Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

After Innocence

EMAILPRINTNew Yorker Films

After Innocence reviews
74
9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Jessica Sanders
Marc H. Simon

Directed by: Jessica Sanders

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 21, 2005
DVD: February 6, 2007

Running Time: 95 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Dennis Maher, Scott Hornoff, Ronald Cotton, Nick Yarris, Wilton Dedge, Herman Atkins, Vincent Moto, and Calvin Willis

This documentary tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated -- innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives. (New Yorker Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Powerfully explores the struggles faced by those whom DNA testing has exonerated after years behind bars.

Read Full Review >
90

Village Voice Jennifer Gonnerman

Both riveting and disturbing.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Calm, deliberate and devastating, Jessica Sanders's documentary After Innocence confirms many of the worst fears about weaknesses in the American criminal-justice system.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The moral purity of After Innocence is so overwhelming that it simply leaves you with nothing to say or do. It's kind of beyond criticism.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

What emerges from these stories is a picture of the fallibility of the system and the vulnerability of innocent citizens, whom even scientific evidence cannot protect from incompetence, ego and prejudice, and of the courage of the exonerated victims to make meaning of their tragedies.

Read Full Review >
80

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Jessica Sanders has observed a collection of lives dramatically altered by a flawed legal system.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Scott Foundas

A powerfully affecting documentary.

Read Full Review >
80

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

One of the powerful things about After Innocence is that, no matter what your position on punitive justice, you can't argue with the film's position.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

There's also a little something smarmy about the interactions between the lawyers and their clients, all of whom are poor.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Gut-wrenching.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

After Innocence isn't bravura filmmaking, and it doesn't have to be -- this is one of those documentaries where the subject is compelling enough to do the legwork.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

The embittered men make fascinating subjects.

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

In her clear and compelling film, Sanders lets the innocents do the talking.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Puts a human face on the failings of the American judicial system and the growing importance of DNA in legal proceedings.

Read Full Review >
70

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Rousing, quietly outraged documentary.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Post Kyle Smith

Exploring the lives of several wrongly convicted men exonerated by DNA evidence, the documentary After Innocence makes a reasonable case that compensation is due them.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Though Jessica Sanders' rambling documentary about the damaged lives of wrongfully imprisoned men would have made a better subject for an hour-long "Dateline" special, it's still a powerful indictment of a judicial system too anxious to close cases, and then close ranks when someone tries to reopen them.

Read Full Review >
60

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Taylor does her cause no real favors by trotting out only the most articulate, most clearly railroaded exonerees. It should be just as chilling to learn that even the shady get screwed.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ralphus J. gave it a9:
Bothered by Barry Scheck's role (he helped get O.J. off), but otherwise this is a nice piece of work.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use