SummaryInstead of making a conventional documentary or adapting Dunbar’s play The Arbor for the screen, director Clio Barnard has crafted a truly unique work that transcends genre and defies categorization. Following two years conducting audio interviews with Dunbar’s family, friends and neighbors, Barnard filmed actors lip-synching the interviews, flaw... Read More
Directed By:Clio Barnard
The Arbor
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
88
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
100% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Jul 21, 2011
100
An innovative hybrid of documentary, staged reading, fictional feature, and confessional, The Arbor defies categorization not merely for art's sake - although its artistry is without question - but because conventional forms seem inadequate for such a harrowing story.
Apr 25, 2011
100
Dramatically spellbinding and intellectually stimulating, picture abstractly manipulates multiple layers of representation to shattering effect.
Apr 28, 2011
91
It helps that the actors' faces are so mesmerizing, particularly Manjinder Virk as Lorraine.
May 2, 2011
80
Andrea Dunbar's portrait here is unforgiving; comparable to Joan Crawford in "Mommy Dearest" or Tobias Wolff's brass-knuckled dad in "This Boy's Life."
Apr 26, 2011
80
Barnard makes the psychological mayhem Dunbar endured and inflicted tangible.
Apr 25, 2011
80
Moving, bold, unconventional and impeccably staged, The Arbor is a worthy tribute to a powerfully artistic voice.
May 7, 2011
70
Barnard's film, as if nervous of being felled by the straightforward, sinewy thump of Dunbar's writing, ducks and weaves in a series of sly approaches. [2 May 2011, p. 89]
User score
Generally Favorable
77% Positive
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
23% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jun 18, 2012
10
A prominently powerful innovative documentary film which explores not only life of a writer but also expressed the characters' perspectives toward "life" in such an extreme horrowing way. Everything about this film is so new and has been perfectly mixed that it becomes one of my favorite documentary films of 2010.
Production Company:
- Artangel Media
- UK Film Council
Release Date:Apr 27, 2011
Duration:1 h 34 m
Tagline:A Documentary Reinvented
Awards
British Independent Film Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
London Critics Circle Film Awards
• 4 Nominations
