''20,000 Days on Earth'' is a 2014 British musical documentary

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

co-written and directed by

Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard are British artists and filmmakers. Life and work Forsyth and Pollard met and began working collaboratively while studying Fine Art and Art Theory at Goldsmiths College, graduating together in 1995. They initially f ...

. Nick Cave also co-wrote the script with Forsyth and Pollard. The film premiered in-competition in the ''World Cinema Documentary Competition'' at

2014 Sundance Film Festival The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with '' Whiplash'' directed by D ...

on 20 January 2014. It won two Awards at the festival. After its premiere at Sundance Film Festival, Drafthouse Films acquired distribution rights of the film. The film released on 17 September 2014 in United States.

Premise

The film depicts a fictitious 24-hour period in the life of

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer, actor and model Nick Cave, prior to and during the recording of his 2013 album '' Push the Sky Away.''

Releases

The film also premiered at 64th Berlin International Film Festival in ''Panorama Dokumente section'', in February 2014 and at the 2014 True/False Film Festival. It also served as the opening night film at 2014

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

on 4 June 2014. It was released on 19 September 2014 in United Kingdom.

Reception

''20,000 Days on Earth'' received general acclaim upon its premiere at the

. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 97% of 38 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film holds an average score of 84, based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Cory Everett of ''

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

'' praised the film and said that "While the doc should prove essential for Nick Cave fans, it should be inspiring for those interested in the creative process or anyone searching for their muse." John Semley of '' Slant Magazine '' gave the film two and a half stars out of four and said that "While the film is seemingly accessible as a portrait of an artist who seems particularly attuned to his own creative process, and particularly adept at describing this attunement, it's unlikely that many who aren't already whole-hog Bad Seeds fans would be able to stomach much of Cave's self-styled pomposity." Rob Nelson, in his review for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', praised the film by saying that "This innovative study of Nick Cave playfully disguises itself as fiction while more than fulfilling the requirements of a biographical documentary." David Rooney in his review for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' said that "What makes ''20,000 Days on Earth'' distinctive is that it provides an overview of the man and his art while creating the illusion that this has come together organically -- out of poetic ruminations, casual encounters, ghost-like visitations and good old Freudian psychoanalysis."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:20000 Days on Earth 2014 films 2014 documentary films British documentary films Sundance Film Festival award winners Films with screenplays by Nick Cave Film4 Productions films Rockumentaries Films set in Brighton and Hove 2010s English-language films 2010s British films