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Frederick Wiseman’s longing, and overlong, documentary homage to New York City’s great public library system has the power to charm and exhaust its viewer. 
Endless board meetings bereft of chyrons alerting viewers to the identities of the participants, and seemingly disconnected street scenes, buffer clips from lectures, procedures, and performances inside library walls. The movie comes to life when punk icons Elvis Costello and Patti Smith show up in interview segments.
A rap poet’s performance however earns lesser marks for entertainment value. A crying baby’s disapproval should have been a cue.
There are various hat-tips to the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie for his generous financial contributions at the turn of the 20th century that enabled the New York Public Library to open branches in all five boroughs. Wiseman submerses his audience in the library’s daily rituals of community-empowering practices. The result is an intimate if welcome-wearing experience.
At three hours and 17 minutes, “Ex Libris” could easily have lost more than an hour and maintained its vast overview of a public and privately supported library system that provides New York City with an incalculable resource of information. Still, if you’ve got the time to spend, you’ll get a real sense of New York City circa 2015, when the film was made.
Not Rated. 197 mins.
