79
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnWith an editing approach that seamlessly blends past and present, Central Park Five contains a fluid, engaging storytelling that does away with the dry voiceover commentary and theatrical music choices that typically account for the narrative flow of most Burns films.
- 90NPRMark JenkinsNPRMark JenkinsIts greatest advantage over the book is that this is a story well-documented in moving pictures. In addition to recent interviews with the five, the filmmakers deftly marshal news footage, clips from the supposed confessions, and trenchant analysis.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumThis patient, righteous documentary by Ken Burns, David McMahon, and Sarah Burns recounts the story of justice undone (a serial rapist confessed) with extensive interviews, a thorough use of archival footage, and a less-than felicitous use of ominous-rumble music that unnecessarily insists, Isn't this an outrage?
- A meticulously reported chronicle of a case that shook New York in 1989 and remains a mark of shame on the city ten years after the convictions were vacated, the film incisively documents a travesty of justice that echoes the infamous Scottsboro Boys railroading of the 1930s.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfThe attention to detail is fine-grained, especially on the slippery slope of plea bargaining. Missing are two pieces that might have turned this into an urban classic.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceBecause the filmmakers were unable to enlist anyone from the NYPD or the DA's office to participate, we are left with the sense that mistakes of this magnitude require those in error to hide from them.
- 70The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisMeasured in tone and outraged in its argument, it is an emotionally stirring, at times crushingly depressing cinematic call to witness. It's also frustrating because while it re-examines the assault on the jogger and painstakingly walks you through what happened to the teenagers - from their arrest through their absolution - it fails to add anything substantively new.
- 63Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierSlant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierThough relentlessly and admirably logical, the movie constantly glosses over the buried human element.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickUltimately fails to make its case that five teenagers were sent to jail for a crime they didn't commit solely because of institutional racism.