''The Apollo'' is a 2019 American documentary film directed by
Roger Ross Williams
Roger Ross Williams (born September 16, 1962) is an American director, producer and writer and the first African American director to win an Academy Award (Oscar), with his short film '' Music by Prudence''; this film won the Academy Award for B ...
. ''The Apollo'' had its world premiere on April 24, 2019, at the Tribeca Film Festival. It received positive reviews and won the
in 2020 while also being shortlisted for nomination of the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film
The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to '' Kukan'' and '' Target for Tonight''. They have since been bes ...
at the
92nd Academy Awards
The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2019 and took place on February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:00 ...
.
Summary
The film looks at the unique history and contemporary legacy of the iconic
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...
while following the Apollo's inaugural staging of
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author, journalist, and activist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political is ...
' acclaimed "Between the World and Me."
Reception
The
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
surveyed 22 critics and assessed 21 as positive and 1 as negative for a 95% rating.
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
determined an average rating of 7.7/10.
Leah Greenblatt of
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
scored ''The Apollo'' an A−, writing "Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams stacks his story accordingly, drawing warm testimonials from some of the biggest names to ever grace its stage, including
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...
,
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he ...
,
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and cousins Will ...
,
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. Known for his work in both the screen and music industries, his accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award ...
, and
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973), also known mononymously as Pharrell, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and fashion designer. He first became known as one half of the music production duo ...
. But the
ilm Ilm or ILM may refer to:
Acronyms
* Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product
* '' I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1
* Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets
* Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion p ...
also works beautifully as a mosaic, unfurling its rich history without failing to acknowledge that it takes more than nostalgia to keep a cultural institution alive. In that sense, The Apollo feels like both a necessary lesson and a gift."
Accolades
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apollo 2019
2019 documentary films
2019 films
Primetime Emmy Award–winning broadcasts
Films directed by Roger Ross Williams
Apollo Theater