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Protagonist
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 2 out of 16
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    Wu is able to demonstrate both the timelessness and the universality of stories which, on the surface, sound extreme and unique.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    If all this sounds awfully classroom-bound, it isn't -- far from it. Each man's story as he tells it is riveting, truly stranger than fiction, and awesome, too, in the way of unfathomable humans.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    80
    Although it takes a while for Yu's thesis to jell, the film makes a lasting impression as it delves into an unfashionable territory: character as fate rather than a function of pharmaceuticals.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeremy Mathews
    80
    The film becomes at once an argument for the accuracy of fictional conventions and for the power of true, personal experiences.
  5. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    A highly original and at times thrilling use of the documentary medium, and one of the most revealing films about the troubled nature of contemporary manhood I've ever seen.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    80
    Yu's film may be challenging to synopsize, but it's thoroughly engrossing and wildly surprising.
  7. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    80
    The dangers of extremism and the virtues of uncertainty are the keys to the remarkable Protagonist, docu helmer Jessica Yu's exploration of four men's journey through dysfunction, obsession and redemption.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    75
    At first, the technique seems gimmicky, but finally it's as compelling a perspective as any to understand how these men passed through agony to some sort of peace.
  9. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    75
    Amazingly, no one seems steeped in the salubrious self-explication of therapy. They just sound like very good storytellers.
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    70
    Yu's rousing, difficult-to-classify exercise in parallel storytelling is surprisingly accessible, and all the more insightful for it.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    Jessica Yu's enthralling documentary exploration of people with obsessive needs for control and self-mastery.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    67
    Offers four fairly interesting monologues, undercut by ominous music, stylistic frippery, and a structure that all but guarantees the audience will be able to predict where the stories will go.
  13. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    63
    All four stories are worthwhile, though together they're an awful lot for one modest doc to cover. Yu's integration of cinematic and theatrical elements is uneven, and a bit stiff.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    While Yu's experimental approach brings valuable insight to the human condition, the interviews themselves too rarely measure up to her ambitious structure.
  15. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    30
    Pretentious and overconceived, the movie purports to celebrate self-determination yet squashes it at every turn.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    25
    Unfortunately, it doesn't work. None of the talking heads is as interesting as Yu thinks they are; and it's difficult to build sympathy for any of them.
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