Burnett and Lee's graceful, sympathetic documentary focuses on participants who embody Burning Man's ideals without being blind to the opportunists and party animals it inevitably attracts.
The four individuals' narratives are not always that compelling and make for a film best experienced on a strictly sensory level. Let the images wash over you and enjoy.
40
Village Voice
Village Voice
Less sentiment and more peculiarity would have limned a richer, though probably less audition-tape-worthy, reflection of Burning Man's 25,000-strong community of the absurd.
40
L.A. Weekly
L.A. Weekly
The film reduces a complex social environment to a trifling spectacle of fakery, peopled by faux-hemians who offer up trivial confessions as if they're earth-shattering.
38
New York PostMegan Lehmann
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Falls far short of capturing the hedonistic spirit of this ephemeral art community. It's more like a routine home video with arty pretensions.
Too lazy and too loosely structured to accomplish much besides conveying some vivid physical impressions. There is no narrator, and the structure that exists is clouded by the new-age mumbo-jumbo of eight principal commentators.