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Sam Now
Directed by
Reed Harkness
2022
87m
Documentary
,
Adventure
,
Drama
,
and more
7.8
90%
97%
Add to Watchlist
Sam Harkness and his half-brother Reed go on a road trip to find their missing mom. But solving the mystery of her disappearance is only the beginning of their story.
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Where to Watch Sam Now
Criterion Channel
Subscription
Amazon Video
Buy $12.99
Rent $3.99
Apple TV
Buy $12.99
Rent $4.99
+3 more
Cast of Sam Now
Doris Harkness
Self
Jared Harkness
Self
Jois Harkness
Self
Randy Harkness
Self
Reed Harkness
Self
Sam Harkness
Self
Sam Now Reviews
Clapper
Carson Timar
The feature is touching in all the right ways and stands tall as one of the best films of the year.
Willamette Week
Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Like its subject and its director, it grows up, depicting the fractured Harkness family for what it is: a confluence of histories and pathologies that perhaps can't be reconciled.
Midwest Film Journal
Nick Rogers
Although oversold as a mystery, "Sam Now" derives modest power from considering the intersection of family and filmmaking-a fine line between peaceful memories worth preserving and those we pervert into something more comforting and fanciful than reality.
But Why Tho? A Geek Community
Ricardo Gallegos
A moving ode to the power of brotherhood and, in many ways, an exhibition of how a filmmaker evolves through the years.
Three Imaginary Girls
Amie Simon
There are lots of wonderful things about this film, and it also just says SO MUCH. It gave me many feels about family, abandonment, relationships, trauma, feeling trapped and auuugggghhhh just so much other complicated life stuff.
POV Magazine
Marc Glassman
Reed Harkness has made a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime film. Filled with intimate family footage, Sam Now feels like a novel or a well-crafted drama, but it's all too true.
New York Times
Nicolas Rapold
Reed's initial overeager stylings fall back to reveal a mature reckoning with love, hurt, independence, and hard-won wisdom.
FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
Peter Rainer
It seemed to me not enough... There's so much more that goes unspoken that I think could have been addressed.
FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
Claudia Puig
It traces the emotional ups and downs of this family and does it in an innovative and artistic way.
But Why Tho? A Geek Community
Jason Flatt
[Sam Now is] hugely compelling and incredibly conceived, created, and thought through piece decades in the making that is self-aware enough to have grown and evolved with its subjects over that entire time...
RogerEbert.com
Matt Zoller Seitz
A gentle, empathetic movie that will be unbearably intense for viewers who fear abandonment, but that might prove to be healing, or at least enlightening if they can stick with it to the end.
Should I See It
Michael Ward
A poignant and beautiful exploration that balances loss and hope in equal measure.
Los Angeles Times
Noel Murray
Sam Now is mostly an honest examination of some common, familiar forms of family dysfunction...
Film Threat
Perry Norton
The tale is leavened brilliantly by a soundtrack crammed with blistering punk, gutsy garage, and pensive Americana.
ColeSmithey.com
Cole Smithey
What begins as a deeply personal coming-of-age adventure, evolves into a macro-micro study of the generational effects of abandonment. It may be a bitter pill, but this brilliant movie conveys things that only documentary Cinema can capture and express.
Seattle Times
Moira MacDonald
I don't want to reveal the twists and turns of Sam Now, but know that this real-life story heads in unexpected directions, and that in watching it you will be both frustrated by imperfect human behavior and dazzled by the strength of family love.
Video Librarian Magazine
Kathy Fennessy
After making the theatrical rounds in 2023, Sam Now aired as part of PBS's Independent Lens and on The Criterion Channel. It's one of the finest documentaries to emerge from the Pacific Northwest and one of the very best of the year.
The Film Experience
Glenn Dunks
Reed Harkness's Sam Now is really something special. A debut that taps into an achingly sad story within his own family, covering decades of pain and the smiles used to cover it up. I could not take my eyes off of it...
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