Popular reviews

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  Review by Robert Hayes ★★★★★

  That rare documentary that has a lot more going on beneath the surface of its nominal topic, and certainly one that is as relevant today as it was 50+ years ago.

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  Review by doctorcasino ★★★ 2

  solid introduction to Jacobs and her extraordinarily important contributions to thinking about cities and planning. speaking as an architectural and urban historian working on NYC in this period, i did have a few issues which i will now recount. (several of these things do get touched on briefly, but not really developed.).

  basically, the story of urban renewal told here leans HEAVILY on the "naive planners got seduced by european modernists" narrative. which isn't totally untrue! but it elides how urban renewal really worked as a financial and legal mechanism. what was at stake for many of these actors was raising property values, assembling parcels for large-scale development by corporate actors, and competing with heavily subsidized suburbanization. this had buy-in…

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  Review by Chris Hormann ★★★★

  Someone in the audience shouted out at the end of the film "I hope there are some people from the Auckland council here."

  A clarion call for better urban planning that resonates with our own current situation. Jane Jacobs is an inspiring central figure.

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  Review by John ★★★½ 1

  Much of this has been covered already in previous documentaries but this film certainly makes the case for the profound influence of the writer turned activist from Greenwich Village.

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  Review by Fint ★★★★ 2

  Fascinating documentary about urban planning. Never thought I’d write that phrase. Jane Jacobs was an vital, vibrant person and her views on humanising cities are more relevant now than ever.

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  Review by Ryan Silberstein ★★★★ 2

  The first thing I did upon leaving the Ritz Bourse the night I saw Citizen Jane: Battle for the City was to get in my car and ascend a ramp onto I-95 and then the Vine Street Expressway, two interstates that, from above, look like a massive scar running across downtown Philadelphia. Most of the time when I am using these highways (likely sitting in traffic), I don’t even think about the impact they’ve had, especially since their opening predates my worldly awareness. But when I am headed to the Spruce Street Harbor Park, the Electric Factory, or Fishtown, it is always on my mind how aesthetically unpleasing these highways are for people on the ground.

  Full review: cinedelphia.com/citizen-jane-battle-for-the-city-review/

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  Review by Dan Gorman ★★★½

  Not the deepest dive but a succinct look at Jane Jacobs' work for someone like me who wasn't the most familiar before watching. I'm sure you could make a whole movie on the relationship between her and Robert Moses, or even just a few of the proposed projects touched upon here, but this isn't that and it doesn't need to be. It feels like the kind of documentary that captures the spirit and intent of someone rather than trying to be the definitive work about their life.

  I particularly liked how the doc is scored with a slowly pulsing and glistening soundtrack, which maintains a kind of unspoken tension that builds into frustration as you watch people who have no idea what people really want or need making all the decisions.

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  Review by oneticketplease

  How cool to see a doco about one of my heros.
  People always react to an issue "but what can I do?, I'm just one person". Jane Jacobs proves it only takes one.

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  Review by bezawitt 2

  Wanna talk about cities 4eva

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  Review by Ethan Tucker ★★★★

  One take-home lesson from this expertly-constructed city planning doco is that US male urbanist commentators really need to have someone tell them that bowties are unacceptable.

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  Review by Scott ★★★½

  As a lover of urban design and architecture, a documentary about Jane Jacobs and the urban design battles fought in NYC was pretty much catnip for myself. It's not a mind blowing documentary, and I do think a great book on the subject might delve a bit more into everything, but it does give a solid overview of the subject and it has some really great archival footage. Vincent D'Onofrio now really needs to play Robert Moses in a biopic of him, as he has such a good voice for an evil developer.

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  Review by 95sophieh ★★★½

  There’s a pretty good documentary hiding behind that terrible terrible pun