'Take Me to the River' has its detractions but not enough to derail the project.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 4, 2021

While those sessions result in full songs, some of the most memorable, iconic tunes in music history, this film never coalesces into something greater than a collection of mildly interesting pieces.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 7, 2020

It's fun to be a fly on the wall in these recording sessions held in historic spaces, and the camaraderie and respect between the players is evident.

| Jan 8, 2020

The film's interest in contemporary performers doesn't rob it of a sense of history.

| Aug 28, 2019

While you may stick around for the stories, the film's true draw is the music.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 27, 2016

Take Me to the River is a good-spirited but patchy documentary, less about dropping beats and more about dropping names.

| Original Score: D+ | Jan 13, 2015

Even if the filmmaking loses focus at times, the personalities on-screen are consistently engaging, and the experimental collaborations yield some toe-tapping tracks.

| Oct 31, 2014

Flawed as it is, "River" reminds us where all the great music came from.

| Sep 25, 2014

Three of the guitar marvels shown here - Hubert Sumlin, Teenie Hodges and Skip Pitts - have died since filming. This is a marginal but worthwhile footnote to their legacy.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 25, 2014

While those sessions result in full songs, some of the most memorable, iconic tunes in music history, this film never coalesces into something greater than a collection of mildly interesting pieces.

| Original Score: 4.5/10 | Sep 25, 2014

The premise for this documentary couldn't be more stilted, and some of the matchups are enough to make you wince. But there are a few striking intergenerational moments.

| Sep 25, 2014

A moving tribute to a grand piece of Americana.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 25, 2014

It feels like a mishmash effort overall, more a home movie than a theatrical release. That's fine. If you approach it on those terms, you can't help but feel the love, too.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 25, 2014

While the work is joyous and respectful, the movie is poorly directed, frequently decimating pure musicianship to spotlight banal conversations that add little to the overall flow of the feature.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 25, 2014

A must for music lovers.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2014

With better direction and execution, and a more substantial budget and judicious editing, it could have been so much more.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 19, 2014

There's some talk about the collaboration's significance, and there's some racially charged history to relate, but the real point is to hear these oldsters one last time, to remember and maybe even discover what they gave us.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 18, 2014

An overdue homage to a city that for close to a decade was home to the second largest black business in America.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 18, 2014

"Take Me to the River" includes just enough history of the civil rights era to lend it gravitas. The color-blind recording practices of studios like Stax were an anomaly at the time and are well worth noting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 18, 2014

There's magic in the music and the men and women who make it. Maybe they put Mavis Staples at the end because nobody could follow her.

| Original Score: B | Sep 17, 2014