A Lawyer Walks into a Bar…

Author:	Indican Pictures
Date:	June 20, 2011

Publicity

“Finally, the drama, the majesty the horror! of the bar exam will be brought to the big screen.”
• Nathan Koppel, Wall Street Journal

“At once a damnation and a defense of lawyers, Eric Chaikin’s film-fest favorite is a worthy successor to his Scrabble-fanatic doc Word Wars. Once more, with compassion and wit, he focuses on those for whom life is an endless pursuit of minutiae. He has a handful of law students commingling with TV talking heads (John Stossel, Nancy Grace), best sellers (Scott Turow), stand-ups and actors (Michael Ian Black, Eddie Griffin) and familiar faces (Alan Dershowitz, Robert Shapiro) to lay out a case for and against law school. It’s fascinating and not a little heartbreaking, this portrayal of people, some who want to help, others who wouldn’t mind just laying down a little hurt.”
• Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice

“Hilarious!”
• Austin Chronicle

“Speaking of walking, Eric Chaikin’s A Lawyer Walks Into A Bar… sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s anything but. Of course, there’s natural suspense to whether all six will pass the test or not and Chaikin intersperses the film with testimonials from such notable names as Alan Dershowitz, Vernon Jordan, Scott Turow and Nancy Grace. However, Chaikin brings the humanity out of this half dozen wannabe sharks and ultimately, they’re the real stars of the film.”
• Premiere Magazine

“It’s a Rocky story with six Rockys…”
• Athima Chansanchai, Seattle Post Intelligencer

“There were laughs, cheers and rapturous applause at the end…”
• Dallas Morning News

“I wouldn’t have thought I’d come to care so much about the fates of six people I’ve never even met, but by the end of the film I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see who would pass and who would fail. A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar is a well-made doc exploring issues of lawyers and lawsuits through the stories of these people, and you don’t have to be a lawyer to appreciate their stories.”
• Kim Voyner, Cinematical

“PICK OF THE WEEK!”
• Ebert & Roeper at the Movies

“Impressive”
• Ft. Worth Star Telegram

“If you don’t have a lawyer in the family… you’re probably not looking hard enough. Chaikin intersperses these preparations with interviews with numerous big-name lawyers, from Vernon Jordan and Scott Turow to Alan Dershowitz and Robert Shapiro. All offer interesting perspective or insight on the career… a guilty pleasure.”
• Christopher Null, FilmCritic.com