| 91 |
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Powerfully explores the struggles faced by those whom DNA testing has exonerated after years behind bars.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
Jennifer Gonnerman
Both riveting and disturbing.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Calm, deliberate and devastating, Jessica Sanders's documentary After Innocence confirms many of the worst fears about weaknesses in the American criminal-justice system.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The moral purity of After Innocence is so overwhelming that it simply leaves you with nothing to say or do. It's kind of beyond criticism.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
What emerges from these stories is a picture of the fallibility of the system and the vulnerability of innocent citizens, whom even scientific evidence cannot protect from incompetence, ego and prejudice, and of the courage of the exonerated victims to make meaning of their tragedies.
|
| 80 |
Film Threat
Jeremy Mathews
Jessica Sanders has observed a collection of lives dramatically altered by a flawed legal system.
|
| 80 |
Variety
Scott Foundas
A powerfully affecting documentary.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
One of the powerful things about After Innocence is that, no matter what your position on punitive justice, you can't argue with the film's position.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
Marrit Ingman
There's also a little something smarmy about the interactions between the lawyers and their clients, all of whom are poor.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Gut-wrenching.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
After Innocence isn't bravura filmmaking, and it doesn't have to be -- this is one of those documentaries where the subject is compelling enough to do the legwork.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
The embittered men make fascinating subjects.
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
In her clear and compelling film, Sanders lets the innocents do the talking.
|
| 70 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Sheri Linden
Puts a human face on the failings of the American judicial system and the growing importance of DNA in legal proceedings.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Rousing, quietly outraged documentary.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Exploring the lives of several wrongly convicted men exonerated by DNA evidence, the documentary After Innocence makes a reasonable case that compensation is due them.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Though Jessica Sanders' rambling documentary about the damaged lives of wrongfully imprisoned men would have made a better subject for an hour-long "Dateline" special, it's still a powerful indictment of a judicial system too anxious to close cases, and then close ranks when someone tries to reopen them.
|
| 60 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Noel Murray
Taylor does her cause no real favors by trotting out only the most articulate, most clearly railroaded exonerees. It should be just as chilling to learn that even the shady get screwed.
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