The Arbor

Elephants Gerald

THE ARBOR is one of the more innovative and ingenious tweaks to the documentary medium: Clio Barnard takes audio from interviews, frames actors in expressionist tableaux (beds on fire, play excerpts performed before the play's real-life subjects), and has those actors lip sync to those real peoples' words. More than a gimmick, it brings vivid life to the journalistic tradition.

hideloveaway

Like a car accident, this was hard to look away from. I really enjoyed it though, seriously, for what it is. Whenever I think my family is messed up, I'm going to think of this film.

corycorycorycory

This was a great surprise. I was unfamiliar with Andrea Dunbar, and Clio Barnard for that matter, before this. What an ingenious way to tell such a rich, tragic story.

Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe

Unforgettable storytelling. This hybrid, auto ethnographic, play/documentary is gripping and breaks all the rules of narrative structure and obliterates the four walls of spectatorship. Kitchen sink British theatre brought to your own living room. Call this film it whatever you want, it will have you thinking about creativity, mental illness, sexual oppression, addiction and race in a whole different way.

laurax

A multidimensional collage of a sad, sorry tale of terrible choices. Powerful.

muse_x

I was not prepared for how brutal this is. That said, am really grateful such a piece of art exists + the way it was handled. It felt akin to having my nerve ends abraded by the abyss's maw & yet, yet... it's got SO. Much. Love!

Kevin

Earlier the Samantha Morton film about abandoned children ended with a statement showing the number of children affected by neglect. This doc brings it home, from the incredible cadence of Dunbar's daughters to the abject conditions that come off as natural or normal. It shows a side of England that we might not even think exists but for films like this one. The movie was incredible…

Kyle Lewis

Very experimental but completely works from start to finish. Very strange it was left off the Oscar shortlist.