Popular reviews

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  Review by Benjamin Churchill ★★★

  There’s a wonderful seductive quality to this documentary about classic reggae artists returning to their roots, recording a compilation album ‘inna de yard’, stripped back vocals, with no studio and very, very raw. This is both to its success and its detriment. Ultimately, it goes nowhere. And doesn’t delve quite as deeply into the more interesting elements of the story as one might hope, but whilst you’re there for the ride with these wonderfully humanitarian people, with their gorgeous outlooks on life, set against a difficult albeit beautifully calm backdrop, it’s impossible not to be somewhat swept up in it.

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  Review by coffeekermit07 ★★★½

  Got rhythm, got soul, got awesome characters, got really awesome music - and a little too many minutes. But hey, this was really, really nice!

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  Review by noblesuccessor ★★½ 2

  Paused halfway through to get my updated 'rona booster. Heard "Burning Down the House" and "Once in a Lifetime" on classic rock (!!!) Twofer Tuesday on the way home. The times have truly a-changed.

  Anyway, this was pretty disappointing (not bad, just disappointing!), but extra points for the detailed breakdown of the "Banana Boat Song." Really, somebody just needs to go back in time and make a contemporaneous documentary of The Congos when they were THE MOTHERFUCKING CONGOS. No Sun Araw or stoned synth guy allowed!

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  Review by Tim H. ★★★½

  A sort of Buena Vista Social Club for reggae music but incorporates a lot of Jamaican history, social and political issues, slavery, Rastafarianism, and much else which can make it feel a bit unfocused at times but it always comes back to the music which is Jamaica's greatest cultural export. Happy 60th anniversary of independence!

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  Review by mikkel abel ★★★

  USA got the country and jazz, England has the britpop, and Jamaica has reggae. Most countries have a connection to a certain music genre - a genre, which style and sound have been both influenced by and impacted culture, society and history all as a result by gifted musicians. Jamaica created the rhythmic music known as reggae, and Peter Webber's documentary INNA DE YARD (2019) examines how this phenomenon has meant to the island's inhabitants.

  During project Inna de Yard both old pioneers and modern reggae artists meet to create new music, and share knowledge and stories concerning life's ups and downs. With a collection of important artists that expands far wider than famous Bob Marley, the project gathers important…

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  Review by Harry Angus ★★★

  What I really really liked about this was that it was so evident how much the filmmakers absolutely idolised the subjects - you could tell that they were untouchable legends in their eyes and this really comes through when watching

  I felt a little like I should’ve probably felt the same way about the subjects before booking into see this film - I only really half recognised one of the songs from one of the 8 or so artists who were featured. It didn’t really feel like the film knew what it wanted to be; it was partly a promotion of the final get together album + tour and partly a look back at the lives of these super stars,…

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  Review by mikemccahill ★★★½

  Webber's business here, it transpires, isn't exploitation but commemoration, celebration: he rightly senses, as did the directors of "Buena Vista Social Club", the Scorsese-produced series "The Blues" and the 2002 doc "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" before him, that there's a historical urgency in getting seventy- and eightysomething subjects on the record about their lives, work and craft. The movie's a great night out, but you also sense it'll become a priceless resource in coming years.

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  Review by scorro ★★★½

  Imitatio en aemulatio van Buena Vista Social Club. Mist een pointe en voelt soms wat verdwaald en doelloos aan maar heb bij deze tenminste iets bijgeleerd over de Jamaicaanse geschiedenis, slavernij, de sociale en politieke achtergrond en Rastafari. En bovenal: legendarisch goede muziek
  (CC 8/52)

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  Review by jordofjordhall ★★★★

  Visually and audibly beautiful. The music is all fantastic and the people and settings are all a joy to watch and hear about. In the end it can feel somewhat surface level, as while they are dark, sad and prescient themes discusses, it feels like more time could have been spent exploring and discussing these events. Overall very enjoyable

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  Review by Chloe

  The characters are great, and I enjoyed the music, but it was all a bit too scattershot for me. I would have liked more of a through-line; the deployment of background information was all over the place.

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  Review by Raster Image

  A very gentle amble through the early history of Jamaican reggae, as told by some singers and musicians from back in the day. It's all structured around said musicians' project to record and tour an unplugged album together. There is wit, there is pathos, some great characters and good stories, reggae is always nice of course, and the picture and sound quality are crystal. What I like the most is that this is a portrait of Jamaica as much as the people, or at least the parts of it (islands, jungles, settlements, slums) that are important for these old reggae masters, most of whom, sadly, are living in poverty today.

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  Review by SaintPauly ★★★★

  Jamaica must be heaven because it's full of beautiful souls and their accent is how the angels talk.

  Inna Da Yard is the story of Jamaica's original reggae masters recording acoustic versions of their classic songs in preparation for a live tour.

  I didn't know any of these artists or their music when I walked into the cinema, but when I left I felt like they were family singing my favourite songs.

  My only wish is that, at the beginning, they hadn't interrupted the songs with interviews so frequently. I would've been happier if they played longer extracts and saved the chats for after, but I'll take what I can get and here, I got a lot.