A meditative documentary that is part true crime, part rumination on the nature of creation, and a complete love letter to the transformative power of cinema.

| Feb 13, 2024

Tan astutely minimizes the mystery of Cardona, refusing to turn the attention of her story to a narcissistic user undeserving of the starring role.

| Nov 8, 2023

The old footage is transporting, the story contextualizing it of considerable interest.

| Jan 6, 2023

Tan approaches it from a true-crime mystery angle, stripping it of any nostalgia that might tint her lense.

| Dec 29, 2021

Episode 19: Shirkers / Monrovia, Indiana / The House That Jack Built

| Original Score: 40/100 | Sep 3, 2021

The film is nostalgic, vulnerable, and personal, and in being so, makes you attach yourself to it like almost nothing else.

| Mar 29, 2021

Shirkers is so good, it just blows everything else out of the water.

| Original Score: A | Mar 7, 2021

Independent filmmaking is truly a medium of self expression but because it's a communal medium, being an asshole is an absolute necessity- it's a very narcissistic endeavor. Shirkers is a very entertaining, touching concoction film about filmmaking.

| Feb 13, 2021

Shirkers forces us to confront a world that will never give us all the answers.

| Feb 9, 2021

Alas, Shirkers the narrative feature wasn't to be ... But that's okay: Shirkers the documentary is already full of creative magic.

| Jun 30, 2020

An irresistible mix of insouciance and precocious maturity. Much of its charm lies in Tan's ironic irreverence as the film's narrator.

| Feb 21, 2020

Sandi Tan directs a documentary that functions in two levels, one as a self-portrait and one as a mystery story regarding the disappearance and the rediscovery of the film. The great thing about "Shirkers" is that both aspects work extremely well,

| Dec 25, 2019

The fact that everyone knows each other quite well, there is no holding back which gives the film and the story overall an extra added layer of truth despite the main mystery never being told, only speculation is left.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 2, 2019

A quietly radical act of self-love and catharsis - an exorcism of childhood demons that is at once joyful and haunted.

| May 18, 2019

In this sincere, engrossing documentary, director Sandi Tan looks back a quarter of a century at Shirkers, a quirky indie film she helped make that captured a mostly bygone Singapore.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 25, 2019

The film is pervaded by an alternately whimsical and agonizing sense of mystery, one steeped in contradictions of accomplishment and missed opportunity.

| Mar 1, 2019

This documentary is about all the effort that went into making a film in 1992, as well as detective work to track down a mysterious hustler who manipulated the filmmakers, and who sabotaged that 1992 Singapore film, 'Shirkers.'

| Original Score: B | Jan 11, 2019

A riot of movie clips... gives the narrative a riveting pace that sparks intense curiosity about even the quirkiest details.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 7, 2019

The visual style of this eclectic documentary is intense and necessary. [Full review in Spanish]

| Dec 27, 2018

A mysterious and frequently wonderful documentary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2018