California Typewriter is a...nostalgic documentary which makes an important and persuasive statement about the simple pleasures (and added value) of doing things in a certain way that becomes more and more inaccessible to humans.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2024

An exuberant embrace of an analog world.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 15, 2021

Doug Nicol's documentary celebrates the history and mystique around the humble machine whose heyday lasted about a century...

Full Review | Oct 27, 2020

California Typewriter does feel like a bit of time travel, but in the interest of better writing, it's a trip you'll love taking.

Full Review | May 14, 2020

[Director Doug] Nichol's excellent sense of place expands even to the Vince Guaraldi instrumentals on the soundtrack.

Full Review | May 9, 2018

California Typewriter is a nostalgic documentary that will make you think about what life was like in the days before computers, smart phones, and the internet.

Full Review | Nov 11, 2017

The questions this documentary raises, in between all the human stories and history it teaches, will definitely haunt you as the credits roll.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 8, 2017

There are two ready-made audiences for this doc and both will benefit from seeing it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 27, 2017

I enjoyed this film about typewriters so much that I feel guilty writing this review on a computer instead of a Smith Corona.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 27, 2017

A love story that clacks!

Full Review | Oct 25, 2017

If California Typewriter slightly overstays its welcome, as Nichol pushes past a natural end point to make the case for manual typewriters as the new vinyl... well, that seems somehow appropriate, too. Love has a way of blinding us to reality, after all.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2017

... a retro-fun salute to the analog age and a thoughtful consideration of how digital technology affects our lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2017

A love letter to the outdated, be it typewriters, thank you notes, mom and pop repair shops, or creativity that doesn't start with turning a computer on first.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2017

I do wish the film had gone a little farther in its structure... but otherwise, I love it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 29, 2017

All of it is a bit of a hodgepodge of ideas, but it's an engaging one, nonetheless.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 29, 2017

Doug Nichol's handsomely packaged, if slightly myopic, documentary California Typewriter waxes poetic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 28, 2017

California Typewriter wanders a bit in its curiosity, but it is hardly a piece of ephemeral nostalgia.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 21, 2017

Suffusing the documentary is an almost religious reverence for this mundane and obsolete mechanical apparatus. Not that it's undeserved.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 21, 2017

A surprisingly thoughtful and beautifully shot film that doubles as both a history of and a love letter to the humble typewriter.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 20, 2017

'California Typewriter' is a very likable, eccentric excursion. It goes deeper than you may at first believe. It will make you look back and reflect on the cost of technology to the mind and the spirit.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 14, 2017