Ailey
Elevation Pictures | Release Date: July 23, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJan 9, 2022
Film-maker Jamila Wignot pays particular attention to the specificity of Ailey’s black influences: the church, blues music and his southern upbringing, all of which informed his best-known work, Revelations (1960). Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJan 6, 2022
[A] moving and poetic documentary portrait. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 6, 2022
What emerges is Ailey’s lifelong seriousness and his vocational purpose in dance. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 19, 2021
In the film, we’re able to see Ailey during the Kennedy Center honors, watching intently as “Revelations” is performed; he looks like he’s carefully checking it, making sure it’s perfect, wondering if it could be better — the artist watching the art. You leave Ailey hoping that, somewhere, he’s watching still. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 6, 2021
It’s also worth remembering that someone as complex as Alvin Ailey isn’t going to be captured in any one film. Ailey is, therefore, best absorbed as an elegant, impressionistic primer, a chance to bask in his mastery of movement and dance, as framed by those near enough to him to know what it took out of him to gift it to the world. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleChris VognarAug 6, 2021
Ailey weds forthright interviews and archival footage of abstract beauty with those sweeping dance sequences to conjure a haunting portrait of what it means to be an artist — from the triumphs to the empty, lonely feeling that you’re never as good as you’re supposed to be. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 5, 2021
The impressionistic documentary Ailey communicates this visionary auteur’s comprehension of the art form: through his own words; through the words of others, most notably, his muse Judith Jamison and fellow choreographer Bill T. Jones; and, with great potency, film clips of archived performances (some of them original performances!) of his work. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnnabel AguiarAug 3, 2021
The film brings a more human understanding of a figure so noteworthy he has earned mononym status for the title. Though we only see him in still images and old performance videos in Ailey, he seems much closer. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeJul 29, 2021
Wignot handles details of the legend’s tumultuous biography with great care, honoring his talents while acknowledging the toll they took on him. But perhaps the greatest gift of this tightly conceived and beautiful doc lies in its appreciation of the divinity of dance. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloJul 26, 2021
It is an educational journey, an uncompromising look into the challenges of an artistic life, and a tribute to the man whose studio and dance company still bear his name. Read full review
90
The New York TimesGia KourlasJul 22, 2021
Like Ailey’s dances, the documentary leaves you swimming in sensation. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeJul 19, 2021
Not even Alvin Ailey’s peers can articulate the innovations and soulfulness of his choreography half as well as his work itself. Read full review
100
ObserverOliver JonesJun 20, 2021
For a movie that pulses with joyful expressiveness and brims with possibility, there is a tragic undertone to Ailey. Read full review
83
The Film StageDan MeccaJun 20, 2021
Ultimately, it’s the archived, audio recordings of Ailey that give the documentary its soul. Read full review
70
Film ThreatJosiah TealJun 20, 2021
For me, the relevance outweighs my enjoyment of Ailey, but this relevance bears a massive weight. Alvin Ailey has a fantastic story, but this might be a narrative that lends itself more to a bio-pic than a detail-oriented documentary. Read full review
83
IndieWireJude DryJun 20, 2021
As a personal portrait, “Ailey” is lacking for charming anecdotes or nuggets of wisdom from the artist himself. But a true artist speaks through his work, and it’s appropriate that the revelations in “Ailey” arrive via the dance scenes. Read full review
70
TheWrapCarlos AguilarJun 20, 2021
Caught between exalting the glory of his titanic accomplishments and their indelible mark on Black American culture, and figuring him out with only the available pieces of his intimate puzzle, Ailey does succeed at painting him as a complex figure. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 20, 2021
Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot, doesn’t always answer the questions you expect it to. It can be a tantalizing watch, but it’s a poetic and meditative documentary that often skimps on the nuts and bolts. Read full review
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