70
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The New York TimesRachel SaltzThe New York TimesRachel SaltzThis history is too recent to seem dry, and the film gets an added emotional punch from interviews with former tenants, whose memories mix fondness with anger and loss.
- 80Time OutEric HynesTime OutEric HynesArmed with archival footage and wrenching interviews, filmmaker Chad Freidrichs revisits one of our nation's darkest hours - and emerges with a scrupulous, revelatory consideration of the varied factors that turned a worthy plan into a horrific, state-sanctioned nightmare for a generation of working-class African-Americans.
- 80VarietyRobert KoehlerVarietyRobert KoehlerDetailing the birth, life and death of America's first major urban housing project in St. Louis, Chad Freidrichs' The Pruitt-Igoe Myth combines concise but thoroughgoing sociological-historical analysis and elegant cinematic resources in service of an uncommonly artful example of film journalism.
- 75Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierThe film ends on a note of courage, and a call-to-action that we "remember," naturally, but we can't completely buy it: What Freidrichs has accomplished is a portrait of unknowability.
- The Pruitt-Igoe Myth doesn't offer easy conclusions.
- 70Village VoiceErnest HardyVillage VoiceErnest HardyWhat gives the film its human dimension are the conflicting memories of former residents.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA well-researched and iconoclastic documentary that is both thoughtful and troubling, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is indeed a cautionary tale, but what it cautions against is the lure of easy judgments derived from prejudices and ignorance of the facts.
- 50Boston GlobeMark FeeneyBoston GlobeMark FeeneyUnder a different set of circumstances - in a different society - the development might have flourished. But The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a documentary, not fantasy.