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Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    100
    One of the year's most important documentaries, a real must-see.
  2. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    A riveting and impeccably researched documentary.
  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    90
    I can't imagine anyone not being both horrified and fascinated by Stanley Nelson's Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    This calm and thorough film has just the right attitude and tone to deal with a most incendiary story.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    Five people did escape, and they contribute their stories to the spellbinding documentary.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    88
    Nelson's film eschews sensationalism, and knowing how the story ends in no way diminishes its visceral impact.
  7. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    88
    A conventional but genuinely heartrending exposé of the Indiana boy who grew to be a powerful religious cult leader, director Stanley Nelson's thoroughly researched doc is not a posthumous character assassination, which would be all too easy and unnecessary.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    83
    While Jonestown lacks the power of revelation, it's a first-rate piece of journalism, as fascinating and thorough as any magazine article.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    80
    Through interviews with Jonestown survivors and rare footage of Jones himself, this sober documentary presents an unforgettable historical portrait.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    80
    An excellent documentary by MacArthur fellow Stanley Nelson (The Murder of Emmett Till), offers no grand theories for the Jonestown phenomenon.
  11. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    Nelson has fashioned a compelling movie around an unfathomable mystery. To see Jones's face, eyes hidden behind trademark aviator shades, is to experience the last shock in Psycho. His is the blank stare of living death.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    As this powerful, minutely documented film reveals, the tragedy wasn't caused by the failure of the Peoples Temple to realize its goals. In many ways, it was succeeding as a self-sufficient community.
  13. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    Meticulously researched documentary.
  14. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    Harrowing and inexorable, the film recaptures the progressive insanity of Jim Jones and the hundreds of worshipers in his thrall, and it certainly gives you willies to last for days.
  15. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Bill White
    75
    Stanley Nelson's documentary shows how a religion becomes a cult, and how people are deceived by an ideal.
  16. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    75
    Chilling doesn't begin to describe Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple...But the film never gets behind the chill.
  17. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    70
    Provides lethal evidence of what becomes of those who deposit their sincerity into the command of a religious lunatic.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    70
    PBS-bound docu constitutes a revealing look at a poorly understood chapter in American history.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    70
    It would be nice to report that director Stanley Nelson comes up with something new, some illumination, some revelation, some heretofore unglimpsed irony, but he doesn't.
  20. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    The Peoples Temple congregation was sizably African-American. But when it comes to how those followers turned into a zombie Kool-Aid death cult, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple leaves you with more questions than you went in with.
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