At first, the technique seems gimmicky, but finally it's as compelling a perspective as any to understand how these men passed through agony to some sort of peace.
Comment
12/14/07
Protagonist (2007)
84
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:27
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Protagonist skillfully intertwines its subjects' lives through an unexpected common thread -- Euripedes.
Synopsis: Filmmaker Jessica Yu explores human obsession and extremism in this riveting and provocative documentary. Yu interviews four men with seemingly disparate backgrounds, and then mirrors their... [More]
Director: Jessica Yu
Reviews for Protagonist
Yu displays keen instincts for assembling disparate parts that viewers will be completely engrossed in the narratives of her subjects and just may wish to brush up on Bacchae.
11/29/07
The film's sheer boldness -- [director Jessica] Yu uses puppets, and the work of 5th Century B.C. Greek dramatist Euripides to illustrate the timelessness of her subjects' dilemmas -- should make it a must-see among doc fans and artfilm cinephiles.
01/25/07
Top CriticProves so savvy at connecting the hidden dots between eclectic subjects that even the puppets seem human.
11/29/07
Suffers for the same reasons that a lot of 'issue' documentaries are problematic -- it is way too heavy-handed, only in style and concept rather than preachiness.
11/30/07
fascinating, troubling, and scathingly brilliant in both concept and execution
01/11/08
Yu's film may be challenging to synopsize, but it's thoroughly engrossing and wildly surprising.
12/14/07
Top Critic[Jessica Yu] combines the interviews with such skill that themes begin to emerge, a tangled thicket of men seeking to define themselves through strength, discipline and self-transformation.
06/09/08
...an audacious and remarkably assured documentary that weaves together four seemingly unrelated portraits of four contemporary men whose very different lives follow the course of Euripidean drama.
11/30/07
Another weirdly hermetic documentary exercise from the director of In the Realm of the Unreal.
11/26/07
Outstanding.
05/11/07
Yu's rousing, difficult-to-classify exercise in parallel storytelling is surprisingly accessible, and all the more insightful for it.
11/27/07
Protagonist is an enthralling documentary exploration of people with obsessive needs for control and self-mastery.
11/30/07
Top Critic[A] bold exploration of the... theme of extremism taken to the point of tragedy...
11/26/07
Director Jessica Yu backgrounds her four talking heads with an ancient Greek puppet show to demonstrate skillfully that we've been going through the same neurotic cycles of behavior for the last 2600 years.
11/15/07
... far more thought-provoking and engrossing than the usual run of flatly journalistic docs.
12/21/07
[Director Jessica] Yu’s analytical documentary has an intentionally narrow view of human narratives, lumping together the misguided journeys of four men to highlight the conceptual parallels between them.
11/28/07
Jessica Yu's 'Protagonist' is bravely conceived, but the subject is of itself static, or at least treated so.
11/28/07
The film makes a lasting impression as it delves into an unfashionable territory: character as fate rather than a function of pharmaceuticals.
09/10/07
[Director Jessica] Yu structures the stories in a manner that is not instantly understandable, but inspires attention with its profound puzzle.
01/25/07
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