Critic Reviews

• Ronnie Scheib, Variety

  This curious blend of documentary and narrative, held together less by any plot device than by a rigorous aesthetic, proves all the more effective for being in service of casual naturalism.

• Peter Brunette, Hollywood Reporter

  Points must be awarded for nerve, but virtually every aspect of this misbegotten film misfires.

• David Jenkins, Time Out

  Porterfield's rejection of obvious irony makes this not only a warm film, but one which shows the real face of America's poor, young and disenfranchised.

• Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

  With "Putty Hill," Porterfield joins the company of American indie directors Ramin Bahrani and Kelly Reichardt, filmmakers often compelled to seek out everyday souls in their textured, oh-so quotidian environs.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  It looks closely, burrows deep, considers the way in which lives have become pointless and death therefore less meaningful.

• Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

  "Putty Hill" transcends the usual docudrama hybrid to occupy a thrilling third place, dreamlike and scruffy, opaque and pellucid.

• Robert Roten, Laramie Movie Scope

  While this film could win some kind of award for getting the most out of a limited budget, the low budget of the film is a handicap that isn't fully overcome. It is an experimental film that works part of the time and fails part of the time.

• Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

  Porterfield's ingenious structural choices and the film's exemplary sense of place... [are] only enough to make the film tolerable.

• Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

  One of the best and under-seen films of the year gets a surprisingly attentive DVD treatment. See it.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  We are given a realistic impression of America's disenfranchised young.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  There are moments of lyrical beauty and Porterfield never patronises his subjects, but a sense of tranquilised resignation dominates.

• Jason Solomons, Observer [UK]

  American indie film has been lost in the murk of the mumblecore student scene recently but with Putty Hill, I felt a real thrill that something new is stirring.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The originality here lies in the fact that the unseen director, Matt Porterfield, armed with his camera, asks them about their feelings.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Matt Porterfield's docu-realist indie drama is a tough, demanding watch - but also a rewarding one.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  Place: Baltimore. Style: mumblecore.

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  The fatal misstep, I think, is his decision to ask the characters questions from off camera, documentary style, so characters look directly into the camera to answer.

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  It's a film for patient moviegoers. But for those moviegoers, it stands to be a rewarding experience.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  A creative and risky blend of a character-driven drama and a documentary about some alienated working-class people in a slummy suburb of Baltimore.

Read all 18 critic reviews