72
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThis superb documentary captures Gore Vidal in all his ever-articulate glory.
- 90Village VoiceErnest HardyVillage VoiceErnest HardyIt's an admittedly hagiographic film, an unabashed celebration of the man and his work and worldview. The few mild naysayers are largely set up to be knocked down, but as such the film is invigorating.
- 90The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenHeavily seasoned with epigrams worthy of Oscar Wilde, this entertaining documentary portrays Vidal as a pessimistic political prophet with streaks of paranoia and misanthropy, but a truth teller nonetheless.
- 75New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithThe film, like the man, is never boring.
- 75McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreIt’s almost a hagiography, and Vidal would have demanded no less.
- 70VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyThe grounding material here is with the elderly Vidal himself... Unfailingly witty and devastatingly insightful, he personifies that near-extinct species — the public intellectual.
- 63Slant MagazineWes GreeneSlant MagazineWes GreeneThe unbalanced appraisal of Vidal's life and work in Nicholas Wrathall's documentary diminishes the effect of the writer's engaging dissension of American political policy.
- 60Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonTime Out LondonTom HuddlestonThe film’s blanket refusal to question its subject feels not only cowardly, but antithetical.
- 60Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichNicholas Wrathall’s documentary—rough-edged in style, yet anchored by pointed and poignant interviews with the man himself — is mostly for those already fascinated by Vidal’s colorful life.
- 50The DissolveVadim RizovThe DissolveVadim RizovWith its autumnal, end-of-days feeling, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia ends up serving as a capably assembled but deeply felt obituary for both its title subject and the late Hitchens.