Nonureva Really Surprised!

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

ckawski Growing up, I had a secret hiding spot where I squirreled away my coin and rock collections, grade school memorabilia, and various important (to me) trinkets. What if my secret hiding spot was the size of an enormous storage unit, contained thousands of rolls of undeveloped film and oodles of bric-a-brac, and went completely undiscovered until after my death? And, by the way, my mountain of photographs are astoundingly well-done. Well, get to know Vivian Maier.This is a wonderful documentary about an eccentric woman. She is revealed through interviews, photographs, and snippets of video and audio from Maier herself. The young man who discovered her work, by chance, has done an excellent job of weaving a narrative that unfurls slowly, always pulling you deeper down the rabbit hole. The pacing is good, the plot has interesting twists, and, by the end of the film you feel that the character, Maier, a real person, is someone special that the world should have known better when she was alive.It's not a big spoiler that Maier is deceased. The whole premise for this film is that her hidden artistic life lay fallow in an existence made up of temporary nannying gigs, punctuated by abrupt departures from the families that gave her shelter and a salary. Living this menial life, she completely blended into the background. Not until Maier passed away, and her belongings were auctioned off, did her impressive artistic prowess come to light.Maier is mysterious, to say the least. She spells her name several ways. She doesn't let people get very close, yet she seems to yearn for camaraderie, a place to belong. Her family history is a sub-plot that gives this doc some of its turns, but I'll leave those for the viewer. Maier is, as Churchill said, a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. An hour-and-one-half-long documentary cannot possibly reveal all there is about this lost soul. But the effort is laudable, and Maier's talent is noteworthy.The film has a satisfying conclusion, but it does leave the viewer wanting more. Like me, you'll find yourself Googling Vivian Maier to find out details of her life, her work, and this story. It's an interesting and engrossing tale. I recommend it.

rutietooty What a wonderful movie! It was funny, sad, touching, interesting. A little bit of everything rolled into one.John Maloof. Big props to you! Fascinating find, fascinating story. It's great that you took the time to bring us all such a treasure.Vivian's photographs are truly one of a kind. Looking at some of them literally brought tears to my eyes. Not of sadness, but of joy. Truly, heartwarming.If you're in the mood for a little laughter, a few tears, a bit of mystery and a look into the lives of some very interesting people, than I highly recommend this movie. Fabulous!

estebangonzalez10 "The history of street photography is being rewritten."John Maloof's life changed when he bought a box full of old negatives in a local auction house. He was simply trying to find old pictures of his neighborhood for a history book, but what he got in return was more than he bargained for. He discovered these amazing street photographs taken by a woman named Vivian Maier and started posting them on his blog. Eventually the photos began getting some recognition and Maloof decided to start digging into this person's past and figuring out who she was and why she never developed all those negatives. Using the archive footage from the negatives he began piecing together certain elements of Vivian's past. Through interviews of people who knew Vivian years ago, Maloof tries to understand what motivated this mysterious woman to take these brilliant photographs. His first mission was to get her beautiful pictures artistically recognized, and once he does he begins to try to solve the enigmatic mystery of her past. The documentary works extremely well as this mysterious character study that begins to take form through Vivian's photographs and interviews with the few people that actually had interacted with her when she worked as a nanny for a number of families in New York. Finding Vivian Maier stands out from other documentaries in that it is narrated extremely well with the mystery element surrounding Vivian's life. The fact that this woman was fortunately discovered by Maloof and brought to the public's attention is quite fascinating. I'm no photography expert, but the pictures look amazing and there is no question Maier was a talented artist. Big props to John Maloof for making such an amazing discovery and doing such great investigative work.

nick94965 After all the hype surrounding this film (and the Oscar nomination), I thought there might be a reason for it. But unfortunately, I didn't get it. I didn't see much that impressed me about the subject, the filmmaker (who was way too present) or the so-called "mystery" of why we really need to have a history of every aspect of Vivian's life.So what if she was a Nanny? Big deal. So what if she never had a showing during her lifetime? So do most artists who die penniless. I think there is so much emphasis on how brilliant she was, that it was difficult to see what the pictures are all about: they are simple depictions of the world as seen through one woman's eyes. So therefore, it didn't matter one bit that she was not a recognized artist during her lifetime.The constant interruption of the images by the filmmaker emoting in front of the camera is grating, and the repeated shots of him developing and printing, is annoying to say the least. All of it went way too far in making him seem like he was some kind of a savior who gave the world a gift -- and ignores the fact that Vivian was the kind of artist who only wanted to practice her art without all the hoopla and celebrity that follows most of the pretentious egocentric photographers like Annie Leibowitz or Cindy Sherman -- where the personality of the photographer becomes more important than the images themselves. At least Vivian didn't proclaim how brilliant she was, and expect everyone to reward her.In all honesty, I failed to see any real innovation in terms of photography. Almost every image was almost like a direct analogy to Diane Arbus, who frankly did it better. Vivian was a good photographer, no question. But what bothers me is the ludicrous hype that has now grown up around the images -- and it all seems unwarranted. There is nothing about this documentary that suggests it should be nominated for an Oscar, and was, in my opinion, a waste of time.