Knock Down the House
Netflix | Release Date: May 1, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 30, 2019
Director Lears and co-writer/editor Robin Blotnick had the benefit of knowing the outcomes when they put together the film, so it’s easy to understand why Ocasio-Cortez is the primary focus. But they do an excellent job of weaving in the stories of the three equally impressive candidates. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 1, 2019
Officially, Knock follows four progressive female candidates, though the one who inevitably dominates is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Bronx-bred waitress–turned–congressional unicorn. It’s a lot of fun to ride along on her wildly improbable rise, from slinging margaritas and scooping out ice buckets to taking down one of the most powerful Democrats in the House. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 30, 2019
Exuberant. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinFeb 1, 2019
Any way you slice it, and even if you're not entirely in agreement with the various subjects' positions on Medicare for all or the Green New Deal, this film is a winner by a landslide. Read full review
90
VarietyAmy NicholsonFeb 1, 2019
Knock Down the House has a clear political agenda. It wants to promote the hard work, courage and progressive policies of these women, who have all experienced financial hardship. Still, the film lets its subjects do the talking instead of cluttering things with statistics. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyFeb 7, 2019
Beyond Ocasio-Cortez and her magnetism, we may look back at Knock Down the House years from now as a nascent document of the beginnings of a groundswell in American politics. Read full review
83
The Film StageJake HowellFeb 1, 2019
Rachel Lears’ Knock Down the House is a fun, emotionally powerful, inspiring look at the incredible wave of would-be politicians that sought, in 2018, to challenge status quo Democrats and enact meaningful change. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 1, 2019
The fighting spirit of this female quartet blazes through every frame of this galvanizing film. “We did this without knowing shit,” says Vilela. That’s just a beginning. Way before the movie ends, you’ll feel their fire. Read full review
80
TheWrapTomris LafflyMay 1, 2019
Not unlike the candidates it portrays, Knock Down The House puts in the necessary work towards a payoff that earns both cheers and tears. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 30, 2019
It all comes together on election night, as Lears shadows Ocasio-Cortez and captures her disbelief as she nears her post-election party and suddenly realizes she has in fact won. It’s precisely the kind of you-are-there moment, one of many, that makes Knock Down the House so satisfying. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanFeb 1, 2019
Knock Down The House is far more effective when it is about the people and the process, not landing quips. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesMay 6, 2019
While it was a little disappointing to see the film relegate the other candidates to backup singers to Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s leading lady, that doesn’t make their contributions to the movement that elected her any less significant. Nor does it dull the emotional impact of her remarkable achievement. Read full review
75
Vanity FairSonia SaraiyaMay 2, 2019
Lears’s lens captures not just the candidates, but the volunteers—scrappy, seasoned canvassers and callers, smoking cigarettes in Nevada or crowding on porches in West Virginia. This is the process. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comNick AllenMay 1, 2019
Knock Down the House prevails with albeit straight-forward intentions: to amplify the women who are both mad as hell and doing something about it. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonApr 30, 2019
Their personal stories are just as interesting, and taken together, they add insight into our nation’s unusual political moment, equal parts instability and possibility. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownApr 26, 2019
Rachel Lears’s film is a rebuttal to the position that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's election victory was an incidental event in American politics. Read full review
75
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 1, 2019
Knock Down the House takes its viewers on the inside of a propulsive movement that’s changing by the moment, an energetic look inside history as its being made, even when the results aren’t always the ones that are so fervently hoped for. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMay 1, 2019
Knock Down the House is the rare documentary about today’s American political landscape that might make you shed happy tears. Read full review
63
Washington PostKristen Page-KirbyMay 1, 2019
If Knock Down the House was supposed to be about the 2018 surge of female candidates, it misses the mark by focusing too much on one of them. Read full review
60
The TelegraphHelen BrownMay 9, 2019
The relentlessly one-sided emotional manipulation is grating. Read full review
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