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…Director Mark Landsman does an incredible job of making you understand who the Kashmere Stage Band was, who Conrad “Prof” Johnson was, and how the story played out. But where the film makes the jump from very good to great is when the kids of the original era of the Stage Band decide to play together again so they can pay tribute to “Prof,” and so he can see just how much of what taught them was retained.

This is where Landsman really nails it as a filmmaker, expertly charting the emotional ride, never tipping his hand too much or reaching for cheap sentiment. He knows just how much power there is to this story, and he’s smart enough to get out of the way of the people in the film. He doesn’t have to ladle on the emotion, because the film builds a natural power out of the events that is more than devastating anyway.

- Drew McWeeny, HitFix