As a piece of entertainment, and as a tribute to the achievements of this extraordinary individual, it's a riot.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2019

It's clear almost instantly that Strel's life is, despite the breadth of his various accomplishments, simply not interesting enough to warrant a full-length feature...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 22, 2011

Slovenia's 'fish man' pushes himself to the limit- and beyond.

| Original Score: 4.0 | Dec 29, 2010

Strel is one strange duck, and you can only wonder that Werner Herzog, with his fondness for captivating weirdos, didn't get to him first.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2010

Gripes aside, I do think Big River Man is an exemplary film, and possibly a top contender for the documentary of the year.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 27, 2010

Big River Man is strange and wonderful and quite an experience at the cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2009

An odd and irresistible documentary about Slovenian strongman Martin Strel and his quest, at 52, to be the first man to swim 5,268 kilometres of the Amazon River.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 18, 2009

Whether you understand Borut's patchy storytelling to be artful or actually bewildered, the film goes along for the ride.

| Dec 4, 2009

As his attention to detail and beauty shots prove, Mr. Maringouin has a terrific eye: he brings you close to Mr. Strel, sometimes within panting distance, without forgetting the larger, lovelier world.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 4, 2009

The real drama lies in the sweetly twisted symbiosis between this likable, infuriating wreck of a man and his devoted son and publicist.

| Dec 2, 2009

A nonfiction Fitzcarraldo.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2009

Big River Man is a marketing tool for the hard-drinking, overweight Slovenian swimmer Martin Strel, only it's disguised as a global warming awareness tale of human endurance.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 30, 2009

It's a messy film - a few scenes look to be reconstructions, and the lack of any interview with Strel himself is frustrating - but it certainly shows us a colourful part of life's rich tapestry.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2009

The man is a mad obsessive and one is surprised that he hasn't ended up in the exotic trophy room of Werner Herzog, whose films Big River Man resembles.

| Sep 7, 2009

Entertaining more as a portrait of a slightly unhinged sportsman than the biography of stunt.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2009

If Werner Herzog had made 'Borat', the results might have been something like this documentary about the unusual athletic overachiever Martin Strel.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2009

Big River Man is up there with the very best modern documentaries.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2009

There's something undeniably charming about such an amateurish attempt to establish a world record.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2009

A bizarre, occasionally troubling documentary.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2009

For all the straight-faced self-mockery, it somehow remains a tribute to an exceptional man. Big River Man gets away with its archness only because it's evident that somewhere beneath its layers of irony, there is a beating heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 4, 2009