Dark Days 2000

John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune: Singer deserves credit for attempting to put a human face on such tragic circumstances, but he appears to have gotten so close to his main subjects that he seems unwilling to make them, or their desperate situation, look too bad. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Told from deep inside by people who trusted Singer enough to be open and candid, the film treats its subjects straight-on, without the kinds of patronizing or romanticizing that often mar generically well-meaning documentaries on the dispossessed. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Revealing, if occasionally frustrating. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Some of these hardy souls have lived this way for years, decades even, and they've lived not just to tell the tale but to suggest that they've created a viable alternative existence. At times, Dark Days almost makes you envious. But only almost. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: If any urban setting conjures up an image of the bowels of hell, surely this is it. And 'Dark Days records it in stark black-and-white pictures that stir the most primal fears of subsisting in a world without light. Read more

Jonathan Foreman, New York Post: A fascinating, beautifully photographed portrait of a vanished community: a group of homeless people who built a shanty town in the train tunnels beneath Penn Station. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Singer's stark black-and-white photography renders their world with the abstract horror of a German expressionist film, yet he's equally skilled at coaxing the grim personal stories of life underground. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The lives of these people inside their shacks are full of surprises as well as grim confirmations, but the things we don't know about them also significantly shape our experience of the film. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie, as heroic as it may have been to produce, is more noteworthy for its intentions than its execution. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Designed neither to warm your heart nor shelter you in the comfort of liberal guilt, the movie does what so many style-conscious, "subjective" documentaries have long forgotten how to do. It shows you a world, and stays the hell out of it. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's a near-great film, reminiscent of the early Frederick Wiseman movies like Welfare and Hospital that left you both aghast and exhilarated at what human beings are capable of. Read more

David Bianculli, New York Daily News: Moving and memorable. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This is the world discovered and illuminated by gonzo documentarian Marc Singer, who spent a good part of two years living with and chronicling the lives of a half-dozen tunnel dwellers for his remarkable first film, Dark Days Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Marc Singer's film shows an extraordinary world that exists below the streets of Manhattan. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: The result is an eye-opener that takes us into Singer's experience and turns our perceptions of the homeless inside out. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: A celebration of human resourcefulness, Dark Days is also an indictment of the society that makes such resourcefulness a necessity. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: A remarkable film, and an unmissable rediscovery. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Dark Days is a well-paced look at an undeniably riveting subject. Read more

Amy Taubin, Village Voice: Singer achieves remarkable intimacy with his subjects, who share their experiences and joke around with the man behind the camera as freely as they do with their peers. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: Marc Singer's feted 2000 doc about a Manhattan subterranean community has lost none of its power since its debut. Read more