66
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The A.V. ClubNick SchagerThe A.V. ClubNick Schager[The] aesthetic structure creates a haunting sense of the simultaneously wonderful and sad feelings both men have about lives and loves now gone, never to be recaptured.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe good-looking, easygoing doc settles in with its two subjects, offering not just an intimate perspective on the playwright's biography but some touching reflections on the comforts and perils of long-term friendship.
- 80VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonThe ups and downs of a decades-long friendship are charted with warmth and sensitivity in Shepard and Dark.
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearThe more Shepard & Dark rewinds through their shared history, the more the film blossoms into something far richer than a simple tribute to a long, beautiful friendship—it becomes an ode to a long-lost era of bohemia, an insightful look into male psychology and pathology, a valentine to the art of letter writing and an illustration of how the past is never dead, because it’s not even past.
- 75Slant MagazineNick McCarthySlant MagazineNick McCarthyTreva Wurmfeld's documentary addresses, and acutely analyzes, the way friendship can bend, and occasionally snap, over time.
- 75The PlaylistDrew TaylorThe PlaylistDrew TaylorThere’s always been something romantic and powerful about relationships primarily built on letter-writing, and that’s true for Shepard and Dark too.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovThere’s tension as the two hole up in Santa Fe to work on the book, but the bottom-line feeling is of two old friends, now two old men, who have found their place in each other’s complicated lives.
- 63New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithA disarming but low-impact documentary that amounts to an odd dual biopic, Shepard & Dark can feel a bit like intruding on a conversation between two old friends.
- 50The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe film points toward a rich and complicated story that only partly makes it onto the screen.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceDespite its unusual beginnings, the friendship doesn't offer much narrative juice.