Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House

Entertainment WeeklySimon Vozick-Levinson

This doc fits her quippy recollections into 45 minutes, for a bite-size profile in tenacity.

Hollywood ReporterRay Richmond

Kennedy brings out her subject, and presents the evidence of her greatness, flawlessly in a film that you don't have to be a liberal like Thomas to enjoy. (But it probably helps.)

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

Thankfully, Thank You, Mr. President is less about Thomas' thorny relationship with the Bush administration than about her decades-long efforts to get power to speak truth, efforts she freely acknowledges ultimately had less effect on history than, say, the work of the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

Rory Kennedy’s sprightly 38-minute film is largely sympathetic to Thomas, who covered the filmmaker’s uncle, John F. Kennedy.

VarietyBrian Lowry

The relatively brief 40-minute duration, however, feels about right--enough to sprinkle tidbits about Thomas' interactions with Reagan, Nixon and Johnson without belaboring any of them, while giving the veteran scribe an opportunity to articulate her view of the reporter's role.

TV GuideMatt Roush

In the entertaining profile Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House, she offers candid reflections on covering presidents from JFK to Bush 2.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

Thank You, Mr. President is a quick profile of an imperfect but fascinating woman at the right hand of 20th century American history.

PopMattersCynthia Fuchs

Smart, charming, and brief (at 38 minutes), Thank You, Mr. President is also resonant.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

Impressive credentials and precisely the sort that calls out for a nice meaty documentary. So it comes as a shock that the film runs less than 40 minutes and is bafflingly slight.

Washington PostTom Shales

Thomas is an individual with strong opinions; it's too bad that Kennedy chose to tippy-toe around some of them.

Slant MagazineSal Cinquemani

There's nothing provocative about a documentary that, unlike its subject, refuses to ask tough questions or dig below the surface.

The New York TimesSusan Stewart

Ms. Kennedy, who conducted the interview at her mother’s Hickory Hill estate, doesn’t ask the kind of hard-hitting questions that her subject is known for and never brings up the more extreme statements Ms. Thomas has made since she left United Press International and became a columnist for Hearst in 2000.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

The fawning HBO documentary Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas At The White House, [is] the latest unfortunate example of the increasing tendency to confuse public temper tantrums with good journalism.