Memphis

2013

1h 19m

Drama

List

74%

Tomatometer

27 Reviews

39%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

A singer with an angelic voice wanders around Memphis.

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

"Memphis" is poetry.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 2, 2014

Full Review

John DeFore

Washington Post

Even those who find it a bore will agree it's a pleasure to look at, and not only because Beal cleans up nicely as a suit-wearing slacker in a snappy chapeaux.

Rated: 2/4

Sep 18, 2014

Full Review

Martin Tsai

Los Angeles Times

The film feels like a sketch rather than a portrait, beautifully rendered but incomplete in the details.

Sep 11, 2014

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

While Memphis may not always engage as powerfully as it could, it's a striking experimental portrait of the pressure to create for the consumption of others.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 5, 2019

Full Review

Cameron Ward

One Room With A View

Tim Sutton's experimental arrangement of the "one-hit-wonder" thematically explores the guilt, grief and sadness of wasted talent; the melancholic descent to normalcy.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 8, 2019

Full Review

Dan Mecca

The Film Stage

There's a self-awareness to both Sutton's direction and Willis' performance that deflates some of the potential pretentiousness from the proceedings.

Rated: B+

Jun 21, 2016

Full Review

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Audience Member

Memphis is rough, unfinished and overly artsy but the music is undeniably interesting and the film is captivating, albeit not particularly memorable.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Simple and beautiful, if you can watch an art-forward film with little story and a lot of meandering you will enjoy this one.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I respect what director Tim Sutton was trying to do with this film, but I didn't quite enjoy it. I understand the aimless and wandering structure of the film was supposed to parallel the journey of the protagonist, and although I can appreciate that, it often makes the film difficult to watch. There seems to be a strong sense of culture and community in Memphis, and that ended up being my favorite thing to watch in this film. Listening in on conversations that I normally wouldn't be a part of is incredibly enjoyable for me, but it can't make up for a lack of character and plot development. Memphis is an interesting effort, but something I can't totally get behind.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Lumbering and strange

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The portrait of a city. The sketch of an artist. Tim Sutton's masterful Memphis evokes aspects of cinema rarely used to such precision; an aural experience and a visual masterstroke that's not so much about something but of something. Without a doubt one of the best films of the year and a singularly unique cinematic experience.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It would be easy to refer to Tim Sutton's new film as Malick-ian, but Memphis is actually more noticeable in how it seeks authenticity through it's broken narrative. Featuring musician Willis Earl Beal playing more-or-less a fictionalized version of himself, the film avoids having a plot and instead follows the protagonist as he observes the titular city, while occasionally vocally expressing his musings and troubles. The cinematography is frequently beautiful and Beale proves to have a singular presence for representing Sutton's world, so there's little doubt that that Memphis is art (or closer to that term than most films), but as a film it certainly reaches a stylistic limit. It doesn't truly develop any of it's themes, with the film agonizingly introducing characters and set-ups that ultimately serve no meaning. Certainly a film that encourages the mind to wander for an hour-and-a-half, but also one that may quickly be forgotten.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

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Tim Sutton

Director

Willis Earl Beal

Actor

Constance Brantley

Actor

Larry Dodson

Actor

Devonte Hull

Actor

Lopaka Thomas

Actor

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Synopsis

A singer with an angelic voice wanders around Memphis.

Director: Tim Sutton
Screenwriter: Tim Sutton
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 6, 2015
Runtime: 1h 19m

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