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Operation Filmmaker
First Run/Icarus Films

Operation Filmmaker reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 69 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
N/A out of 10
based on 11 reviews
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based on 0 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Muthana Mohmed, Liev Schreiber, Elijah Wood, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

When Hollywood gives a young Iraqi film student the opportunity of a lifetime, nothing goes according to plan, and the result is an engaging, sometimes comical political parable about do-gooder intentions gone wrong. (First Run/Icarus Films)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
WRITTEN BY: Nina Davenport  
DIRECTED BY: Nina Davenport  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: June 4, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

83
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Operation Filmmaker takes a thrilling left turn from its original conceit, and Davenport does a nice job rolling with the punches.
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83
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The film's parallels between Mohmed's travails and the Iraq war are forced, but overall this is a fascinating odyssey that never plays out in ways you would expect.
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75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Operation Filmmaker is eventually about Muthana blackmailing Davenport by withholding access to him as she fruitlessly seeks a happy ending for her film. "Now, I'm just looking for an exit strategy," she finally concludes.
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75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
For all her own frustrations, Davenport is honest enough not to gloss over the fact that what Muthana's adventures in the screen trade taught him was to hustle, toady and ingratiate himself to useful people. And she helped.
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75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
This gut punch of a documentary will knock you for a loop. File it under "no good deed goes unpunished."
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75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
It spreads the punishment around, from the executive suites of Hollywood to the mean streets of Baghdad. Everyone here comes out smelling bad - that's why the film's so good.
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70
New York Magazine David Edelstein
Operation Filmmaker doesn't quite shake out as a microcosm of the American-Iraq relationship, although Davenport cheekily toys with the conceit. But the movie is endlessly resonant.
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60
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Although Ms. Davenport pushes the analogy between this modest rescue operation with America’s invasion of Iraq a bit too forcefully, she nonetheless makes her point with persuasive, touching candor.
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60
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A fable for our reality-TV reality, Nina Davenport's Operation Filmmaker is as much virus as video documentary. This essentially comic tale maps a contagion of mutual exploitation that seems to have burnished the careers of everyone involved.
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60
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Davenport herself seems stunned by how complicated the story turns out to be, which just makes her movie all the more worthwhile.
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60
Variety Eddie Cockrell
Picture raises pithy questions sure to provoke animated discussions pro and con. Credit Davenport for a mostly unbiased presentation that presents her own disenchantment in a balanced manner.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes
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