Downtown Express (2012)

The unconvincing but gently spirited "Jazz Singer" update features accomplished musicians in the lead roles; the treat is their playing, not their acting. Full Review

Everyone seems so genuinely excited to be sharing their music on film that the entire experience becomes a joyful alliance between audience and actors. Full Review

The film may be hopelessly old-fashioned, but it's hard to entirely resist its portrait of a city that not only never sleeps but also seems to be bursting with melody at every turn. Full Review

Mr. Grubin may fumble two romances and several pivotal scenes, but the energy of the streets remains safe in his hands. Full Review

The film's wide-eyed view of New York as a wonderland of harmonic diversity soon grows as tiresome as the film's trite romantic shuffling. Full Review

Whether to let go and follow your own path is a stock dilemma, and an implausibly hopeful conclusion winds up undercutting the realism of this immigrant song. Full Review

Marked by wide-eyed charm, though not particularly adroit -- a marginal pan, owing to its somewhat lazy and functional narrative. Still, its music, from Philippe Quint and Nellie McKay, absolutely sings. Full Review

"Tchaikovsky must be grabbed by the throat or it becomes sentimental," declares the paterfamilias in Downtown Express, but the character could be critiquing the very movie in which finds himself. Full Review

'Downtown Express' is a charming, if somewhat familiar, movie that becomes extraordinary because it has astonishingly good music. Full Review

The movie's final act tries, somewhat admirably, to consolidate the plot's myriad interpersonal conflicts. Full Review