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Following Sean

Play trailer Poster for Following Sean 2004 1h 28m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 24 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck returns to San Francisco to search for an adult he met as a boy in the 1960s.

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Following Sean

Critics Reviews

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J. R. Jones Chicago Reader What promises to be a standard postmortem on 60s ideology becomes a thoughtful essay on the choices we all make between work, family, and personal freedom. Jul 13, 2022 Full Review Gene Seymour Newsday What emerges from Arlyck's musings is a penetrating cinematic essay on how generations in the last century struggled to take hold of history and reconfigure the shape of daily life. Rated: 3.5/4 May 3, 2006 Full Review V.A. Musetto New York Post Arlyck spends more time following himself and his own lefty family than checking up on Sean. Rated: 1.5/4 May 3, 2006 Full Review David Lamble Bay Area Reporter Following Sean is a poignant reminder that while snatches of "real life" can be captured on camera, its meaning forever lies just beyond the reach of the lens, where ants and grasshoppers, hippies and stockbrokers make their own peculiar bargains... May 7, 2020 Full Review Rob Thomas Capital Times (Madison, WI) While the film is ostensibly a "49 Up" style look at how Sean the child grew into the man, what it really is is a penetrating look at how Arlyck the young man grew into an old one. Rated: 3/4 Apr 20, 2007 Full Review Phil Hall Film Threat A confused and ridiculous home movie. Rated: 1/5 Apr 10, 2007 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Things rarely go as planned. The ideals of youth often bare no fruit. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Following Sean is a good little documentary about Ralph Arlyck going back and meeting Sean Farrell 30 years after he interviewed him when he was just a kid. Sean was born into a family that decided to move to Haight St. in San Francisco. Sean's father Johnny was a hippy who wasn't going to work for the man and he continues to be the same person to this day. The interest factor in Following Sean comes into play when you see the man Sean grew up to be. After the first interview, Sean's parents got a lot of flack and even their parents thought that their kids, including Sean, would be criminals or drug addicts. That however isn't the case and it's really interesting just how different Sean is from his father. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Not a huge exciting point to the movie, but definitely interesting at times. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member Good film about growing up smoking weed at 4 yrs. old, and the fact that you turn out ok anyway. What happened to Sean? What happened to you? This movie is about how children of the 60's ended up, along with the filmmaker. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member the movie bored me, lots of kids had lives like Sean did in San Francisco in the 60's, it just didn't interest me all that much. Only thing i liked about it was the historical hippie footage. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member Arlyck was able to weave a thread of personal transparency (showing his own son's annoyance with his endless requests for sound bites) into an American historical context. Born in '68 myself I can relate to the experience of growing up with parents who rejected their parents' emphasis on conformity by leaning towards the opposite philosophy of "no rules". I loved seeing how Sean grew up to be his own person, despite his Father's influence. This is a story of parenting ideals and how they effect future generations. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Following Sean

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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck returns to San Francisco to search for an adult he met as a boy in the 1960s.
Director
Ralph Arlyck
Producer
Ralph Arlyck, Malcolm Pullinger
Screenwriter
Ralph Arlyck
Production Co
Timed Exposures
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 10, 2016
Runtime
1h 28m
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