60
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- The finely crafted Alice Neel is at once tribute, investigative journalism and messy family drama.
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxAndrew Neel's fascinating but troubling documentary about his famous grandmother is more than a mere biography of an important 20th-century artist: It's also an intimate portrait of a family member that questions whether or not "great artist" and "good parent" can ever be combined in the same person.
- It achieves the documentary format’s basic goal of illuminating history while also demonstrating, through filmmaking choices, how an artist’s style reveals his or her personality.
- 70VarietyVarietyMuch like Neel's portraits, the film is marked by audacious understatement, neither whitewashing nor sensationalizing the artist's sterling achievements and messy personal life.
- 63Boston GlobeBoston GlobeFor all the juicy storytelling, Alice Neel remains, in this film, a cipher: brash, grandmotherly, and beyond understanding.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleComes across as a cautionary tale.
- 30Village VoiceVillage VoiceNeel is a compelling subject, but she's more alive in one of her paintings than in all of the voluminous video footage her grandson thrusts upon us.