Toronto. Dr Plonk.

"A loving recreation of [the silent] era - right down to the 4:3 aspect ratio, intertitles, hand cranked camera and jaunty score - Dr Plonk is a pure cinematic joy, a goofy sci-fi adventure with a socially aware core that, though it certainly reminds why the original films of the type generally ran shorter than this film's 87 minute run time, just sparkles when it gets the mix right," writes Todd Brown at Twitch.

"[W]henever modern filmmakers try to recreate the crackly magic of silent cinema, they either repeat hoary old gags or come up with pale new ones," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "In short: Dr Plonk just isn't that funny."

"While some may complain that the silent film conceit is a cheap stunt to make up for a thin storyline or that the work didn't look primitive enough, I felt that it all came together nicely," offers Mike White.

"I really loved this film, and while I have no idea whether a distributor would take a chance on it considering its likely limited audience, if it happens to come to a festival or art house in your town, go see it," advises Aaron Dobbs. "You won't be sorry."

Posted by dwhudson at October 2, 2007 7:57 AM