78
Metascore
25 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFred Leuchter is just one deluded figure, but by the end of this great and chilling sick-joke documentary he stands as a living icon of the banality of evil.
- 89Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovSeems more like a subtle, elegiac tone poem than an indictment of human banality and the evil that men do.
- 88Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMiami HeraldRene RodriguezBrings the viewer up close and personal with the face of evil.
- 88USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkWith his coolly objective moon's-eye view serving a story that's bizarre by even his long-established career standards, the great documentarian Errol Morris examines the perils of vanity - though others will understandably make more sinister interpretations.
- 88New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickMorris' most gripping film since "The Thin Blue Line," is the year's scariest movie.
- 80TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghErrol Morris' characteristically distanced documentary is empathetic without being especially sympathetic.
- 80TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissThe fascinating film equivalent of a humane execution.
- 70Film.comJohn HartlFilm.comJohn Hartl(Morris) sees Leuchter's story as more personal, more about one individual's self-absorption and folly, than an indictment of a particular system.
- 70NewsweekNewsweekAt the heart of all Morris's films -- from "The Thin Blue Line" to "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control" -- is a fundamental belief in the unreliability of truth.
- 60Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanMorris, who more or less invented the ironic documentary, seems to struggle here for an appropriate tone even as he allows Leuchter more than enough rope to hang himself.