Onlookers

Play trailer

1:55

Onlookers

2024

1h 12m

Documentary

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

77%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

Popcornmeter

0 Ratings

ONLOOKERS offers a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos, reflecting on how we all live as observers. Traversing the country's dusty roads and tranquil rivers, we watch as elaborate painterly tableaus unfold, revealing the whimsical and at times disruptive interweaving of locals and foreigners in rest and play. Drawn to spectacle, tourists swarm to magnificent Buddhist temples, the ordered rituals of monks, and sites of dazzling natural beauty, then recede like a passing tide, leaving Laotians to continue with their daily lives. ONLOOKERS transports viewers on a sensorial journey of deep looking and listening, inviting audiences to reflect on their own modes of tourism, while asking the looming existential questions: Why do we travel? What do we seek?

Phuong Le

Guardian

Dec 2

3/5

Onlookers does provoke some interesting questions about the relationship between tourism and cinema, even if it has little new or profound insight into either topic.

Go to Full Review

Glenn Kenny

RogerEbert.com

02/16/2024

2.5/4

I myself got enough out of “Onlookers” that I don’t ultimately feel it belongs in the “For Avant-Garde Documentary Lovers” category exclusively.

Go to Full Review

Ben Kenigsberg

New York Times

02/15/2024

This is a concept in search of a movie, and an academic exercise that doesn’t give observers much to work with.

Go to Full Review

Eileen G'Sell

Hyperallergic

10/21/2024

Immersive, beguiling, and productively unsettling, "Onlookers" confronts the power of the wealthy, predominantly White and Western tourist gaze to intrude on and warp its surroundings.

Go to Full Review

Paul Emmanuel Enicola

The Movie Buff

07/07/2024

B

Examines the effects of tourism in a country steeped in culture and tradition through a collage of video clips with almost no dialogue—giving the film an immersive quality that’s not only interactive, but also incisive.

Go to Full Review

Sean Gilman

The Chinese Cinema

06/10/2024

The most wonderful thing about this are the subtitles. They are quite simply the most beautiful and poetic captions I’ve ever seen. Scene after scene plays out like a little haiku, adding an undeniably sardonic and wistful edge to this very playful film.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Kimi Takesue

Director

Kimi Takesue

Producer

Kimi Takesue

Cinematographer

Kimi Takesue

Film Editor

I Know Catherine, the Log Lady

100%

%

I Know Catherine, the Log Lady

Watchlist

TRAILER

for I Know Catherine, the Log Lady

The American Question

%

95%

The American Question

Watchlist

TRAILER

for The American Question

Paint Me a Road Out of Here

%

%

Paint Me a Road Out of Here

Watchlist

The Sixth

100%

84%

The Sixth

Watchlist

TRAILER

for The Sixth

I Didn't See You There

97%

%

I Didn't See You There

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Onlookers: Trailer 1

1:55

View more videos

View more photos

Synopsis

ONLOOKERS offers a visually striking, immersive meditation on travel and tourism in Laos, reflecting on how we all live as observers. Traversing the country's dusty roads and tranquil rivers, we watch as elaborate painterly tableaus unfold, revealing the whimsical and at times disruptive interweaving of locals and foreigners in rest and play. Drawn to spectacle, tourists swarm to magnificent Buddhist temples, the ordered rituals of monks, and sites of dazzling natural beauty, then recede like a passing tide, leaving Laotians to continue with their daily lives. ONLOOKERS transports viewers on a sensorial journey of deep looking and listening, inviting audiences to reflect on their own modes of tourism, while asking the looming existential questions: Why do we travel? What do we seek?

Director: Kimi Takesue
Producer: Kimi Takesue
Production Co: KimiKat Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 16, 2024, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 23, 2024
Runtime: 1h 12m