Whose Streets?
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 11, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 10, 2017
Although news reports presented police use of rubber bullets and tear gas as justifiable responses to increasingly volatile crowds, Whose Streets? offers a useful alternative view, with citizen journalists capturing what look like unprovoked attacks on demonstrators by law enforcement officers woefully unprepared or unwilling to de-escalate sensitive situations and engage. Read full review
100
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 25, 2017
Directors and activists Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’s outstanding and incendiary documentary about Ferguson does a tremendous end run around mainstream news outlets and the agenda-driven narratives that emerge, particularly on television. Read full review
91
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerAug 11, 2017
Whose Streets? humanizes Ferguson, but not for the benefit of skeptics. It’s a rallying cry for those who understand their pain and those driven by that same pain to affect real and lasting change. Read full review
91
IndieWireJude DryJan 25, 2017
Raw and unadorned, Whose Streets? is a documentary in the truest sense of the word; an actual moving document of events fresh in the country’s memory, but never before laid as bare as they are here. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 24, 2017
At its core, this movie is a piece of unflinching activism that forces you to look at something uncomfortable, something those of us in the cocoon would probably rather not see. But see it, you should. See it, you must. Read full review
88
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 17, 2017
Whether it's the "best" documentary of 2017 is a matter of opinion. But it is assuredly the most vital. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 11, 2017
This is a movie that doesn't merely tell a gripping, important story, but reminds us that the storyteller and the storytelling matter just as much. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 10, 2017
This is about the residents of Ferguson, who reacted to the killing of Michael Brown by galvanizing a movement on the streets of their town and via social media. They knew the whole world was watching, and they had seized the opportunity to tell their stories. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineClayton DillardAug 6, 2017
The film’s rhythmic editing contextualizes Ferguson’s streets for their relevance to a black populace’s want for stability and peace. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernAug 10, 2017
It’s stronger as a collection of Ferguson voices and figures, such as rapper Tef Poe, who quiets a crowd in one scene by warning, “You ain’t gonna outshoot [the police].” In moments like those, Whose Streets? is a tragic yet essential portrait of a community under siege. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAug 9, 2017
What this film is not, in any way, is comprehensive. Very intentionally, Folayan and company don’t concern themselves with the bigger picture. This is ground-level journalism. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkJan 25, 2017
The documentary combines first-rate storytelling and citizen journalism, providing a harrowing, ground-up look at those that are often denied agency or dismissed as troublemakers to be tear-gassed. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 31, 2017
Is Whose Streets? the only story we should see and hear about what went on in Ferguson and after? No. It’s by its nature incomplete, one side of the tale. What makes it important is that it is the side that too often goes ignored. But here, at least, no more. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenAug 11, 2017
Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis were among those on the front lines of the protests against police violence and their on-the-ground, from-the-heart documentary Whose Streets? communicates that urgency from the inside out — not as news story or social theory, but as communal experience and awakening. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 10, 2017
This is direct and frequently powerful filmmaking that doesn’t much care about meeting my aesthetic standards. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveyJan 25, 2017
Whose Streets? is not a movie intended for those seeking an explanatory recap, let alone “balanced” analysis, of the original case itself. What it does offer, however, is a pulse-taking of one community’s response — variably constructive, occasionally chaotic — to perceived institutionalized abuse by law enforcement. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 6, 2017
Whose Streets? gives us more than enough stories from people not often enough heard, and their refusal to remain silent is invigorating. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesJohn HartlAug 15, 2017
Whose Streets? marks the filmmaking debut of Folayan and Davis, and it’s charged by its personal touch. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonAug 9, 2017
Ultimately, Whose Streets? is timely not only because of its social message, but also because it fully embraces the cell phone footage and tweets that have been crucial tools in the Black Lives Matter and other movements. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 7, 2017
The scruffiness is intentional and the film has that conventional search for heroes and heroines — who to follow, single-out and build the movie around. But Whose Streets? also lets us see how citizens journey from outrage to action, from passivity to protest to influencing public policy, just by standing up and saying “Enough!” Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 14, 2017
Whose Streets? is rough around the edges, like a torn photograph whose borders have also been raggedly burned. But that's more a strength than a liability. Read full review
70
TheWrapRobert AbeleAug 10, 2017
Whose Streets? vitally offers — despite its birth in sorrow and its many war-zone-like stretches — is a tale of alertness and awakening. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 25, 2017
An emotionally charged account of the ongoing fight of the African-American community of Ferguson, Missouri, to be treated as equal citizens, the film, like the movement it documents, is stronger on impassioned conviction than organization. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 25, 2017
The film may be short on analysis, but it’s clear that systematic government failures at the local and state level have created a toxic climate, and Whose Streets? displays the seething emotions that resulted. Read full review
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