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The Other Side

✭ ✭ ✭   Read critic reviews

France, Italy · 2015
1h 32m
Director Roberto Minervini
Starring Mark Kelley, Lisa Allen
Genre Documentary

In an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, lives a wounded backwater Louisiana community that is trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Through this hidden pocket of humanity, the door opens to a portrait of today’s America.

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What are critics saying?

67

The Film Stage by Amanda Waltz

Unlike Minervini’s previous outing, which gently unfolded through quiet, unstructured moments, the film feels far more scripted and staged, and, in effect, more shocking and exploitative.

75

RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

If it were possible to splice the DNA of William Faulkner and John Cassavetes, the resulting progeny might produce a film like Roberto Minervini’s The Other Side, an immersive, almost harrowingly naturalistic plunge into the lives of marginal Louisianans obsessed with guns, drugs and belligerent resentments.

60

The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer

There are moments when The Other Side seems to traverse into arts-ploitation territory, and it’s ultimately hard to tell if the movie is trying to render its subjects with some humanity or otherwise if it's taking advantage of all these poor, beautiful losers.

80

The Guardian by Nigel M Smith

His fly on the wall approach never feels exploitative – in instances, it yields surprising empathy. In spite of his characters’ actions, Minervini miraculously captures traces of profound humanity.

70

Variety by Peter Debruge

Whereas Minervini’s previous pics seemed to radiate a warm empathy toward his subjects — perhaps merely a manifestation of his open-minded curiosity toward the extreme cultural difference he found peering into the less explored corners of Southern culture — The Other Side feels far more shocking in its portrayal.

70

Screen International by Wendy Ide

There is a compassion in this filmmaking that is markedly lacking in America’s attitude towards the people it pushes to its outer fringes.

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