Critic Reviews

• Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  Less than an hour and a half long, it seems to take forever to end.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  The rehearsal footage of Sy is repetitive, but the peculiar dynamic between sponsor and protégé is fascinating.

• Sarah Kaufman, Washington Post

  Do-gooder vanity projects don't come more self-aggrandizing than this.

• David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

  There are times when the subject of a documentary transcends merely adequate filmmaking, and that is very much the case with Dancing Across Borders...

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

  Sometimes with documentaries, the best intentions have a way of making decent people look bad. Dancing Across Borders is a dismaying case in point.

• John Hartl, Seattle Times

  In carefully edited clips from his Cambodian years (brief mention is made of Pol Pot's devastating influence), as well as later performances in the United States, Bass demonstrates his stunning leaps and graceful partnering.

• James Plath, Movie Metropolis

  This is a film that ought to be watched by all youngsters hoping for a career in dance.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Have you ever listened to someone delightedly telling you a story and not realizing how badly he comes off in his own tale? That's the queasy sensation I got from the documentary Dancing Across Borders.

• Kelly Vance, East Bay Express

  Dance fanatics will appreciate the story, as will fans of cross-culturalism in the arts. Let's leave all mention of exploitation of the exotic for another time and place.

• Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper

  You may want to strangle Bass with her couture capris, but Borders eventually becomes the inspirational film you suspect it meant to be all along.

• Janos Gereben, Entertainment Insiders

  The film is a wonderful mix of ballet rehearsals and performances, the saga of a young artist's struggle and success, and a personal story of dealing with cross-cultural conflict and resolution.

• Jeffrey Gantz, Boston Phoenix

  Twyla Tharp calls him "remarkable," and watching him do Harlequin in Balanchine's La Sonnambula, you can see why: he might not be a born ballet dancer, but he's a born performer.

• Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest

  It's a rare film that gives viewers the opportunity to watch an artist-in-training pretty much from square one, and "Dancing Across Borders" does just that.

• Ed Scheid, Boxoffice Magazine

  Lacks probing interviews to highlight the tremendous cultural change, but Sy remains an engaging focus point and there are numerous performance sequences that ably demonstrate his growing accomplishments.

• Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

  As subjects for documentaries go, a dancer who hasn't really done a whole lot with his life so far isn't, on paper, the most arresting story you can tell

• Aaron Cutler, Slant Magazine

  The film spends an inordinate amount of time with people talking about what a good dancer Sy is, as opposed to showing him actually dancing.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  An astonishing documentary about a young male ballet performer from Cambodia who has startled and amazed the dance world with his bold leaps and incredible grace.

Read all 17 critic reviews