Carmine Street Guitars (2018) User Reviews

Old School Cool

[LeonardHaid · 8/10 · 25 April 2019]

A small, intimate film which mostly takes place in a cramped and cluttered guitar shop where master guitar maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice design and create guitars out of wood recycled from old dead New York City trees, old demolished New York City buildings, and once Rick even scored some wood from the oldest tavern in New York City still in operation. Musicians - and Jim Jarmusch - come into his shop, talk about guitars and other things, and sooner or later some of them zero in on the guitar that has their name on it. Most of them play a little something, and it's all wonderful as the setting is just so intimate and conducive to music. Jim Jarmusch comes in with a guitar made out of catalpa wood, and they talk about catalpa trees. While all of this is going on, Rick's elderly mother might be dusting the guitars, answering the phone, or crunching numbers at a desk. Rick has no cell phone and doesn't use a computer; being a hardcore traditionalist seems to be who he is at his core. Or, maybe it's because he wants to put as much of his energy as possible into his guitars, which are the stars of the film. They are beautiful and unique, and they sound amazing.

Pleasant but the conversations were too contrived

[Metaflix · 6/10 · 22 May 2019]

'Carmine Street Guitars' is a pleasant little documentary about a small guitar-making outfit in New York City's famed West Village but the conversations were a bit too scripted and the setups were a bit too contrived given the genre.

Long form commercial as documentary.

[MongoLloyd · 7/10 · 9 September 2019]

The poster graphic of the exotic looking girl with the guitar was what drew me to this film but as it turns out, she doesn't actually play any guitars in the film. Anyhoo, if you're into guitars, it's definitely fun to watch but plays out more like a long form commercial with interviews featuring some notable guitar players who just happen to stop by the store (while a film crew was there, haha).

I'm not really into the the grungy, NYC aesthetic of the custom made instruments they feature in the film but the next time I'm in NYC, I'll more than likely make time to visit the store.

Plugged in

[pkerr-dez · 10/10 · 28 July 2021]

Made me dig out my Strat copy and turn the amp up to 11.

Interesting, but Far to Slow and Long

[arfdawg-1 · 4/10 · 26 September 2019]

This is a 20-30 story that they padded out into nearly 90 minutes.

Some of the stories are cool and interesting but the "celebs" most who i knew nothing about was really dumb.

The direction is painfully slow and the owners are "aw shucks" kinda guys whoa re really ruthless opportunists. One guy doesn't even know the year his dad -- who he says started him on this -- died.

The guitars are nothing special. They are basically hand honed copies of the classics -- especially Fender.