Dir. Sam Green · 2026 · 87 min · documentary
Sam Green set out to make a straightforward film: meet whoever holds the Guinness record for oldest living person, then meet whoever holds it next. Per Green's own account on the Sundance site, that plan did not survive contact with the idea. "After a while, you're like, 'Not another one,'" he says. The record changes hands too often, and the trail of faces gets repetitive.
So the film became something looser and more personal. It was shot over roughly ten years, and the passing time shows in Green's own life: the birth of his son, a health scare, the pandemic. Supercentenarians such as Susannah Mushatt Jones, Violet Brown, Maria Branyas and Sister André appear, and Green's narration ties them to his own questions about mortality. It premiered at Sundance in January 2026.
The conceit does a lot of quiet work. A record that keeps passing from one person to the next is a neat picture of time moving on, and critics who liked the film mostly liked it for that. Metacritic lists the film at 75 from ten reviews, all of them positive. Vulture is reported there as calling it "surprisingly, almost confrontationally life-affirming", and IndieWire's Ross McIndoe finds that "each oldest person has arrived at a clear idea of what their time on this Earth has meant."
It also helps that Green is not a newcomer. Green is not a newcomer: he co-directed the Oscar-nominated The Weather Underground and later made 32 Sounds. This one, going by the reviews, is gentle rather than shocking, a meditation more than an investigation.
This is where critics split. For some, the turn to Green's own story is the point. For others, it is the problem.
The intensely personal approach (and Green's open-hearted narration) renders the doc overly sentimental at times.
Carlos Aguilar, RogerEbert.com
Aguilar's review also asks why nearly all of the record holders are women, a pattern he calls an obvious aspect to explore that the film leaves alone. POV Magazine's Jason Gorber is harsher still, finding the film "slight at best and trivial at its worst" and wanting more conversation with the people at the centre. IndieWire's review, by contrast, reads the personal turn as the film's reward. If you want an investigation of longevity, a hunt for what keeps people alive, the reviews suggest you will not get it here.
Tick what sounds like you. Nothing is saved.
Tick a few above.
Viewers who like Green's earlier work, or any documentary led by one voice and one idea, will probably find a lot to chew on. It runs 87 minutes, which suits the material. Those looking for rigour, a clear argument or a broader cast than the film offers may side with the dissenting critics. The score follows the critics: warm, with real reservations.
According to Hammer to Nail, the film opened in New York on 10 September 2026 and in Los Angeles and San Francisco on 18 September, self-distributed, with a wider US run to follow. I could not confirm a European cinema or streaming release from the sources I read, so check your local cinema listings and festival schedules. Availability varies by country.