City of Ghosts
IFC Films | Release Date: July 7, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
CineVueMatthew AndersonAug 3, 2017
Benefiting from the matter-of-fact, unerring defiance exhibited by the group, Heineman is unflinching in representing the brutality perpetrated by ISIS as well as their own very savvy use of the media as a tool for recruitment and influence. Read full review
100
EmpireAndrew LowryJul 17, 2017
Verdict City Of Ghosts wears three hats with aplomb — a summation of the tragedy that’s befallen Syria, how horror can be resisted with just laptops, phones and courage, and the importance of shining a light into the darker corners of the world. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 13, 2017
City of Ghosts provides a grim reminder of what journalism should look like, and why its stakes are literally life and death. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJun 29, 2017
The doc, similar to the Oscar-winning The White Helmets but a subtler portrait of heroism, reveals accurate information as the first weapon of resistance. Read full review
100
The Seattle TimesBrent McKnightJun 29, 2017
Timely, pressing, important. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 29, 2017
Heineman’s film urges us not to take any horrors for granted. It is invaluable, as both moral instruction and documented history. Read full review
100
The GuardianCharlie PhillipsJan 28, 2017
The film is about more than simply personal loss and Heineman’s admiration of journalist activists. It’s a guide to the media war being fought between Isis’s video team and RBSS. Read full review
100
The PlaylistKatie WalshJan 26, 2017
Heineman has a unique ability to condense and explain complicated information and political events without straying from the deeply personal journeys of his subjects or relying on talking heads or text. Read full review
91
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJul 10, 2017
City of Ghosts is far less about the region’s troubled history than about the now, the daily abuses that continue to grow in severity as politics are talked elsewhere. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJul 5, 2017
There are many moving scenes in City Of Ghosts, but towards the end of the film one especially powerful sequence shows a RBSS member shaking uncontrollably as he thumbs through a stack of pictures of his friends, dead and alive. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 29, 2017
City of Ghosts shows us what journalism can do in the face of evil. Its message is haunting, humane, and ultimately hopeful. Read full review
91
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 1, 2017
There is life and death in every single frame of City of Ghosts, not to be easily forgotten. Read full review
90
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyJan 26, 2017
City of Ghosts shows us the power of media to bring the grim truth about life under ISIS to the world, even when under a death sentence. In keeping our eyes on Raqqa, it also reminds us of the limits of that power. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 26, 2017
Heineman offers up a double portrait of devastation, of a truly destroyed city and of partially decimated survivors, leaving the viewer with an empathetic sense of deep sorrow. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonAug 3, 2017
Director Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”) sticks with the group as it moves from strategy meetings to safe houses, documenting not only its political commitment but also intimate moments of reflection. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJul 19, 2017
This is a hard movie to watch, and even more painful to think about. Read full review
88
ObserverThelma AdamsJul 11, 2017
It achieves its humanity by connecting audiences to dynamic Muslim men who reveal so much about themselves in the silence between traumas, warmly greeting each other with affectionate kisses and hugs in sterile safe houses, or line-dancing in an upscale hotel room in a rare moment of triumph and release. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jul 27, 2017
You might have heard about ISIS using spiffy, Hollywood-style propaganda videos to attract new recruits, but City of Ghosts breaks down how nefarious and well-organized this operation is, as the members of RBSS point out the ways in which ISIS took clear production lessons from Hollywood to make their videos as attractive to impressionable youth as possible. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 27, 2017
City of Ghosts isn’t merely about the personal sacrifices of these men, but a testament to the necessity of a free and open press the world over. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 13, 2017
City of Ghosts demonstrates, in Hamoud’s phrase, that “the camera is more powerful than a weapon,” but it also shows the horrible price it extracts from those who wield it. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 13, 2017
Whether the truth sets anyone free is unknowable at this point, but the city that was being slaughtered silently has been heard, and its suffering has been seen. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 26, 2017
What City of Ghosts does best is to humanize those who’ve suffered most from the conflict in Syria, educating us through both outrage and compassion. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJul 26, 2017
There are few wins and more than enough sorrow to go around here. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJul 12, 2017
This is formidable filmmaking, and Heineman has become one of our most daring, and interesting, documentarians. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 10, 2017
It often feels like Heineman is (understandably) too overwhelmed by the stories he’s capturing to help shape them into something greater than the sum of their parts. But no other film has so convincingly, or so urgently, illustrated the role that media will play in our fight for the future. Read full review
75
TheWrapRobert AbeleJul 7, 2017
As information-age documents go, it’s as necessary a glimpse of 21st century heroism and ideology warfare as you’re going to encounter, and a brutally effective argument for compassion toward those forced from their homeland. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 7, 2017
City of Ghosts doesn’t feel like it has the impact of Heineman’s previous film, the searing “Cartel Land,” but it is still a worthwhile examination of the importance of an institution currently under siege around the world: journalism. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 7, 2017
“We punched a hole in the darkness,” they declare, and as the film is framed within a ceremony where their efforts are honored by the world’s journalists as the most significant reporting going on right now, you’d have to agree. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartJul 6, 2017
The least we can do is watch what they’ve risked their lives to show us — and help break the silence. Their story should be required viewing for anyone engaging in discussion of the refugee “problem.” Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJul 3, 2017
The director’s apparently frank and intimate relationships with the RBSS’s heroic journalists help sustain City of Ghosts‘s undeniable urgency, which culminates in a final image of appropriate, irresolvable anguish. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 6, 2017
More information and in-depth analysis, as well as greater restraint in the use of atrocity images, might have deepened a movie that leans on shortcuts and visual shocks. Read full review
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