It features an ensemble cast and depicts a fictional community arts center in a small upstate New York town that struggles under economic and social pressures.

[3] Critics identified the central themes of the film as the value and impact of the arts, and the difficulty of producing and promoting meaningful artistic work in a market economy.

[7] Justin Chang, writing for the Los Angeles Times, called the film a "warm and prickly humanist triumph" that "feels meticulously handcrafted in every respect".

[8] Bilge Ebiri, writing for The New York Times, designated the film a critic pick, noting that it has "a deliberate pace and thematic ambition to spare — but it also has a ground-level, plain-spoken modesty that renders it hypnotic.

[4] Richard Brody, writing for The New Yorker, described the film as a "comprehensive vision" drawn from Wang's "ferociously dedicated, deeply empathetic, finely conceived sense of purpose", offering "a detailed, expansive view of local politics and, for that matter, of the nature of community".