87
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNew York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriIt confronts, but it doesn’t exploit. It’s about one of the most horrifying events of recent years, and yet it’s defined by its austerity, its sense of quiet. It is as much about the complex, dull horror of memory as it is about the brute, sharp horror of that day.
- 100The PlaylistKatie WalshThe PlaylistKatie WalshThis film is an important historical record, and an important reminder of an event in American history that could have changed everything, that should have changed everything. There’s no reason why it still can’t. Newtown is a crucial reminder of that.
- 100VarietyAndrew BarkerVarietyAndrew BarkerStructured more like a requiem than a polemic, the doc ebbs and flows in accordance with the cycles of mourning as it speaks with parents of the murdered children, as well as the teachers, priests, doctors and neighbors afflicted with survivor’s guilt, elegantly and devastatingly capturing the tenor of a small town that will carry these scars for at least a generation.
- 100Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlNewtown is an act of memorialization, a demand that this most distractible of countries look close and continue to care.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenA crucial, profound strength of Newtown is its refusal to rush toward “closure” as necessary, or even to suggest that it’s possible. There’s a striking lack of the bromides that usually abound in such contexts.
- 80The GuardianLanre BakareThe GuardianLanre BakareIt’s a shocking and compelling piece of work.
- 75The Film StageJordan RaupThe Film StageJordan RaupWhile there’s no denying the film’s empathetic, tear-inducing impact, one wonders if a tighter structural grip would allow it to have been even more effective.
- 70Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyScreen DailyDavid D'ArcyNewtown, which focuses on the bereaved families, is about coming to terms with loss.
- 50Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardIts enervated address of both mental-health treatment and gun laws receives few constructive articulations beyond a single scene.