Synopsis
A documentary about how a dominant cultural and demographic institution both sustains their traditional activities and adapts to the digital revolution.
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Cast
- Elvis CostelloSelf
- Richard DawkinsSelf
- Patti SmithSelf
- Ta-Nehisi CoatesSelf
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
Frederick Wiseman is a portraitist of ideals, of the insidious inspirations and nightmares that enable and undermine them, and, implicitly, of the political waves that have yet to balance this duality of first-world life. - 100
Time Out
A film about the importance of cultural history and truth (two things deeply under siege these days), Wiseman’s epic Ex Libris might make you cry with happiness; it’s the good fight being fought. Movies aren’t usually a public benefit, much less an essential one. Here’s the exception. - 100
The Hollywood Reporter
Never talking down to his audience, he rather pulls them up to an intellectual level where other filmmakers fear to go. - 100
IndieWire
These portraits don't have a hint of didacticism or preachiness, but "Ex Libris" achieves a certain emotional velocity all the same. - 100
The Guardian
Ex Libris rolls out like a collection of short films.... It’s like watching Wiseman skip along through the stacks of all accumulated human knowledge. - 80
The New Yorker
Graceful and all-embracing. - 80
Variety
This is an enriching way to spend three-plus hours. - 75
The A.V. Club
Maybe a little longer and more scattered than it needs to be, with one too many scenes that just plant the camera in front of a gabbing speaker. His early movies were more urgent, in part because they kept their focus narrower
