Although hardly the world’s best film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is cute, clever, and heartfelt

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 16, 2024

A touching, revealing, uplifting and lovely film.

| Dec 7, 2023

Charming, delightful and captivating.

| Nov 16, 2023

Nothing if not an enthralling experience.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 5, 2019

First penguins, now parrots: who would have thought that the bird-brained would have so much to teach us about humanity?

| Aug 24, 2017

A gentle document about the romanticism between a man and his wild pets, all of whom depend on his good nature to persist in a strange cycle of existence among the threatening neighborhoods of San Francisco.

| Feb 8, 2016

Profile of a gentle, caring, and sensitive man who models for us the empathy and respect we should have for all animals large and small.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 25, 2012

Fall in love with these brave and beautiful birds.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 29, 2010

A documentary which captures an eccentric ornithologist communing with his flock with an intimacy that's almost unimaginable.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 25, 2007

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Irving captures some memorable images… but generally relies on the birds' natural photogenic charm as well as the human dimensions of the drama to sustain the 83-minute film.

| Original Score: B | Feb 10, 2006

The beautiful shots of San Francisco's lush Telegraph Hill are captivating by themselves, but the film's greatest achievement is its humanity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 9, 2005

Perhaps if Judy Irving's The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill had been released in any other year, I wouldn't be so judgmental and hard to please

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 9, 2005

In the spirit of all good documentaries, Wild Parrots transcends its ostensive subject.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

The birds...are a natural subject for a documentary film, but in the end Judy Irving's film is as much or more about Mark Bittner, a self-appointed guardian of the flock, than it is about the birds themselves.

Full Review | Nov 26, 2005

Amusing, touching and satisfying, this gentle yet probing little doco is a hand made movie whose simplicity and its subject matter are pluses.

| Oct 14, 2005

Even though it's only August, I'm not going out on a limb when I say that "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" is one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 16, 2005

How animals can sometimes, like art, serve as a reflection of the hopes and fears of their caretakers.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 2, 2005

Parrots not so wild.Documentary shows quirks but not much else.

| Jul 20, 2005

A bright window into the wild kingdom just outside our door that most of us barely notice, if at all.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 15, 2005