Popular reviews

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  Review by esther ★★★★★ 2

  all of wiseman's films seem to refer back to each other in various directions and across various points of reference like an endlessly complex spider's web. the strongest connection that jumped out to me here is to Meat, another story of bodies bought and sold, but i think Model also broaches some new territory for wiseman. a scene midway through in which a photographer explains that he no longer works with young women because they are too practiced in particular poses and movements to be direct-able could be seen as self-referential to one of the dangers of wiseman's entire project. we so often see the subjects of his film performing roles as part of some greater engine, which kind of…

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  Review by Will Sloan

  Nothing Kubrick put Tom Cruise through compares to the punishing ordeal of being forced to act natural when doing the 25th take for a shot that will last two seconds in a commercial for stockings.

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  Review by ShawnGlinis ★★★★½ 1

  a film about the many ways we use images to create meaning, which Wiseman surveys and contrasts via the agency's ads, the documentary crew's project and Wiseman's own project set at a critical distance.

  the way Wiseman punctuates the whole thing -- ideas about real life, projecting real life for consumption and making art out of images of 'the real' -- with a scene of models talking to Andy Warhol about their real weekend life vs. how they play real at work is galaxy brain stuff.

  also incredible is how Wiseman ends the film with models performing during a fashion show set to 'Strike Up the Band,' the song that he opened his career on. besides offering a tidy bookend,…

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  Review by Maldone ★★★★★

  Unfairly underrated due to a less "serious" subject matter. Wiseman is in remarkable form here. Focused on a fashion agency in New York, but also on another documentary crew shooting another film about the same models. Being able to contrast their dull conventional approach with his own, allowed his sense of humor and subtle sarcasm to come through wonderfully. This setup provided an opportunity for careful layering of multiple different forms of performances - in photoshoots, commercials, interviews, but also for the cameras of film crews. The same performances take on a completely different meaning depending on who records them and for what purpose. People behind the cameras direct models but also perform themselves. Perfect material for Wiseman's editing magic. Might even be my new favorite of his.

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  Review by teamgal ★★★★

  Fantastic Wiseman. He manages to not only de-glamorize the fashion industry, showing it as crass, bony commerce, but he does so without preaching from a moral high-ground. No attitude whatsoever. And, bonus points, it's a great New York City movie.

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  Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★½

  3rd Frederick Wiseman (after National Gallery and The Store)

  "She's a Model and she's looking good/I'd like to take her home, that's understood"

  Wiseman's observational approach here translates to a more intellectually interesting experience than a gripping drama of the everyday. The first point is that it's entirely shot in 16mm Black and White, a deliberate choice for an environment where colour is demanded and discussed. There's a sparsity to this approach which undercuts the illusion of glamour the agency Wiseman follows so desperately wants to project. The rich fabrics and luxurious fashions the models wear seem to be little more than solid blocks of colour, completely stripping away their allure. By doing so, Wiseman allows us to focus on…

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  Review by Alyssa Heflin ★★★★★

  Culture On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

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  Review by marshlandz ★★★★½ 1

  this is Fred's Antonioni movie which is wild because it's also his Godard movie and no I will not explain myself or how meaning is created thru images

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  Review by ShawnGlinis ★★★★

  the famous line from High School's finale, "only a body doing a job," kept ringing through my ears while watching this, bringing on new ripples to it as Wiseman looks at how a model agency creates commodities, how models mold themselves into premiere commodities and much more i've yet to digest. the other previous Wiseman film that reverberates through this, and that I'm learning does the same through many that came after it, is Meat, a film all about physically creating the good.

  NYC looks incredible in Davey's b&w, and it's honestly nice to be out of the bleak remote military films, hangin with Andy Warhol in Manhattan. that one photographer talking about his leftist friends would not like Monrovia,…

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  Review by KYK ★★★★ 2

  5’6 and a half is too short :(

  no wiseman is minor wiseman

  16mm. Metrograph.

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  Review by Ethan Vestby

  Bleeding Edge is proud to partner with Hot Docs to present a screening of Frederick Wiseman’s underseen 1981 documentary MODEL. Profiling Manhattan’s Zoli Management Inc., an exclusive modeling agency for men and women, MODEL shows the inner workings of the agency; at their offices, prospective models arrive with portfolios of their work, though most are sent away with advice on how to most effectively market their particular look.

  Insulated from the city around them, the few who are hired shoot television commercials and magazine ads, attend parties, pose on runways during fashion shows and answer reporters’ questions. Art and commerce collide in a “microcosm of American life we have all more or less slavishly copied” (The Guardian), presenting a probing…

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  Review by arlin ★★★★★ 3

  i clapped. we are going to talk about this one...so many notes...but for now just want to call out two of my favorite moments in this, both of which were just regular guys crossing the street, one in roller skates, the other spilling onions everywhere. polka-dots are IN this season!