--- title: "Dawson City: Frozen Time: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/dawson-city-frozen-time/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/dawson-city-frozen-time" critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 10 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dawson City: Frozen Time (2017): what the critics said Critics' score 75 from 10 reviews: 8 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics like Bill Morrison’s documentary, and the praise lands in the same place nearly every time: the rescued nitrate footage, and the long, ghostly montages Morrison cuts it into. Several call the film a time capsule or a time machine, and the reviews return again and again to the idea that history is whatever happens to survive. The editing is singled out as often as the footage, and a number of critics are moved, calling the film mournful, elegiac and poignant. The reservations are about length and focus. Several find two hours too many; Variety says the final half-hour goes on too long, and The Hollywood Reporter faults a wandering focus. Alex Somers’s score divides them: Variety finds it haunting, while The New Yorker and IndieWire call it distracting and dirge-like. IndieWire is the coolest voice, admiring the preservation work but finding the storytelling dry and cold. Nobody is negative, and the spread runs from warm to admiring. ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 95/100 (inferred from the text). 15 June 2017. Turan calls the documentary a thrilling, visually astonishing achievement that makes its many strands compelling. He especially praises Morrison’s striking use of the recovered footage and its expressive montages. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-dawson-city-review-20170615-story.html) ## Sight and Sound — Nick Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2020. Bradshaw finds the film dazzling, sensitive and mournful as it explores the fragility of memory and film history. He praises Morrison’s use of the rediscovered footage, while finding the baseball World Series passage comparatively flat. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/raiders-lost-film-archives-digging-movie-history-dawson-city-frozen-time-notfilm) ## IndieWire — David Ehrlich Rating B. 8 June 2017. Ehrlich finds the film’s preservation work marvelous but its storytelling too dry and cold. He praises the evocative sense of how history is shaped by whatever survives, while faulting the film’s scattershot approach and dirge-like score. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/dawson-city-frozen-time-review-bill-morrison-nitrate-film-preservation-1201839673/) ## The New Yorker Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). The critic finds the documentary elegiac and sharply analytical, with an intellectually powerful sweep through history. They single out Morrison’s editing and ghostly archival footage for praise, while calling the insistent music distracting. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/dawson-city-frozen-time) ## Variety — Owen Gleiberman Fi1m's normalised score 72/100 (inferred from the text). 28 June 2017. Gleiberman finds the documentary a captivating, time-machine-like meditation on the birth of modernity. He praises Alex Somers’s haunting score and the mystery of the archival images, but says the final half-hour goes on too long. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/dawson-city-frozen-time-review-1202480786/) ## The AV Club — Ignatiy Vishnevetsky Rating B-. 6 June 2017. The review finds Bill Morrison’s documentary intelligent but overlong and too deliberate. It praises the hypnotic archival collage, especially a montage that turns a forgotten film cliché into an insight. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/dawson-city-frozen-time-unearths-history-in-500-reels-1798191518) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Frank Scheck Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 26 October 2016. Festival review. Scheck finds the documentary a captivating, poignant time capsule, though its two-hour length and wandering focus can frustrate. He especially praises the haunting, fascinating rescued silent-film footage. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/dawson-city-frozen-time-941392/) ## RogerEbert.com Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). The URL identifies a RogerEbert.com review of the named film, but the page text is inaccessible. The critic’s verdict and any specifically praised or criticized element cannot be determined. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dawson-city-frozen-time-2017) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 8 June 2017. The page appears to be the publication’s review, but its verdict cannot be established from the blocked text. No praise or complaint is available to identify. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/movies/dawson-city-frozen-time-review.html) ## Paste — Kenji Fujishima Rating 8.0. 7 June 2017. Fujishima finds the film an affecting and accessible work of history as well as a love letter to cinema. He especially praises the astonishing unearthed nitrate footage and its power to preserve history and art across time. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/dawson-city-frozen-time/dawson-city-frozen-time) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/dawson-city-frozen-time.md