66
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeThe film works to rescue Arendt and her phrase “the banality of evil” from years of cliché, and largely succeeds.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottMs. Ushpiz is determined to rescue her subject from the banality of biography. The details of Arendt’s childhood, education, romantic life and professional activity are not ignored, but they nearly always illuminate her ideas.
- 75Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerA documentary about the alternately celebrated and reviled German-born philosopher who gave us the catchphrase “the banality of evil.”
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA thoughtful, nuanced examination of a complex thinker.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorThis solid intellectual biography painstakingly follows the development of Arendt’s thought as she was forced to flee her privileged surroundings in German academia, where she was Martin Heidegger’s student and lover, to France and then the United States.
- 60Village VoiceMichelle OrangeVillage VoiceMichelle OrangeInsofar as Ushpiz succeeds in putting the most provocative, salient, and damning aspects of Arendt's work into a lucid context, she exposes the limits of her own approach.
- 50Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardIt reduces its historical moment to a series of vignettes and voiceovers, each evincing a curiously tone-deaf sentimentality.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckVita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt wrestles with its unwieldy subject with only sporadic success.