Most interesting is the otherworldly music. It's a cultural democracy of sounds that shouldn't mix and yet blend together beautifully to create music that sounds simultaneously alien and familiar.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2021

Music of Strangers is little more than a puff piece buoyed by some pretty good music. Occasionally, though, it reaches higher, showing us how human beings can represent their unique cultural identities while also being individually expressive...

| Jan 6, 2021

A documentary about a group of artists who've united in their searches both personal and universal.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

[A] symphony for the senses!

| Nov 3, 2019

No documentary on this subject could be wholly without merit, but The Music of Strangers is at best an introduction for audiences who will want to learn and hear much more.

| Sep 26, 2017

[Filmmaker Morgan Neville] knows a great music doc needs to feature not only wonderful music, but also dynamic personalities to perform it, and The Music of Strangers is incredibly rich in both.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 11, 2017

Director Morgan Neville's documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble exuberantly celebrates global music.

| Aug 29, 2017

[Music] both nourish and help meld our disparate souls. And sometimes that's enough.

| Aug 16, 2017

Recommended audience: Music fans everywhere.

| Mar 15, 2017

At the centre of it Ma is a studied, unrevealed figure, while the rehearsals and jam sessions create a joyous glow of affirmation that overwhelms a deeper sense of inquiry; the longer the film goes on, the less it has to say.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 27, 2017

This film got me to thinking about how musicians and other artists, as well as scientists seem to be able to cooperate very well in a world increasingly being torn apart by political and religious extremism and xenophobia.

| Original Score: B | Jan 16, 2017

There's an implicit tension between Ma's laid-back manner and the driven perfectionist we know he must be, but the film has limited scope to explore this, sticking as it does to a glossy, advertorial mode.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 11, 2017

As one musician says, a piece of music can't stop a bullet. But this engaging film is a vote for culture, a vote against xenophobia.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 6, 2017

Upbeat first-rate musical documentary that proclaims it is through music that the world might best be able to connect in a peaceful way.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 6, 2016

This soul-refreshing documentary celebrates difference as a beautiful thing vital to making great art, and for making a better world for everyone.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2016

Earnest and occasionally engrossing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2016

It's admirably high-minded, and internationalism and openness have never been needed more. But I must admit to finding this ... not complacent exactly, but perhaps too serenely self-regarding.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2016

The focus is on the individuals, emphasising the unifying power of song - as well as Ma's humanitarianism.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 16, 2016

The Music of Strangers serves as something of an important reminder of what cultures can achieve when collaborating.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2016

Neville weaves the strands of his documentary together like the silk of its title, connecting disparate ideas to create a concept of culture that is strong, attractive and, above all, still of great use to humanity.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 15, 2016