"A moving insight into one man’s struggle to reconcile the kinship he feels for his adopted Bay Area home with his Middle Eastern roots."
- New York Times
"Yet it is home, and what home actually means to us is the insistent heart of Bruens' quietly powerful film."
- The San Francisco Chronicle
"Corner Store is a remarkable achievement of documentary filmmaking; immortalizing the everyday to express a facet of human life."
- Bay Area Guardian
"Bruens’ Corner Store... refrains from making Elhaj’s struggle into melting pot boilerplate, presenting a remarkable portrait of hope kept alive under the duress of the quotidian."
- SF 360
"Community, history, and love are the thematic strands running through the various frames of the locally made documentary “Corner Store.”
- Beyond Chron
"Bruens has crafted a poignant ode to the immigrant working class and the intrinsic bond shared between community and national identity."
- The Daily Californian
"More than just a one-man story, Corner Store uses Elhaj's journey to explore life in modern-day Palestine, leaving both grim and joyful impressions.”
- Bay Area Guardian
“Bruens, without a trace of sentimentality, shows that Youssef and his family and their friends in Bethlehem are just like us.”
– Culture Vulture
“Very well constructed because it strays from becoming an overly political statement, it instead provides a close look at the family Yousef is working so hard to provide for and support.”
–Denver Examiner
