Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench: Press

One of the Top Ten Films of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:20:00 +0000

J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

Amy Taubin, Film Comment

David Fear, Time Out New York

David Ehrenstein, L.A. Weekly

Gerald Peary, The Boston Phoenix

Ian Buckwalter, DCist

One of the 30 Best Films of 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

The New York Times

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 05:31:00 +0000

"An enchantingly sincere romance." - Manohla Dargis

Click here for the full article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/movies/19dargis.html

"Visually distinctive and aurally delightful, 'Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench' has style to burn... It can take your breath away... The film evokes a time when every love affair came with its own soundtrack, and every song seemed to be written only for us." - Jeannette Catsoulis

Critics' Pick

Click here for the full article: http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/movies/05guy.html

The Los Angeles Times

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:58:00 +0000

"You might want to tuck Damien Chazelle's name into your memory bank if his filmmaking debut, the terrific jazz improvisation that is 'Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,' is any indication of what his future might hold. How many 25-year-old indie directors choose to channel 1930s B-grade Hollywood musicals into a contemporary, tap-dancing love story, with nearly all of its very limited budget poured into paying the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra (yes, you read that correctly) to play the smoky original score created by a talented friend? And - and this is a big one - actually make it work? I think there might be just one." - Betsy Sharkey

Click here for the full article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-guy-and-madeline-20101210,0,5942001.story

The Village Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:30:00 +0000

"No movie I've seen this year has given me more joy." - J. Hoberman

Click here for the full article: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-11-03/film/great-cinema-for-a-song-in-guy-and-madeline-and-ne-change-rien/

Entertainment Weekly

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:29:00 +0000

"Grade: A. Extraordinary black-and-white retro dream of a feature debut... Gloriously personal." - Lisa Schwarzbaum

Click here for the full article: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20442867,00.html

The Chicago Tribune

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:27:00 +0000

"Four stars. Marvelous... This is a real filmmaker, with a real ability to express feelings through song and dance, sometimes ironically, sometimes straight from the heart." - Michael Phillips

For the full article, click here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-mov-0108-guy-madeline-park-bench-20110107,0,84862.story

The Boston Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 02:01:00 +0000

"Stunning... Bursts open, unexpectedly, with the jazziest, most joyous musical numbers ever in an independent film. Here's the little Boston movie that could." - Gerald Peary

Click here for the full article: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/movies/112839-guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench/

The Boston Globe

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 02:00:00 +0000

"Of the many movies set in or near Boston in 2010, the black-and-white one about kids who erupt spontaneously into song might be the most exciting." - Wesley Morris

Click here for the full article: http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/12/17/guy_and_madeline_on_a_park_bench_movie_review___guy_and_madeline_on_a_park_bench_showtimes/

"The most buzzed-about movie at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival... A gritty, no-budget love letter to Beantown, from its opening shots of Fish Pier to its climactic lovers' confrontation in the parking lot of the Alewife T station. And, yes, the characters sing and dance, at house parties near Harvard Square, alone in the gardens of the Old North Church, atop the steam tables and bar of Cambridge's beloved clam shack. The movie is a kind of tribute to the secret Broadway show we each carry within ourselves, and to a softer, sweeter Boston than movie audiences often see." - Ty Burr

Click here for the full article: http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/04/26/a_hub_love_letter_from_a_park_bench/?page=full

Time Out New York

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:17:00 +0000

"Easily the best first film in eons." - David Fear

Click here for the full article: http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/537537/take-five-damien-chazelle

NPR

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:16:00 +0000

"This is a kind of cinema that no one really makes anymore - yet Chazelle demonstrates a stunning natural fluency in its outdated grammar. It's as if he's spontaneously started writing gorgeous poetry in a long-dormant language." - Ian Buckwalter

Click here to read the full article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131006976

Click here to listen to Pat Dowell's "All Things Considered" piece on Guy and Madeline: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=131187467

Guy and Madeline on NPR Music: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2010/11/10/131220369/jazz-musicians-in-a-jazz-musical-plus-eight-cellos-play-jazz

New York Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:15:00 +0000

"It catches you off-guard... The melodies - in both the songs and the lyrical orchestral sections - are so easy and infectious you'd swear they were classics... The showstopper comes near the end, a fluid, gorgeously choreographed diner number where busboys dance with their mops and waitresses tap on counters and the camera hurtles along with the exuberantly charming Garcia as she leaps off stools and twirls among the fryers... Like the movie itself, it's using raw, limited resources to reach for the stars." - David Edelstein

Click here for full article: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/11/guy_and_madeline_on_a_park_ben.html

Variety

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:14:00 +0000

"A magical amalgam of Jean-Luc Godard, Miles Davis, Morris Engel and 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,' helmer Damien Chazelle's 'Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench' catches you off-guard and keeps you there... A surprise, a delight and a whimsical experiment, it could, despite its rigorous efforts to be noncommercial, end up a bona-fide cult hit... There are moments here that are simply transcendent." - John Anderson

Click here for the full article: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940100.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

The Hollywood Reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:13:00 +0000

"A beguiling musical that's modest in budget but audacious in its aspirations and achievement... Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench has the expansive spirit of a big city romance, though it was made for a song... It manages to be both low key, downtown cool and exuberant at the same time... Chazelle may have inhaled the heady influences of the French New Wave and the smoky atmospherics of jazz clubs he frequented, but he has forged something very much his own... With the right distributor, Guy could develop a following." - Sura Wood

Click here for the full article: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench-film-review-1004022761.story

Film Comment

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:11:00 +0000

"An ingenious, enchanting hybrid of an old-fashioned Hollywood-style musical and a vérité cityscape… The most erotic subway scene since Richard Widmark lifted Jean Peters’s wallet in Pickup on South Street… Chazelle is an exceptionally talented filmmaker. Let’s hope the independent film world has enough life left in it to do him justice.” - Amy Taubin

Click here for the full article: http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/ma09/guyma.htm

The Globe and Mail

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:17:00 +0000

"A decidedly modern film, whose frightened, impulsive, charming characters could walk into our lives tomorrow. Madeline might serve us coffee at breakfast; Guy, music in a club after work. We'd be lucky if they did." - Stephen Cole

Click here for the full article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench-two-strangers-and-all-that-jazz/article1822482/

The Toronto Star

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:13:00 +0000

"Delightfully idiosyncratic... An intimate and deeply felt portrait of 20-something romance at its most hesitant, conflicted and - when it all comes together - rapturous." - Jason Anderson

Click here for the full article: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/900739--guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench-a-grown-up-glee

Filmmaker Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:10:00 +0000

"This is the finest U.S. indie movie of the past year." - Howard Feinstein

Click here for the full article: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2009/11/things-to-do-in-denver-when-youre-dead.php

"Chazelle's mash-up of downtempo slacker relationship drama with high-spirited '50s movie musical...is of course a formal construction, but the thrill of this movie is that it doesn't play like one. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is by turns joyful, melancholy and hard-eyed, and it's the kind of unexpected festival discovery that you really shouldn't know much about before seeing..." - Scott Macaulay

Click here for the full article: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2009/04/tribeca-quick-take-guy-and-madeline-on.php

Les Inrockuptibles

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:13:00 +0000

"A sensation... At 25 years of age, the director has instantly imposed himself among the most important new faces in American independent cinema."

Click here for the full article: http://www.lesinrocks.com/cine/cinema-article/t/51825/date/2010-10-06/article/guy-and-madeline-le-renouveau-arty-du-musical/

Hammer To Nail

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:12:00 +0000

"Just when you start to hate what 'independent' film has become (better to re-brand it 'trustfunded' film), something like Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench comes along... Unable to contain its joie de vivre, old school/aware of its influences and yet unlike anything you've ever seen before, this is the type of picture that can give you faith in the creative vision of privileged twenty-somethings yet again... The film reveals a major directorial talent in the making." - Brandon Harris

One of Hammer to Nail's "Top 13 Films of 2010"

Click here for the full article: http://www.hammertonail.com/genre/drama/guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench-review/

Best of 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:40:00 +0000

Amy Taubin (Film Comment), John Anderson (Variety), David Fear (Time Out New York), and Elizabeth Weitzman (New York Daily News) all name Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench the "Best Undistributed Film of 2009."

The Boston Globe Magazine names Damien Chazelle's debut "One of the Best of the New: 2009."

Film Comment critics' poll names Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench one of the "20 Best Unreleased Films of 2009."

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is #3 on indieWIRE critics' poll of "Best Undistributed Film of 2009."

The Village Voice and LA Weekly name Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench one of the Top Undistributed Films of 2009.

Artforum names Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench one of the Top 10 Films of the Year.

Artforum

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:53:00 +0000

"One of the top 10 films of the year."

NBC New York

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:11:00 +0000

"If swirling, twirling musicals from the 1940s make your heart beat a little faster, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench may be the best movie ticket you buy all year."

Click here for the full article: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/around_town/nightlife/Todays-Tribeca-Fest-Picks-Exploding-Girl-Guy-and-Madeline-.html

New York Daily News

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:55:00 +0000

"Could become this year's 'Once.'"

Click above for the full article.

Time Out New York

noreply@blogger.com (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Press) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:49:00 +0000

"Blissful, brilliant... One sequence involving a tap dancer, a jam session and a house party is arguably the most joyous five minutes you're likely to experience in a theater this year... This is the true gem of 2009; don't miss it."

Click here for the full article: http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/theframeup/2009/04/todays-tribeca-pick-guy-and-madeline-on-a-park-bench/

"Awards season starts in New York": http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/80762/awards-season-starts-in-new-york

"Nine bizarre musicals you should see instead of Nine": http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/81514/nine-bizarre-musicals-you-should-see-instead-of-nine