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The Cove
Metascore
84 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Justin Lowe
    100
    Shot rivetingly by cinematographer Brooke Aitken, who combines digital, night-vision and thermal-imaging formats into a formidable package, the footage is edited tautly by Geoffrey Richman and enhanced measurably by J. Ralph's suspenseful score.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    There are many documentaries angry about the human destruction of the planetary peace. This is one of the very best -- a certain Oscar nominee.
  3. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    100
    Not only does it deliver a powerful message, but it is wrapped in an immensely entertaining package.
  4. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Rick Kisonak
    100
    At once an astonishing feat of advocacy filmmaking and a white knuckle eco-thriller; think Michael Moore meets Michael Mann.
  5. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    100
    What's so remarkable about Louie Psihoyos' documentary The Cove isn't just that it's a powerful work of agitprop that's going to have you sending furious e-mails to the Japanese Embassy on your way out of the theater. That's definitely true, but the effectiveness of The Cove also comes from its explosive cinematic craft, its surprising good humor and its pure excitement.
  6. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    100
    The end of The Cove is as rousing as anything from Hollywood. Manipulative? Sure--but isn't that fitting? Capitalism has driven an entire village to massacre dolphins and keep its work hidden.
  7. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    100
    Eco-activist documentaries don't get much more compelling than The Cove, an impassioned piece of advocacy filmmaking that follows "Flipper" trainer-turned-marine crusader Richard O'Barry in his efforts to end dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    90
    The Cove is properly enchanting, horrifying, and rousing, but it comes dangerously close to making the narcissistic case that dolphins deserve to be saved because they're cute and breathe air like we do.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    90
    Like the director's cover story, the movie is a Trojan horse: an exceptionally well-made documentary that unfolds like a spy thriller, complete with bugged hotel rooms, clandestine derring-do and mysterious men in gray flannel suits.
  10. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    Two fins up for The Cove, a documentary that whales on evil Japanese fishermen who kill dolphins for lunch meat.
  11. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    88
    An eco-mentary that's as passionate and persuasive an argument for change as "An Inconvenient Truth."
  12. NPR
    Reviewed by: Bob Mondello
    85
    Psihoyos describes his troops as a kind of "Ocean's 11" team, and that's apt enough: He's making a real-life action caper, a heist with potential consequences in the real world. The buildup to getting the shots they want has a good deal of natural tension. And the payoff -- well, let's just say it's devastating.
  13. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    The Cove is the rare documentary specifically designed as a thriller.
  14. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    83
    It's an exemplary and incendiary instance of documentary filmmaking as real-world advocacy.
  15. Empire
    Reviewed by: Philip Wilding
    80
    A taut, thrilling documentary that plays out like a heist movie while never overshadowing its message or activist credentials.
  16. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    A powerful and effective piece of advocacy filmmaking, but it's difficult to watch it without thinking of subtitles like "The Place Where Evil Dwells" or "The Little Town With the Really Big Secret." Which is no accident.
  17. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    78
    The Cove exposes the dark secrets that underpin the world's dolphin mania, whether it's our enjoyment of the animals performing circus tricks in aquariums, the swimming-with-dolphins industry, or the government recruitment of the sea mammals' intelligence, communication, and sonar abilities for military applications.
  18. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    The Cove plays like a thriller. It has the breathless pace of a "Bourne" movie, but none of the comfort of fiction. This is documentary filmmaking at its most exciting and purposeful.
  19. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    The most horrific -- and heartbreaking -- scene of any movie thus far this year comes at the climax of The Cove.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    75
    The caper-movie touches and cocky self-awareness may wear thin, but you can't discount the importance, or the horror, of that footage.
  21. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    75
    The Oceanic Preservation Society doesn't change the world so much as call attention to something so very wrong with it. And in doing so, The Cove culminates with an image of political agitation that might be one of the most oddly effective public service announcements you'll see.
  22. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Michael Posner
    75
    Hopefully, after seeing this film, interest in places like Sea World will begin to decline.
  23. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    70
    The film makes its case graphically, to say the least, yet muddies its bloody waters with an excess of artifice and a dearth of facts.
  24. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Philip Kennicott
    70
    The slaughter is part of a traditional fishing culture, according to the Japanese. But if you succumb to the emotional appeal of this documentary, it emerges not just as a bloody and brutal business but almost as bad as genocide.
  25. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    70
    Directed by Louie Psihoyos, this well-intentioned documentary exposes the harvesting of dolphins by Japanese fishermen, yet its theatrics suggest a cross between reality TV and "Mission: Impossible."
  26. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    67
    The Cove's ultimate message gets muddled, especially since Psihoyos limits all counter-arguments to a few inarticulate or thuggish boobs.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 57 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 3 out of 15
  1. RyanGee
    7
    In a truthful manner, I am not an individual who situates his attention on animal rights and or cruelty. I am however, pliable to a well-done documentary that may or may not change my position on a controversial subject. The Cove is a 2009 documentary film directed by Louie Psihoyos, that documents the annual slaughter of dolphins in Wakayama Japan. A fraction of the movie plays like a common documentary film, interviewing prominent figures in the fishing business and presenting the audience facts and related correlations. While the remainder of the film is in the point of view of a crew trying to attain documentation of dolphin cruelty. Overall, the film succeeds in projecting its point, these water-dwelling mammals are under unbelievably considerable cruelty. The film is remarkably crafted and entirely deserves the Oscar that it received a few months back. Although it is effective, I believe that it had a lack of what could have made it even more effectual. The part that really triggered my pathos was the actual footage of the dolphin slaughter and the risks the crew took in capturing the film. The majority of the film focused on the facts, while the actual live filming, was in all actuality saved until the end. If more of the film focused on the latter portion, it would have been ideal. To conclude, The Cove is an effective documentary that is astonishingly done in a good matter, but I have a feeling that it could have been faintly better.… Full Review »
  2. TracyA
    3
    Gosh, just the film for scare hype to those ignant about fishing methods. Harpooning and polespearing are not that unusual for killing large fish. After all, the Japanese have been eating dolphins for centuries. What they kill can't be compared to the number (over 100,000 per year) killed or drowned by the fishing nets of our tuna fishermen. Many dolphins get entangled in old nets, floating freely and loosely in the seas. Besides, many near-shore dolphins and porpoises are exposed to pollution and toxins, making them sick.. just look at the growing reports of the large numbers of sick and dying bottlenose dolphins washed up on our East Coast! Fishermen, off northern Australia, have been using dolphin meat to bait sharks! Save your money and spend it on 'UNDER THE SEA.'… Full Review »
  3. TerenceS
    3
    Metacritic severely let me down on this one. The movie is pretty much propaganda, and not good journalism. I will give some credit to the person who cut and assembled the film. They did a good job with it, in giving it action and pace. However, the point of the film is to attempt to embarass and villify the Japanese. It's also very pious. The attempt to point to out and show the Japanese laughing at the Americans who care about dolphins, when those same Americans would laugh at an Indian crying over us slaughtering cows. There is no objectivism in the documentary here. Also, as Tracy A pointed out earlier, our pollution does far more to affect sea life as well.… Full Review »
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