane’s conceit is handled with such unassuming sweetness and charm that it never comes across as presumptuous or pretentious, and the simple authority of his conclusion–which uses dialogue in order to point out what most of us refuse to hear when we’re walking down the street–is unimpeachable.

Lane approaches New York’s unbalanced, inhumane economy the same way he approaches filmmaking: by putting a new frame around familiar sights, and forcing the audience to reconsider them.

Even more impressive than the tact, warmth and humor of Sidewalk Stories is the fact that it exists at all. Mr. Lane has flown quite fearlessly in the face of fashion, and done this so confidently that any comparisons with Chaplin deserve to be appreciative.

Sidewalk Stories is a bold and utterly enchanting creation, and its appearance is a signal to watch the multifaceted Lane closely. [09 Nov 1989, p.F1]

It's the gentlest of tales in the grittiest of surroundings. Charles Lane's remarkable feature film debut, Sidewalk Stories, merges the sensibilities of Charles Chaplin and Spike Lee, fashioning a moving examination of homelessness from eloquent silence. [29 Dec 1989, p.5G]

Sidewalk Stories manages to expose the modern-day realities of New York while at the same time recapturing the sentimentality and charm of the classic films of the silent era. [03 Nov 1989, p.47]

Despite the film's serious shortcomings, it does have a certain wan charm. And its surprise ending packs a strong punch. [23 Feb 1990, p.4]

Basic as a home movie -- and twice as touching -- Charles Lane's Sidewalk Stories is a black-and-white silent comedy that pays tribute both to Charles Chaplin's The Kid (1921) and to the urban homeless. [06 Apr 1990, p.4]