83
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaRogerEbert.comScout TafoyaIn the end, all that can be relied upon are objects and gestures. The littlest things that tie us to each other. The film often slows to a standstill to show children playing, cars passing, people talking and streets emptied of traffic.
- 90The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottMs. Holland, working from a script by Stepan Hulik, a Czech screenwriter born in 1984, turns a sprawling story into a tight and suspenseful ethical thriller.
- 83The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezPolitical thriller, procedural, emotional drama and rousing cry for basic human rights and values.
- 80The DissolveJordan HoffmanThe DissolveJordan HoffmanBurning Bush is a rare accomplishment. It’s a political film with clear heroes and villains, and true to its HBO roots, it works as a fleet-of-foot juicy plot-delivery system.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThe Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonA deluxe multi-character drama that blends real history with semi-fictionalized spy thriller and soap opera elements, Burning Bush feels in places like an extended Czech remake of the Cold War-themed German Oscar-winner The Lives of Others.
- 80Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFor all the hurtling plot, and its occasional workaday scenecraft, Burning Bush proves an engrossing historical drama, low-key but in its final moments devastating.
- 75Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThe decentralized narrative benefits from the film's original conception as a miniseries, with plenty of time to draw us into the morass that was the communist state.
- 75The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOn the whole, though, Burning Bush is an absorbing docudrama that maintains a gratifying equilibrium between hope and cynicism. You can fight City Hall. It just takes a while.