Daily Plastic: Che

Movie	Our Take	Other Takes
Che Trailer . IMDB	Soderbergh uses an interesting rhyming structure, so that we’re forced to notice the contrasts between the Cuban and Bolivian situations. But once a thoughtful viewer catches on to what Soderbergh is doing (and I did within a half hour of intermission), the rest becomes somewhat tedious. J. Robert Parks Daily Plastic	Too long? Che could be the ultimate sinkhole for our day, a giant leftist vacuum into which someone’s money vanished without a trace. How can this film even exist, and who is its presumed audience? To Soderbergh’s credit, there seems to have been little consideration of this question. I would like to be able to weigh in passionately..., but the sad truth is, there’s little onscreen to justify passions in either direction. Michael Sicinski The Academic Hack Che falls down on artistic grounds. It's interminable and precious, an unpersuasive and uninsightful screen hagiography, with the same kinds of scenes repeated endlessly. If Soderbergh's ambition was to make us feel just how dull it would be to a woods-dwelling communist guerrilla, he succeeded. Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Just right? Soderbergh portrays Guevara as a man who, having seen the damage done by the powers running Latin America, is comfortable only when working to topple the system. The film keeps a fascinated focus on what it takes to stay committed to that aim. Keith Phipps Onion AV Club You may wonder if the film is too long. I think there's a good reason for its length. Guevara's experience in Cuba and especially Bolivia was not a series of events and anecdotes, but a trial of endurance that might almost be called mad. Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times An answer and then two questions When Che was shown at the last New York Film Festival, self-described über-blogger Karina Longworth observed that where the movie's champions were typically veteran critics (like moi), a number of younger online writers such as herself found the movie wearisome and off-putting in its detachment. Diffident or objective—which characterizes Soderbergh's attitude, and what are his didactic ends? J. Hoberman Village Voice

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