Dark Days Reviews

British film-maker Marc Singer spent two years underground shooting his remarkable debut feature, a compassionate documentary about the inhabitants of the Amtrak tunnel network beneath New York's Pennsylvania Station. With his monochrome imagery evoking Depression-era photojournalism, Singer makes an important distinction between homeless and hopeless, as he captures the ingenious ways his articulate subjects survive in their subterranean world. Yet there is also genuine pain in the frank discussion of the way in which drugs robbed some of life, if not hope. Less convincing, however, is the “happy ending”, when the Amtrakers are resettled in above-ground accommodation, which feels more like a victory for conformity over individualism than social justice.

Disturbing, diverting documentary, made over a period of two years, among derelicts and drug addicts, who still find life worth living, even in subterranean dark.

"...[An] unforgettable movie....DARK DAYS manages the tricky feat of humanizing its subjects without overly sentimentalizing them..."

British film-maker Marc Singer spent two years underground shooting his remarkable debut feature, a compassionate documentary about the inhabitants of the Amtrak tunnel network beneath New York's Pennsylvania Station. With his monochrome imagery evoking Depression-era photojournalism, Singer makes an important distinction between homeless and hopeless, as he captures the ingenious ways his articulate subjects survive in their subterranean world. Yet there is also genuine pain in the frank discussion of the way in which drugs robbed some of life, if not hope. Less convincing, however, is the “happy ending”, when the Amtrakers are resettled in above-ground accommodation, which feels more like a victory for conformity over individualism than social justice.

Disturbing, diverting documentary, made over a period of two years, among derelicts and drug addicts, who still find life worth living, even in subterranean dark.

"...[An] unforgettable movie....DARK DAYS manages the tricky feat of humanizing its subjects without overly sentimentalizing them..."

A novice documentarist mixes with the 'mole people' of Manhattan's train tunnels. Marc Singer is not interested,... read more on Time Out

"...This is a wonderfully shot and snappily edited film....A triumph of documentary film-making..."

"...Singer displays a sharp sense of cinematic grammar....[A] remarkable documentary..."