The Automat

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2:10

The Automat

Released Feb 18, 2022

1h 59m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

56 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Verified Ratings

Before fast food we had something better. Our grandparents told us stories of gathering around communal tables, sharing their lives, their struggles, and their dreams with strangers at The Automat. In the long awaited Horn & Hardart documentary relive the phenomena of America's original and most beloved restaurant chain. The one hundred year Automat saga serves up never before-seen archival footage and photographs and a cast including celebrity customers, company executives, historians, and members of the Horn & Hardart families.

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Critics Consensus

A wistful ode to a bygone era, The Automat will make viewers nostalgic for America's past -- and hungry for a meal at the titular diner.

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Ty Burr

Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)

Short and sweet, “The Automat” is a fond remembrance of a vanished era – the past seen through a tiny glass window.

Rated: 3/4

May 13, 2022

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Mark Feeney

Boston Globe

Hurwitz takes a terrific subject and treats it with undisguised, and justified, affection. What’s most impressive about “The Automat” is how much ground it covers.

Rated: 3/4

May 12, 2022

Full Review

Sarah Jane

Austin Chronicle

The Automat is rather like a nickel slice of pie or bowl of mac & cheese you’d get from one of their restaurants. It’s not fancy, but it’s good.

May 12, 2022

Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Director Lisa Hurwitz has made an absolute delight of a documentary telling a seemingly non-essential and yet totally essential piece of forgotten history.

Rated: 3.5/4

Dec 11, 2022

Full Review

Tom O'Brien

Next Best Picture

And memories are where the meat of “The Automat” lies, as Hurwitz has collected a wide array of testimonials — some from celebrities, others everyday folks — to fondly share what the automat meant to them.

Rated: 7/10

Dec 5, 2022

Full Review

Raquel Stecher

Out of the Past

What The Automat documentary excels at is offering viewers a contextual history of how this business was born, how it thrived and how it became part of the social fabric of New York City and Philadelphia.

Nov 21, 2022

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Lester G

Enjoyed the nostalgia.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/18/22

Full Review

Nancy

Charming and interesting!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/24/22

Full Review

Lisa J

The screening was canceled and Fandango never emailed me so I didn’t find out until I got to the theater.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/09/22

Full Review

Gary H

Wonderful look back on the life and times of a New York and Philadelphia institution.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/07/22

Full Review

dave b

I went to an Automat once as a child. I loved this movie. We need more documentaries similar to this.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/23/24

Full Review

The Med City Movie Guy R

For most of the 20th century the automat, a diner-setting fitted only with food vending windows, was a fixture both in large cities like New York and Philadelphia as well as in pop culture. The Automat director Lisa Hurwitz introduces (or re-introduces) these ubiquitous eateries with the help of the likes of Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Colin Powell recounting their own visceral and gastric connections to these cafeterias who at their peak fed nearly 800,000 people per day. One of the more interesting and enjoyable documentaries of the last decade and precisely what a good documentary should be: the presentation and preservation of a unique facet of our shared culture.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/04/24

Full Review

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Lisa Hurwitz

Director

Mel Brooks

Self

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Self

Colin Powell

Self

Carl Reiner

Self

Elliott Gould

Self

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The Automat: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Before fast food we had something better. Our grandparents told us stories of gathering around communal tables, sharing their lives, their struggles, and their dreams with strangers at The Automat. In the long awaited Horn & Hardart documentary relive the phenomena of America's original and most beloved restaurant chain. The one hundred year Automat saga serves up never before-seen archival footage and photographs and a cast including celebrity customers, company executives, historians, and members of the Horn & Hardart families.

Director: Lisa Hurwitz
Producer: Lisa Hurwitz, Alec Shuldiner, Russell Greene
Screenwriter: Michael Levine
Distributor: A Slice of Pie Productions
Production Co: A Slice of Pie Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 18, 2022, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $257.4K
Runtime: 1h 59m

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