Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags

NewsdayVerne Gay

Schmatta is part cautionary tale, part love letter, and sometimes can't make up its mind which. Yet enjoyable and engaging as Schmatta often is, the story also feels thin and incomplete.

VarietyBrian Lowry

As perhaps only HBO can--given the fascination with the fashion industry and kowtowing to its big-name designers in cable's many fashion-oriented programs--Schmatta also zeroes in on the role those labels have played in pursuing lower costs, and the toll that has exacted on those whose careers have died the death of a thousand cuts.

Wall Street JournalDorothy Rabinowitz

There may be more messages in Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, a documentary on New York's garment industry, than jobs in the schmatta trade today. Such--or something like it--is the grim message of this film, which manages nonetheless to be ebullient, affecting and rich in footage reflecting decade after decade of the industry's history and that of New York.

Entertainment WeeklyJessica Shaw

It's an enlightening look at a world that, because of globalization and huge chain stores, is all but dead.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

Though it gets off to a slow and overly earnest start, Schmatta picks up speed and by the end leaves a viewer outraged and bewildered.

Washington PostHank Stuever

Even though Schmatta is filled with terrific interviews and fascinating historical footage ("Mad Men" fans should tune in for still more mid-century fashion fetishizing), there's an almost tiresome format to it.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

Over decades, immigrants provided a labor pool, but management became increasingly antipathetic; under the strains of West Side Story‘s “America,” the film shows changing fashions and work conditions, as well as some stunning numbers.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

So while Levin really wants to be filming a call to arms, an old union-style demand that ­somebody fix this injustice, Schmatta often feels more like a documentary on the way it was.

Hollywood ReporterPeter Brunette

Some of the colorful ethnic characters that populate the film say moderately lively things from time to time, but mostly it's standard-issue talking heads and archival footage.

Boston GlobeMark Feeney

A very lively--and rather muddled--documentary about the city and the garment trade.