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The Order of Myths
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
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  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    90
    Smartly edited, utterly engrossing, and as intelligent an examination of American race relations as I've seen.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    90
    An invaluable portrait of us-and-them America, a smart, generous, poignant, quietly disturbing movie about secrecy and hospitality, and how easy it is for a tradition of separateness to flourish when the stakes are as deceptively frivolous as an eye-popping yearly party.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    90
    Eschewing voice-over or any obvious trace of an on-screen or off-screen presence, she (Brown) lets her images, a little text and other people do the talking for her. Her quiet has its own force.
  4. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    88
    Margaret Brown's documentary is actually an examination of the racial divide in a city that claims there is none.
  5. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    83
    So The Order Of Myths' central question remains tantalizingly unanswered: When a society respects its old-growth trees so much that they let the roots crack the sidewalks, are they being noble or ignorant?
  6. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    Brown explores a potentially enraging subject--rigidly upheld racial segregation in the country's oldest Mardi Gras celebration, in Mobile, Alabama--but her touch is so unforced and her gaze so open that no one is bruised.
  7. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    78
    "They have their Mardi Gras; we have ours," the explanation goes on both sides, but everyone seems to realize it's just a rationalization aimed at covering over Mobile's docile perpetuation of segregation.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: James Greenberg
    70
    Exotic and thoughtful.
  9. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    70
    Moving and surprising documentary.
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov
    70
    Quietly shocking, The Order of Myths is a deft, engrossing cross-section of Mobile life, heavy on local color and insight.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Dan Kois
    70
    Gracefully explores Mobile's Mardi Gras celebrations and profiles the young people playing at royalty at these ceremonies' hearts.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    60
    Order of Myths looks good, and its characters are memorable. It's important to know that the "traditions" extolled by both sides of Mobile involve keeping people apart. But it's not clear at all that Brown is bringing them together.
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