Not so much a slice of life as the whole pie, the highs and lows of twilight living, all found and filmed in a terminal at an airport in Maine. What a country.
80
Film Threat
Film Threat
Manages to put a new spin on things while being touching, honest, and thought-provoking at the same time.
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Watching them issue hugs produces an involuntary response. You want to hug them, too.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Becomes a bracing portrait of three fascinating individuals who use this work as a means to keep living.
Unfailingly modest and profoundly humane, The Way We Get By profiles three people over 70 whose lives have been changed by a simple act of service.
70
Variety
Variety
Although the trio's work as "troop greeters" is the film's ostensible subject, their renewed and somewhat tenuous sense of purpose gives the doc its bite.
Though Aron Gaudet’s documentary never quite captures the relieved atmosphere of these homecomings, it does acknowledge the dark side of a cheery platitude: those on both sides of the divide are in need of healing.
50
Village Voice
Village Voice
It's the stuff of a fine short on what any "Bowling Alone" reader knows is the last generation of civic-minded civilians, but Gaudet has a hard time extending his material to feature length.