Life in a Day 2011

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: "Life in a Day" is so intimate and ultimately optimistic, it'll leave you with the inescapable feeling that you've just made hundreds of new friends you've never actually met. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: Give Macdonald and crew credit for picking out good, clear, telling contrasts, and not sweating potential heavy-handedness. Read more

New York Times: Read more

Mike Hale, New York Times: "Life in a Day" is "Koyaanisqatsi" minus the consistent visual imagination that made that film bearable. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Kevin Macdonald's documentary imposes a semblance of unity on a planet of unfathomable diversity. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: What could have been a gimmick turns out to be philosophical and heartfelt. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: If nothing else, Life In A Day serves as a fine time capsule, recording some of what life was like on Earth in 2010. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: What I took away were some individual moments from people whose lives I wish had played out more. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: So freshly edited, the clips so free of the usual YouTube Stupid Human Tricks coyness, that it's easy to get addicted to its clear-eyed celebration of the rituals and dislocating comedy of life in the 21st century. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: This amazing compilation of videos all shot the same day around the globe is one for the ages. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Carved out of cyber-reality and global in reach, this fast-paced documentary is shaped as much by Internet savvy as traditional filmmaking, which doesn't make the experience of it any less satisfying, or the implications any less provocative. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: This pointillistic view of everyday people never quite gels as a movie, but it has its point-and-click moments. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There are dull spots, as with any other day, yet "Life" aims to be, and occasionally is, like a YouTube-y "Our Town," giving a sense of what it is to be alive on planet Earth. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Judging by the National Geographic doc "Life in a Day," a lot of nothing happened on July 24, 2010. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: "Life in a Day" is at once ambitious in its global reach and modest in its simplicity. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Almost inevitably, a film made from these snippets is less than the sum of its parts. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It strives awfully hard for depth but, more often than not, comes off too shallow. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'Life in a Day' has an intoxicating and sometimes even overwhelming rhythm and power, helped no end by Matthew Herbert's inventive score. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Some of the material is banal, especially upon a second viewing. Some of it undoubtedly represents great acting by canny contributors. But the vast majority of the film feels undeniably real and incredibly inspiring. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: The most important player in the project is editor Joe Walker, who has melded more than 4,500 hours of footage into a surprisingly coherent whole. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice: The resulting object is less about the world than about itself, and feels like a hey-that's-neat 90-minute troll through the video-sharing website. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Despite having no conventional narrative, other than the sleeping, waking, rising, bathing, eating and living cycles of ordinary people across the globe, "Life in a Day" is, without exaggeration, a profound achievement. Read more