Variations (film)

[5] Stephen Holden called the film "visually compelling", asking, "Is there a more beautiful cinematic image than a plastic shopping bag gently blown by the wind across a stretch of pavement?

"[4] Paul Arthur wrote for Film Comment that it "might be the pinnacle of a long and distinguished career", praising the way Dorsky's "observation of shapes, textures, movements, and colors of mostly commonplace realities organized into densely unhurried skeins of interconnected motifs".

[6] Kent Jones likened Dorsky's approach to collecting images to a "a nineteenth-century naturalist combing the woods for new species of fauna" and described Variations as "a film that pulses with serenity.

[7] Dorsky was contacted by the production staff for the feature film American Beauty, asking how director Sam Mendes could view Variations.

[8] Dorsky stated that, because of the existence of many similar images in earlier films, he was unsure that his shot was appropriated.