Highly watchable.

| Oct 25, 2005

The director's visit wasn't long enough to fully humanize this culture clash, but some of the movie's conclusions seem universal.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 25, 2005

An amusingly damning portrait of a man trying to impose his will on a world that, really, has better things to do.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

Serves not only as a charming, witty glimpse into an American nuclear family uprooted to browner pastures, but also as an exploration of how Hollywood product is viewed outside the Lower 48.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 2, 2005

The Piersons are warm, funny people, and most of Reel Paradise shows them comically bickering with each other and laughing at the absurdity of the whole project.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2005

Tthe comic fallout from his quixotic mission keeps Reel Paradise watchable.

| Sep 24, 2005

The results stay with you, like memories of an unexpected and surprising vacation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 22, 2005

Sometimes it's not whether you succeed, but whether you try.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2005

One wish[es] James could have followed him and his family from the beginning of their year-long adventure, rather than being swept in at the emotional tail end.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 7, 2005

These are among sporadic scenes of interest captured by director James, but if a larger point is being made, it's hard to say what.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 2, 2005

Arriving for the last month of the Pierson family's sojourn, James artfully captures the flavor of their yearlong stay.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2005

Overlong at nearly two hours but still a sharp and amusing and subtle piece of filmmaking.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2005

If Reel Paradise were being shown anywhere but on Tavianu or in New York, I doubt they could give it away.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 19, 2005

The first role in Pierson's career that looks awful on him is that of a family-man missionary bringing free movies to the natives in the egregious documentary Reel Paradise.

| Original Score: C- | Aug 19, 2005

Steve James's absorbing documentary follows a family to the rural Fijian island of Taveuni, where they showed free movies in the world's most remote movie theater.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2005

Many of us movie buffs have fantasized about running our own theater -- but John Pierson (host of IFC's Split Screen) actually got to do it, for a whole year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 17, 2005

Unfortunately, what could have been a superficially amusing IFC reality series was stretched into a thin, overlong feature that follows the rocky integration of this very New York clan into a somewhat ruffled island society.

| Aug 16, 2005

May be screened in film courses as an example of how the Guru of Independent Film came to bow before the altar of Hollywood blockbusters.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 11, 2005

An engaging docu about his year-long stint showing free movies to the locals at what's purportedly the world's most remote cinema.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2005

It's an engrossing and often very funny tale.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2005