79
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanDirectors and activists Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’s outstanding and incendiary documentary about Ferguson does a tremendous end run around mainstream news outlets and the agenda-driven narratives that emerge, particularly on television.
- 88Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardThe film’s rhythmic editing contextualizes Ferguson’s streets for their relevance to a black populace’s want for stability and peace.
- 83The Film StageJohn FinkThe Film StageJohn FinkThe documentary combines first-rate storytelling and citizen journalism, providing a harrowing, ground-up look at those that are often denied agency or dismissed as troublemakers to be tear-gassed.
- 80VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyWhose Streets? is not a movie intended for those seeking an explanatory recap, let alone “balanced” analysis, of the original case itself. What it does offer, however, is a pulse-taking of one community’s response — variably constructive, occasionally chaotic — to perceived institutionalized abuse by law enforcement.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreThe scruffiness is intentional and the film has that conventional search for heroes and heroines — who to follow, single-out and build the movie around. But Whose Streets? also lets us see how citizens journey from outrage to action, from passivity to protest to influencing public policy, just by standing up and saying “Enough!”
- 75San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleUltimately, Whose Streets? is timely not only because of its social message, but also because it fully embraces the cell phone footage and tweets that have been crucial tools in the Black Lives Matter and other movements.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAn emotionally charged account of the ongoing fight of the African-American community of Ferguson, Missouri, to be treated as equal citizens, the film, like the movement it documents, is stronger on impassioned conviction than organization.
- 70Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonThe film may be short on analysis, but it’s clear that systematic government failures at the local and state level have created a toxic climate, and Whose Streets? displays the seething emotions that resulted.
- 40The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneThe movie’s most potent closeup is of a black policewoman, in a line confronting protesters; if you can film her, why not learn what she has to say? Folayan and Davis, however, hold no brief for even-handedness, and, for those who dominate the screen, any sign of temperance, even in a President, is treated with contempt.