Liberty Kid.

"There's not a single wrong note in Liberty Kid, Ilya Chaiken's poignant drama about marginal lives strained to breaking by the aftermath of Sept 11," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "Gently nudging her story in unexpected directions, Ms Chaiken never allows her small budget to show: from Eliot Rockett's beautifully lighted photography to the ease with which the actors inhabit their roles, everything about this film feels effortless."

Updated through 1/13.

"What is initially infuriating about Liberty Kid - the winner of last year's New York International Latino Film Festival - but gradually becomes invigorating, is the way Ms Chaiken crafts a micro-story of a macroevent, and helps to put an exhausted subject into fresh relief," writes S James Snyder in the New York Sun.

"The actors remain superb even as Chaiken triple-underlines every-thing in the bittersweet denouement," writes Nathan Lee in the Voice. "Kudos to Kid, nevertheless, for having something worth saying in the first place."

"Inspired by Chaiken's numerous interviews with veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom, this bildungsroman and neighborhood piece is undermined by the generic choice of urban cultural archetypes and hackneyed storylines," writes Andres Wilson in the L Magazine. "However, digressive vignettes and the exploration of the concept of liberty, and its ostensible social limitations, add some much needed depth."

Updates, 1/11: "What begins as a run-of-the-mill urban drama about two guys from Brooklyn turns into something more epic and resonant," writes Bilge Ebiri in Nerve.

"Like Charles Burnett's Watts working men and women, Chaiken's characters seem doomed by a future that's at once personal and political, but Liberty Kid still strains for the lyricism and intricate drama of a film like My Brother's Wedding," writes Paul Schrodt in Slant.

Update, 1/13: "This terrific little indie may or may not propel its director and stars to bigger things, but it's yet another good, no-budget work from New York indie kingpin Larry Fessenden and his production company, Glass Eye Pix," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. "Give that man a MacArthur fellowship? Or at least some damn money."

Posted by dwhudson at January 9, 2008 12:31 AM