93% Side by Side

All Critics (42) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (3)

There is great flux in this world, as Side by Side so entertainingly demonstrates, and where it's all headed is both discomforting and exhilarating. Stay tuned.

An unapologetically serious, geek-friendly documentary, it talks pixels, grain, depth of field and other technical concerns with a variety of directors, cinematographers, special-effects wizards and more.

A surprisingly accessible documentary about an often very technical subject - the revolution surrounding Hollywood's rapid conversion from 35mm film to digital technologies.

For a film geek this movie is absolute heaven, a dream symposium in which directors, cinematographers, editors and a few actors gather to opine on the details of their craft.

Alas, if you're someone who enjoys movies as, say, a two-hour escape, you may find this documentary on the death of film at digital's hands a bit too inside baseball.

Film enthusiasts especially will appreciate this wonky but fascinating documentary about the process of making movies.

The pro-digital propaganda feel is a major detraction

Anyone who is interested in the history of film technology and cinema can certainly take something away from Side by Side, even if it is just learning the opinion of Robert Rodriguez or Danny Boyle.

I appreciate [Reeves'] interest and passion on the subject, and his interview style is fine -- the conversations he finds himself engaged in with the Wachowski's especially is worth watching it for alone.

Side By Side works as well as it does by celebrating the filmmaking practice as a distinctive art form no matter what process it uses to make images into motion.

Obviously the issues discussed in Side by Side are provocative, and the film allows viewers to have their own opinion as much as its filmmaker subjects do.

A film about film that matters -- one that ably sums up an art form, where we've been and where we're going.

Always accessible, the doc lays out pros and cons of each medium.

A documentary film that asks the sort of questions most major film studios don't want asked or answered.

Fascinating combination of the technical and the aesthetic. The best exhibition to date of the digital revolution in filmmaking.

The digital takeover of contemporary movie-making may not be a hot topic around the American water cooler, but in Side by Side it is revealed as a large and fascinating subject.

"Side by Side" is a kind of eulogy for celluloid, beginning with some of the most famous images committed to film: "A Trip to the Moon," "Citizen Kane," "The Wizard of Oz."

Must-see documentary teeming with commentary largely from digital-savvy top industry players follows theatrical film's journey from celluloid origins to late 20th-century digital innovations through to the triumphant digital changeover in progress.

Essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand where filmmaking has come from and where it's going..informative, entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.

The film is about how the digital revolution has changed the ways moviemakers capture, edit, and manipulate images, and it gets practically every famous, relevant person on the record.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/side_by_side_2012/

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