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Big Sur

Play trailer Poster for Big Sur R Released Nov 1, 2013 1h 40m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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44% Tomatometer 25 Reviews 37% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Jack Duluoz takes three trips to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's cabin in Big Sur.
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Big Sur

Critics Reviews

View All (25) Critics Reviews
Roxana Hadadi Punch Drunk Critics Ultimately, Big Sur demonstrates the limitations of Kerouac's text, how personal it is to each reader and how unsatisfactory it feels on the big screen. Rated: 1.5/5 Jan 9, 2017 Full Review Sheila O'Malley RogerEbert.com A strangely tepid experience for such searing psychological material. Rated: 2/4 Nov 1, 2013 Full Review Robert Abele Los Angeles Times There's a strange heft to its hollowness. Oct 31, 2013 Full Review B. Ruby Rich Film Quarterly Sparked an awareness of drama and documentary's interconnectedness and the impossibility of truly separating their elements in a digital age. Feb 28, 2020 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com Big Sur is a picturesque film to behold, but if you close your eyes, it sounds like an audio book. Aug 29, 2019 Full Review Josh Terry Deseret News (Salt Lake City) The film is driven by narration taken from passages of Kerouac's own prose, which celebrate the enthusiasm and passion he holds for life while his addictions eat away at his body and mind. Nov 29, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (23) audience reviews
l g was not aware of this one. found it on Prime. was really enjoying this - a pleasant surprise - until the last 10 or 15 minutes. i got lost there at the end. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I've watched this several times and found it exceptional and almost never watch movies. I'm a huge Kerouac fan and have read him for years and years . he's had a most profound affect on my life. I live through him and neal doing things I never would. the casting is outstanding and the movie is a work of art but of course most people have absolutely no sense of that. they are blind. art is not subjective. people's tastes are. this movie is based on Kerouac's last great book. he had a nervous breakdown and at the same time the book is laced with humor. the movie is very well made. the makers did an outstanding job, as good as can be done when making a book into a movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Feels like a really long commercial for a movie. Or a really long short film. While I admire the filmmaking craft on display here, movies are not books, and this felt more like a book than a movie. The monotone voiceover feels inspired by Terrence Malick, but it doesn't have the same poetic emotion. It just becomes verbal diarrhea at times, increasingly so by the 1 hour mark. Gorgeous cinematography, but the whole thing feels a bit surreal. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member The film is organized like a book. Jack Kerouac, now a beatnick hero after On the road, is fed up and go to California, and narrates the film. This may be based on Jack's writing but it pokes holes at the icon. Certainly Kerouac wanted to deflate his own icon, but the film starts like Mad men to only placate Kerouac to a cardboard character on the ground. Okay, we get his sense of adventure and the sudden freedom of the time. But we don't get his jadedness and his panic attacks. We don't understand his drive to get drunk. Was he just a spineless animal, not understanding people, nor himself? Was he an homer-sexual unknown to himself? The film itself seems to disconnect to reality and his subject, midway. It's like a rocket to the moon that despises itself because everyone keeps cheering for it after it's back. Still two stars for some recreation of the period and the two fabulously good looking girls. Otherwise, a spanking for subject spoilage. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member It doesn't work, but Jean-Marc Barr gives a compelling performance as Kerouac. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Nice narrative-style - Parts of Kerouac's autobiographical prose is narrated in the first person even as it's dramatized with acting, music and stunning scenery of Big Sur and the Redwoods. Engaging. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Big Sur

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Jack Duluoz takes three trips to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's cabin in Big Sur.
Director
Michael Polish
Producer
Ross Jacobson, Adam Kassen, Michael Polish, Orian Williams, Sean King O'Grady
Screenwriter
Michael Polish
Distributor
Ketchup Entertainment
Production Co
3311 Productions, Troy Entertainment
Rating
R (Some Sexuality|Nudity|Language)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 1, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 25, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$33.6K
Runtime
1h 40m
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