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3 Backyards

Play trailer Poster for 3 Backyards R 2011 1h 27m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
76% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 31% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
An executive (Elias Koteas), a housewife (Edie Falco) and a youngster (Rachel Resheff) spend a curious day in their suburban town.

Critics Reviews

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Bruce Diones The New Yorker 03/14/2011
Mendelsohn's dialogue is, for the most part, as spare as poetry, and the three stories are woven together masterfully and acquire a gleaming aura that's almost pastoral. Go to Full Review
Stephen Holden New York Times 03/11/2011
4/5
Little is left to chance, and every detail contributes to a tightly schematic, microcosmic poetic concept. Go to Full Review
Lou Lumenick New York Post 03/11/2011
2.5/4
Well-acted and acutely observed, the sort of cerebral fare you can more typically find on HBO than in theaters these days. Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 07/28/2011
B
This dark, well-acted suburban tale is follow-up to the gifted Mendleson's most promising feature debut Go to Full Review
Beth Accomando KPBS.org 06/24/2011
And although Mendelsohn maintains a certain cool detachment, he also allows the film to occasionally soar in unexpected ways. Go to Full Review
Tricia Olszewski Washington City Paper 04/08/2011
Mendelsohn may believe he's presenting an unvarnished look at middle-class America, but if these kinds of people exist, you won't recognize them. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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12/11/2020 This is one of my favorite movies. I think it should be shown to students who want to make film their careers. It's like a Picasso painting, one person will see it and find it uninteresting, while others like myself find it absolutely brilliant. Yes brilliant! See more 02/15/2016 Unnecessarily cryptic. See more 06/02/2015 Slow-moving, disjointed and pointless. See more 05/24/2014 Terrible film. I want that hour and a half back... See more 04/07/2013 The stories were good, but all together I didn't know what to do with them or how to feel... See more walter m @Harlequin68 08/10/2012 "3 Backyards" starts with John(Elias Koteas) having a staring contest with his wife(Kathryn Erbe) at 3:30 am before he leaves to catch a flight that turns out to be canceled. He's not the only one leaving town as an actress(Embeth Davidtz) asks her neighbor Peggy(Edie Falco) for a ride to the Port Jefferson Ferry. And because she is just a kid, Christina(Rachel Resheff) has to go to school, even though she just missed the school bus. The thing I like most about "3 Backyards" are its moments of silence that not only allow the actors to take control but also say more than any of the dialogue does. What the movie comes tantalizingly close to depicting is the emptiness of suburban lives, as the distance between people only allows them to watch each other, not connect.(There is one moment of dislocation that is probably more accidental than anything else.) However, none of that is as interesting as it sounds here, as the movie lacks anything in the way of well-defined characters. See more Read all reviews
3 Backyards

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis An executive (Elias Koteas), a housewife (Edie Falco) and a youngster (Rachel Resheff) spend a curious day in their suburban town.
Director
Eric Mendelsohn
Producer
Rocco Caruso, Amy Durning, Eric Mendelsohn
Screenwriter
Eric Mendelsohn
Distributor
Screen Media Films
Production Co
Caruso / Mendelsohn Productions
Rating
R (A Scene of Sexual Content)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 11, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 28, 2011
Runtime
1h 27m