Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of America's loss of innocence.
Review: This is for serious movie goers, and even some of those might miss the point. We see hear an era which is long gone, and those who didn't live during that era might not understand what the deal is. We see the eternal hope played against the backdrop of the 1940's and from the perspective of three different generationss. Yes, it is played to make the most of mood swings from playful and nostalgic to the bitterest of disappointments. This isn't manipulation; it's effective dramatization. The succession of family Thanksgiving dinners tells us what was happening to America, the diminishing of the family. As has been noted, the performances, the direction, and the musical score all lift this to a high plane of film making.
Rating: 
Summary: Nostalgic look at growing up in the fifties
Review: This movie is a journey though the soul and minds of a family of immigrants. Watching them settle, adapt, fail and thrive in a new world is exciting and thought provoking. How brave it is to leave all that is familiar and deal with everything and everyone new and uncharted. The characters are every family, universal, ongoing caricatures we all identify with and recognize from our families and friends. The scenes in this movie are like memories-almost forgottten-tucked away in the backroads of the mind..not gone..not quite forgotten,,like seeing everyone leave the dinner table to watch Uncle Miltie on the brand new TV..you just want to grab them and say 'no, it isn't that important..stay and finish your dinner with your family" For me this film is a documentary of family lost and how we got from there to here.. A chance to look back, to remember the way it was and to dream perhaps it will be that way again. This should be required viewing in the eighth grade.
Rating:
Summary: touching
Review: This movie is a slow paced movie that genuinely touches the soul. The acting is great,especially adian Quin. Brilliant! The characters are multifaceted. I recomend this movie to anyone above the age of 14, only becouse youger people would have difficulty understanding the symbolism that is at its core.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite films
Review: This movie is probably not for everyone. It is slow in places, and it does not involve cars being blown up and people getting shot. It is a very personal portrait of one immigrant family. It is peculiar that it makes me feel nostalgic even though I was born in the 70s and in another country at that. In any case, as someone who grew up around immigrants I enjoyed the accurate depiction of relationships within immigrant families. The turkey scene, for example, is an absolute classic. It is funny on the one hand, but, believe it or not, it is also tragic for it very accurately shows how little arguments can ruin relationships between close relatives. We have all seen it happen. The film also accurately depicts the tension between the haves and the have-nots within a family. I have seen this movie many times and I never get tired of it. It is very poignant and beautifly acted. I especially love the scene of the grandfather coming to America. I want to cry every time I see it. It is sort of surreal and you know when watching it that it is just his memory we are seeing,not reality.... I loved this movie. By the way, the score is wonderful also.
Rating: 
Summary: another sickening immigrant story
Review: This movie is too slow and full of immigrant sentimentality.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative portrayal of cultural change
Review: This movie received very little attention, perhaps because of the slow pacing. It is exactly that slow pacing that allows the stories of the family, coming to America one by one, to unfold. A way of life that some of us are old enough to barely remember--gathering at Grandma's every Sunday for dinner, playing with cousins to spy on the adults--is lovingly portrayed. The pace of life and the times change, particularly for those family members who come of age and marry in the 1950s. The families have other distractions, and the big family dinners become less and less frequent, replaced by new entertainments. We watch as the amazing new invention, television, becomes so much a part of life in this extended family, and the changes it brings to the family dynamics. There are funny, tender and moving moments in this finely crafted and acted film. The story of this family and the transformation it undergoes is a fascinating metaphor for the social changes we have seen in the last 50 years, shown within the history of this immigrant family.
Rating:
Summary: the FAMILY
Review: This movie struck a deep chord in me. The story, acting, all the extraneous details could not move me from the central theme. Families used to eat together, to share, verbally, their times and days---the advent of tv in the home did a lot to undermine that precious and binding family glue---the dinner table. That precious sharing of lives, that has nothing to do with the commercial world. This is a deep and insightful story, that we would do well to revisit, and take into our hearts.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Clever !
Review: This was one of the best movies I have ever
seen and Elijah Wood makes the best performents
of the begining of his career.The movie is a little
slow at the begining but it does start to pick up the
paste a little later.Avalon is a little funny,WAIT,CAN I say it's funny or MAY I say it's funny"giggle",don't getting what
I said,well then see the movie to find out!!!
Rating:
Summary: Avalon
Review: This weekend we saw Levinson's 4th movie about life in Baltimore, Liberty Heights, and afterward decided to revisit both Diner & Avalon, Avalon being one of my all-time favorite pictures. Needless to say, I was as entranced as the previous times I've seen the film. There's always something new that reaches the viewer of Levinson's works. This time it was the continuity of cinematography. In both Avalon & Liberty Heights, and to some extent Diner, there's an element of magic, fantasy, suspension of reality that's portrayed by the use of "sprays" of lights, whether fireworks, twinkling stars, decorative lighting on homes, etc. It's a wonderful device. This picture, like his others, is a composite of marvelous writing, direction, acting, music and a joy to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Boring Vanity Project
Review: You'll yawn as another business venture fails. You'll snore as the Director tries to make this "Home Movie" interesting. You'll cheer when the grandmother bites the dust. You'll coast on the success of "Diner" - whoops, that was meant for the Director. You'll be jump with joy when you eject the tape and watch something - ANYTHING - else!
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