The Flick NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (91)
See it if you want to see fantastic acting, beautiful writing and staging of a play in which little happens, but many little details are revealed.
Don't see it if you want a lot of plot or a lot of action, or if you don't want a slow play with a long running time. This one demands your attention.
See it if You're the type of person that needs to see any play that's won the Pulitzer.
Don't see it if You can't sit still for three hours or require a lot of action in your plays.
See it if You want to see great theater which - in simple ways - explores themes of human connection, love, and responsibility.
Don't see it if You're not prepared for a thoughtful, compelling piece of theater - by watching the interaction and relationships unfold among three people.
See it if you want to see a well written show. The show can be a bit slow, but stay with it. These are real people with insight to their lives.
Don't see it if tired. It is long and directed with some very long pauses. Don't go if you need lots of actions, this is a show you listen to.
See it if you want a fascinating look at how humans interact; their foibles, hypocrisies, insecurities. mostly serious w some very funny moments.
Don't see it if you are impatient, or are seeking something light and frothy. this is not a laugh riot.
See it if You like Annie Baker plays. Interesting character development and insights. Glad to see this Playwrights Horizons show of 2013 back.
Don't see it if You don't like to think and are looking for pure, light entertainment.
See it if Interested in the lack of integrity in 3 young losers, catching up with the must-see, Pulitzer playwright, or solid, detailed character-work
Don't see it if You need spectacle (there's one, intentionally ordinary setting) or histrionics. The play's focus is on examining modern banality.
See it if You're a fan of more character-driven pieces, rather than action filled ones.
Don't see it if You are easily bored.
Critic Reviews (30)
"Now, if watching this sort of riveting activity is your cup of tea, you might find something of value up there on the stage. But this time out, all I could think, during most of the 180 minutes in my small seat, was that I was watching the Emperor without clothes...There is no plot. Well, there is a tiny one and I certainly won’t spoil what there is of it for you by giving it away. All I can say is it’s not worth waiting until deep in the second act to even discover what it is."
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"Sometimes slow but very funny...While Gold gets engaging performances from all three actors, the action is stretched out way too long and the play sags in several silent scenes. The tedious, repetitive nature of these low-paying jobs could be conveyed onstage more concisely, with less unnecessarily prolonged silences or extended epilogue music from films."
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"The dreary atmosphere that permeates life at 'The Flick' is recreated with militant realism; it rolls out over the real-life audience like a fog that starts to feel a little oppressive. It could be that, as Wallace Shawn once put it, I've 'always really been a lowbrow at heart,' but after a while I started hoping the workers would finish up so I could watch a movie."
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“Playwright Annie Baker pushes her deliberately anti-theatrical approach to drama past the breaking point in “The Flick.” Despite the precise direction and fine performances, the artificiality of Baker’s attempt to dispense with artifice becomes glaringly apparent, while her characters aren’t interesting enough to justify the time spent with them.'The Flick' may be a worthy experiment, but not all experiments succeed."
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"It is true that at times the play can feel like an experiment in theatrical duration, with more than a few false endings, one or two speeches of dubious import, and pauses that are often a touch too generous...but they are transformed into something other—something more humorous, less delicate, and therefore comprising an altogether more believable (and what’s more, watchable) catalogue of the petty but heartbreaking skirmishes that are the substance of our daily lives."
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"There were some amusing moments, enjoyed mostly by the younger viewers in their 20s and 30s. I felt that much of the material in Act 1 could be effectively emended. Playwright Annie Baker, a multiple theater award winner for her prior “Circle Mirror Transformation” has here failed to meet her own mark. Performances, as is so often the case in so much of New York theater, are excellent, though not vivid as the material does not lend itself to vivid performing."
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