Men at Lunch

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Ireland · 2013
1h 5m
Director Seán Ó Cualáin
Starring Fionnula Flanagan, Peter Quinn, Jim Rasenberger, Padraig O Flannabhra
Genre Documentary

In 1932, eleven workers were photographed eating lunch on a beam of the under-construction Rockefeller Center, producing the iconic image "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper." This documentary explores the history and context of that photograph, providing insight about the experience of the Great Depression and immigration and showing why the image has endured.

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What are critics saying?

Los Angeles Times by Inkoo Kang

Regrettably, Men at Lunch obsesses over disappearing ghosts instead of the records we already have and the history we should know.

New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier

Best of all, we take a trip back to Depression-era New York and grasp its resonance more than 80 years later. Delicious.

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

Cartoonish hyperbole aside, the investigation does have its high points.

The New York Times by Miriam Bale

The film feels meandering. Not only does it offer a jumble of ideas that aren’t followed through, but it’s also structured oddly.

Village Voice by Nick Schager

Given Men at Lunch's compelling argument that the identity of its anonymous ironworker subjects is beside the point—that mystery is a prime facet of its enduring appeal—the documentary's desire to determine who they really were comes across as unnecessary.

The Dissolve by Noel Murray

Just as the documentary doesn’t really have the goods when it comes to solving the photograph’s mysteries, it only skims across the surface of what the picture represents.