
The story of an autistic youth named Ricky who, after a particularly difficult day at school, escapes into the subways. It's here that he starts his real journey, on a days-long voyage of discovery while, above ground, his mom frantically searches for him.... (Full plot summary below)
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The story of an autistic youth named Ricky who, after a particularly difficult day at school, escapes into the subways. It's here that he starts his real journey, on a days-long voyage of discovery while, above ground, his mom frantically searches for him.
Leave your thoughts about Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.
| Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlPatient, observational film demands you surrender to it, that you keep your phone in your pocket, which means that movie theaters now sometimes offer a more unmediated look at the world than modern life itself. |
| Paste MagazineTim GriersonLike the film itself, the character are initially unremarkable but slowly and modestly begin to assert themselves, rewarding our patient attention without ever demanding it. |
| Slant MagazineChuck BowenWe're simply presented a person in trouble, and we're allowed to recognize his problems as extreme embodiments of universal issues of terror, confusion, and loneliness. |
| New York PostFarran Smith NehmeThis is the sort of movie that gets called “hallucinatory,” but it is strongly grounded in the New York in which 99 percent of us live. Fleischner gets his uncanny effects simply by showing what this city looks like to a child who has a different filter. |
| VarietyRonnie ScheibConsistently fascinating and suspenseful. |
| The PlaylistDiana DrummThe sincerity and earnestness of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors are brave and true. |
| Laramie Movie ScopeRobert RotenCinematographers Adam Jandrup and Ethan Palmer use a variety of thoughtful camera techniques like point of view, soft focus, lens flares, closeups and reflections to show how an autistic child might see his environment. |
| Chicago ReaderDrew HuntThe director's view of the wider world is flat and schematic; the mother's dealings with an indifferent school district, the ineffectual police, and her aloof ex-husband lack complexity, and the maudlin tone overwhelms any social insight. |
| Film-Forward.comKent TurnerAn indirect tribute to the 1951 independent landmark The Little Fugitive |
| Eye for FilmJennie KermodeThough a good deal of its running time is spent on passive observation, it's a film in which tension mounts almost unbearably, in part because it's so believable. |