"Mr. Parker has brilliantly updated his source and grasped its essence, composing a sorrowful and hilarious tone poem about alienated labor or an absurdist workplace sitcom, as if a team of French surrealists had been put in charge of 'The Drew Carey Show'. Parker has done his job beautifully, using the literature of the past to make the present look as strange as it really is..."
-The New York Times"Jonathan Parker's adaptation of 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' gets to you. Crispin Glover is an impressive Bartleby... The Veterans who round out the cast provide the needed comic relief, especially Glenne Headly as the firm's Hypercordial secretary, a sex-pot with flawless diction."
-The New Yorker"...there is a kind of uncompromising, implacable simplicity to 'Bartleby' that inspires admiration."
-Roger Ebert"A shrewd and effective film from a director who understands how to create and sustain a mood. Parker's choice of angles and shots are consistently right psychologically (and) are informed by a real understanding of Melville's story."
-San Francisco Chronicle"...the old boys characters [are] more quick-witted than any English Lit Major would have thought possible. Glover and Paymer prove to be an acting duo worthy of Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'"
-LA Weekly"Parker's feature adapts Herman Melville's eerie 1853 novella...with the kind of fidelity to mood and feeling that's rare among movie adaptations of literary classics...David Paymer steals the show." (Pick of the week)
-Chicago Reader"Ambitious, deftly acted..."
-LA Times"an off-kilter delight...perfectly eerie music...very humorous."
-The Boston Herald"Paymer threads a fine line between amusing buffoonery and dead-serious befuddlement, between slow-simmering comic rage and profoundly fearful consternation, carrying off the juggling act seemingly effortlessly. Glover is everything the pic needs, and likely very close to what Melville had in mind."
-Variety"There's stroke of genius, and then there's Stroke of Genius. Brilliant!"
-The Austin Chronicle"Wonderfully eccentric, thought provoking film. We couldn't wish for a better cast."
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"With a small budget and a brilliant team, director/co-writer Jonathan Parker has brought new relevance to Bartleby's revolt, and converted an office sitcom format into a damning critique of the way many people spend their days."
-Film Journal International"Crispin Glover's strangeness is more than convincing-and aptly contextualized by an oddball showboat cast and a theremin-heavy score."
-The Village Voice"This movie kicks ass! It's a genuinely funny picture with a great lead cast and supporting cast."
-Ain't it Cool News"Smart, offbeat humor...Bartleby is hard to resist."
-Houston Chronicle"A darkly comic metaphor about an unspecified brand of existential horror...Stylish...dreamy, trippy...unsettling."
-Miami Herald"This is surely one film that will become an indie cult classic in years to come."
-Real Detroit"Imagine what might have happened if Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams collaborated with Herman Melvile, and you have some idea what to expect from this odd but very funny office comedy."
-Ft. Worth Star Telegram"Brilliant 'Bartleby ' (grade A). This indie gem sparkles. Intelligent and entertaining, clever on so many levels and ultimately posing powerful social questions."
-The Tucson Citizen"Absolutely beguiling... as nerve racking and hilarious as David Lynch's 'Eraserhead'."
-The Tucson Weekly"The neat thing about Jonathan Parker's modern-day Bartleby is that it brings out all the vaudeville undercurrents in Melville's dark tale and turns it into a surreal tragic-sitcom for our era...One of the most gifted supporting players in Hollywood, Paymer at last has a chance to show that the determined squirt he usually plays doesn't have to be smaller-than-life - that even an unimaginative bureaucrat can say to the universe, Sir, I exist."
-David Edelstein, NPR