Music here seems to have a miraculous power to lift up, to awaken, to reinvigorate.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 21, 2014

Equal parts heart-wrenching and heart-lifting ...

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 14, 2014

I would have preferred a documentary that did more presenting and less pushing. But...the music's vivifying effect on old souls made for some of the most moving scenes I've seen all year.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2014

The movie effectively bullies you into feeling good; with its hard sell and superfluous CG imagery, it might as well be a superhero movie.

| Aug 7, 2014

The movie is at its best when documenting the reactions of various patients, which in some cases is nearly miraculous.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 7, 2014

Alive Inside is a small but vibrant miracle. The documentary finds hope and joy in one of our nation's bleakest settings, nursing homes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2014

In a world drowning in bad news about dementia - an estimated 5 million Americans currently suffer, 10 million serve as their caregivers, with both numbers inevitably going up - "Alive Inside" is positively tonic.

| Jul 31, 2014

The voice-over narration grows increasingly hucksterish and bathetic, dementia sufferers are reduced to generic images in uplifting montages, and the film begins to resemble an ad pitching some dubious charity or a retirement community.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 31, 2014

Alive Inside packs as potent a simple emotional wallop as anything you'll see - or hear - anywhere this year.

| Jul 25, 2014

The movie, directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, makes a powerful argument for the program.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2014

The movie hovers between diatribe and misplaced diplomacy. At certain times, you want to ask Rossato-Bennett "What's the problem?"

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 24, 2014

Unfortunately, it's ... not a particularly good movie. In fact, at certain points it can be an actively annoying one.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 18, 2014

A documentary that never leaves any doubt about what comes next, while single-mindedly stumping for a cause presented as unique, is also not terribly interesting as a film.

| Jul 17, 2014

The doc is heartwarming, but it doesn't delve deeply into the backstories that inform the ailing patients' connection to the music that stirs their memories.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 17, 2014

Alive Inside's repetitive nature and lack of depth make it come across more like a fundraising effort than a movie ...

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 17, 2014

Dan Cohen's crusade to bring music into nursing homes could be the leading edge of a monumental change in the way we approach the care and treatment of older people, especially the 5 million or so Americans living with dementia disorders.

| Jul 16, 2014

Compellingly conveys how music - so intimately wedded to our emotions, and experiences - can help the severely ill elderly reconnect with themselves.

| Jul 15, 2014

It's difficult to carefully consider Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memorywhen it feels like a sappy high school video project.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 31, 2014

Michael Rossato-Bennett captures some amazingly transformative results in the treatment of dementia through music.

| Jan 28, 2014