Popular reviews

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  Review by Laura 8

  it’s hard for me to even try to read what other people have said about this so it feels foolish for me to add onto that. i finished it last night and i keep thinking of the coke can on the casket, dewayne tugging at his sock while talking to his doctor, the seconds in the phone booth between when rat hangs up the phone to when the pizza parlor calls back to confirm his order. time is always pulling, unthreading, evaporating.

  it is one of those rare things that makes you wonder why you watch films to begin with and what you hope to take from them. in the credits, it lists all the names of the people we meet and thanks them for sharing their lives. sometimes sharing feels more like taking. sometimes what you take is not what you hoped. sometimes you wish you could give it back somehow, so it really feels shared.

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  Review by Timcop ★★★★★ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Review by laird ★★★★½ 12

  It's a terrible thing to define a movie by what it isn't. That the subject of this documentary is homeless youth, however, makes it's too tempting to not point out the obvious pitfalls it avoids: It's never didactic, saccharine, condescending, judgmental, preachy, or exploitative. It is loose, ambiguous, well photographed, probably staged in parts (if not by the filmmakers by their subjects), and 100% focused on the human drama inherent in its subject matter. It works simultaneously as a time capsule of a specific place and era and a timeless examination of poverty and humanity. I'd dare say it's The Bicycle Thieves of documentaries.

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  Review by claira curtis ★★★★★ 4

  “You learn how to fight, one way or another, or you disappear. I know how to fight but I like disappearing.” 

  I was not even remotely prepared for how emotionally hardhitting Streetwise proves to be. One of the worst parts about living in the Seattle area is listening to everyone around me discuss people without homes with such disdain and disgust, as if we aren’t all just a few life events away from being in the exact same spot. It drives me insane and it really amplifies my cynicism about humanity. 

  Martin Bell’s Streetwise is a deeply intimate exposé on children living on the streets of Seattle in the early 80s. It’s a sobering, grim documentary that weaves together the…

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  Review by PopcornIdeology ★★★★½ 6

  American Exceptionalism is dead.

  Its body left to rot in an alleyway, flies joyfully feasting on its festering organs boiling in the heat, steam from the nearby factory cooking it to medium rare, as directionless youth plunder a dumpster for half-eaten wings.

  Its body thrown over a bridge, slowly free-falling in the air and landing ungracefully in the contaminated water, floating next to the youth that gleefully swim around looking for an escape.

  Its throat slashed in a bar fight, broken glass lodged in its jugular, it's gargling on its own blood. The youth watch closely, they cheer when its body thuds on the ground, when its eyes roll back into its head, when the blood pouring from its neck…

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  Review by shookone ★★★★½

  one of those magical moments in documentary filmmaking, where a sophisticated skillset finds authentic characters and a great eye meets truthfully bitter reality.

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  Review by mary ★★★★★ 6

  "I love to fly. It's just, you're alone with peace and quiet, nothing around you but clear, blue sky. No one to hassle you. No one to tell you where to go or what to do. The only bad part about flying is having to come back down to the fucking world"
  Streetwise has seriously, left me in shock. i usually dont watch documentaries and all but damn. i dont even have words to explain how deeply stunned i am. the fact that these were the real lives of these teenagers is just shocking. most of the scenes were absolutely jaw-dropping. everything in this documentary is so real. this is just so real. everything. man. the coke can on dawayne's casket, tiny's conversation with the doctor. basically every moment lulu appeared on screen. tiny and her mother.
  this might as well be just the best documentary i've ever watched

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  Review by evilbjork ★★★★½ 4

  Streetwise is one of the darkest and realest documentaries of all time. It follows a large cast of loosely connected homeless street kids during 1984 in Seattle. This was a time when seeing homeless kids on the street asking for money and taking care of themselves wasn't uncommon in the slightest. Many of the girls in this are prostitutes even though they're 14 years old or maybe younger. Many of the girls and boys talk about their experiences hitchhiking, robbing people, getting robbed, getting attacked, and other pretty horrible experiences. I realized while watching that some of the audio from this was used on the album Buyer's Market, and if you know the album then you'll realize how dark the…

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  Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★★½ 8

  Heartfelt portrayal of the tragic cycle of failed parenting. Man hands on misery to man and it deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.

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  Review by Jerry ★★★★★ 7

  Beauty in Hell—humanity at its rawest and most sincere. Streetwise manages to be one of those rare pictures that is incredibly difficult to watch at times, but ensnaring as well, so full of care and genuine love for its subjects. In the midst of all this chaos and nefariousness, there is an abundance of compassion and tenderness to be found. The way everyone looks out for each other, the fleeting moments of beguiling allure and innocence in an otherwise unforgiving and relentless concrete jungle where one must be as wise as a seasoned elder, but savage as a callous criminal. There is no lying or pretense to be found in these youths; they simply are who they are, and their faults…

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★★

  Had to let this one sit in my head before I could write anything about it, but I'll be amazed if I ever find myself watching a more harrowing documentary all year round. In its account of the youth living on the streets of Seattle, what Streetwise shows is just absolutely remarkable. There's never a moment in this that feels intrusive, for you're always in the spot as an observer of a lifestyle that these people had been made to adapt to over time, and it leaves you to think about what could be in store for many children younger than the film's subjects that live the same way that they do.

  Because you're only looking at the happiness that they were able to live at one point, for it was all they had. This is as essential a documentary film as they get.

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  Review by Jerry ★★★★★ 10

  “Oh, take care of all of my children
  Don't let 'em wander and roam
  Oh, take care of all of my children
  For I don't know when I'm comin' back home
  You can put all of my possessions here in Jesus' name
  And nail a sign on the door
  Bright and early Sunday morning with my walking cane
  I'm going up to see my Lord“

  Shattered dreams scattered like trash along the sidewalks and street corners where so many, an uncountable number, had moved and lived and tried to survive. Before I saw Streetwise, I would walk through cities and towns without a second thought, but now I can’t help but consider all of the history I’m walking over, the crudely poured…