41
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaMore a deification than a documentary.
- 50The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe samples of Mr. Abu-Jamal's writings aren't generous enough to establish whether his is a singular voice or just a prolific one, with Mr. Vittoria instead letting the film wander considerably.
- 50VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibStephen Vittoria's documentary about Mumia Abu-Jamal -- unrepentant commie cop-killer to some, political martyr to others -- makes no bones about its allegiance.
- 50New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoThe documentary is unapologetically one-sided, and spends more time canonizing Abu-Jamal than exploring the murder and trial themselves. Still it raises issues of racism in America (flashback to George Wallace) that are worthy of discussion.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco ChronicleMore of a tribute than a hard-hitting piece of American filmmaking, which is too bad, because the subject - the imprisonment of ex-Black Panther figure Mumia Abu-Jamal - deserves a thorough, serious examination.
- 40Time OutTime OutThe overall fist-pumping rhetoric (lots of earnest reciting of Abu-Jamal's prose) and a failure to address the possibility that he might have, in fact, shot that cop in 1981 make this profile more hagiography than history.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal would be the perfect subject for an investigative documentary that explored his life and thought with a calm and even hand. Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary is not that film.
- 38Slant MagazineSlant MagazinePurports to tell the true story of the titular imprisoned, controversially outspoken death-penalty opponent, but eventually degenerates into an orgy of congratulation.
- 30Village VoiceMichelle OrangeVillage VoiceMichelle OrangeOblique and thickly layered with rhetoric, this account does little to illuminate Mumia the man, but it sets Mumia the statue aglow.