Control Room

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A riveting new documentary about the Arab-run Al Jazeera network, reminds us that news programming can vary so widely from place to place that journalistic myths of "objectivity" and "impartiality" seem more naive than ever.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's strong stuff.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

About the search for common ground, among journalists on all sides of the conflict and, through them, between viewers in America and the Arab world. Only within that common ground, Noujaim believes, can something like a workable, personal truth be found.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

One of the year’s most significant films.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Here's the sliver of hope: In contrast to everything we've been told, the people who run Al Jazeera turn out to be decent and level headed.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A surprising, puzzling and in many ways brilliant work.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

In the end, the greatest achievement of Control Room may be to simply remind us, as Americans, that in this age of mega-corporate U.S. news media there are other perspectives on world events besides those of Fox, CNN, MSNBC-ABCBS and whoever else feeds us our information.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Perception is key and Control Room should be required viewing for anyone within reach of a TV signal.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Control Room may not seem all that compelling 10 years down the road. But right now, at this very moment, it is essential, imperative viewing.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Control Room ends by acknowledging that independence, accuracy and even truth itself may be illusory.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Control Room is even more effective in showing the dilemma of the people who make up Al-Jazeera. In a sense, these are "our" Arabs, in that they're Western-educated, conduct their business in English and seem to believe in the basic American principles.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

May be most valuable for its depiction of the strength of democratic ideals, even in the most precarious and contradictory of circumstances.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

News management is the main issue. Control Room shows how coverage is tailored to fit the audience, both by al-Jazeera and its Western counterparts.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Think of Control Room as a through-the-looking-glass movie. Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, viewers of this remarkable documentary will be disconcerted by a glimpse of a world where everything is reversed.

TV Guide Ken Fox

If any film can be considered required viewing as the conflict in Iraq continues to drag on and be reported, surely this among them.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Whatever your opinions about the war, the conduct of the journalists who covered it and the role of Al Jazeera in that coverage, you are likely to emerge from Control Room touched, exhilarated and a little off-balance, with your certainties scrambled and your assumptions shaken.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Compelling docu about the independent Arab news service, Al Jazeera.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Remarkable and timely film.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

This absorbing, significant, and shamelessly entertaining movie not only goes through the looking glass but, no less significantly, turns the mirror back on us.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

If her (Noujaim's) movie teaches us anything, it's that no reality remains unspun.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Engrossing.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Control Room isn't a systematic dissection of Al Jazeera's possible biases regarding the U.S. or Israel; it's noted that Arabs almost invariably view the war with Iraq in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while Americans rarely do.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film's buried message is that there is a reservoir of admiration and affection for America, at least among the educated classes in the Arab world, and they do not equate the current administration with America.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Gripping footage about the controversial Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, which transmits news to 40 million Arabs. But the movie offers neither lucid analyses of the channel nor probing portraits of its journalists.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

More illuminating than not.

LA Weekly Brendan Bernhard

Memorable, if not fully satisfying, film.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Enlightening, if structurally relaxed documentary.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It puts us in the shoes of men and women for whom the war is not something distant and intangible but a bloodbath in their own back yard, which makes them the very definition of embedded journalists.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Shot during the March 2003 invasion and the early stages of the American occupation, it tells us more about how the channel decides what to report than we probably know about most American newscasts.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Scenes of dark humor abound as well, like the episode in which the gathered journalists react in fury when they are not provided with pictures of the infamous deck of playing cards depicting the "50 Most Wanted" Iraqi figures.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

There is no narrator; rather, we are invited to eavesdrop on--or to get an earful from--such figures as Hassan Ibrahim, a jovial reporter with Al Jazeera, and Samir Khader, one of the network’s senior producers. [24 May 2004, p. 97]

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Anxiety-provoking documentary.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

It is easy to point out gaps in Noujaim's account. (What, for instance, about the rebuilding that tries to go forward in Iraq?) But the prime importance of this film, I'd say, is that it is not an eye-opener. Of course this change in reporting, this bilateralism, has occurred so far only in wars where the U.S. was the overwhelming superior in force.