Best of Enemies
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 31, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 2, 2015
Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville’s masterful Best of Enemies leaves you with an overwhelming sense of despair. It’s not just a great documentary, it’s a vital one. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 31, 2015
I also wonder if the film’s central thesis – that the debates kicked off the subjective TV news slant we have today – is a bit oversold. If these debates had never happened, I think we would very likely still have exactly what we have today. Partisan hollering sells. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 1, 2015
For American viewers of an intellectual/historical persuasion, there could scarcely be any documentary more enticing, scintillating and downright fascinating than Best of Enemies. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 30, 2015
This deliciously feisty doc contextualizes their verbal brawls and the odd love-hate (mostly hate) rivalry between two men who seemed able to regard their own sense of heroism only through the other’s villainy. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 30, 2015
In giving historical context to the poisonous nature of our oft-bemoaned political discourse, "Best of Enemies" showcases brainy bloodsport with humor, nostalgia and, appropriately, a lacing of melancholy. Read full review
90
VarietyJoe LeydonFeb 1, 2015
Both fascinating as a glimpse at the not so distant past, and provocative as an account of what arguably was an early step in the decline of political discourse on television. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireJul 31, 2015
Provides a rich, extraordinarily fascinating account that’s sure to have many viewers’ minds constantly shuttling between then and now, noting how different certain things about politics and media were in that distant era, yet marveling at how directly those archaic realities led to many of our own. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 28, 2015
And the viewer is left with one inescapable conclusion. Conservatives further to the right than Buckley could ever have dreamed control Congress. And gays, like Vidal, can get married. They both won. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRob KempAug 19, 2015
Best of Enemies succeeds on utilitarian terms: it does what it’s supposed to. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJul 29, 2015
Alternately entertaining and unsettling documentary. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 13, 2015
[An] enormously entertaining documentary. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 6, 2015
Vidal vs. Buckley was pretty much a clown show. It was also total TV gold. Those two guys went viral when that adjective only referred to actual disease; they invented the YouTube clip decades before the Internet was even a gleam in Al Gore’s eye. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 30, 2015
A must-view film for our media-besotted age. Read full review
80
Time OutTom HuddlestonJul 29, 2015
Focusing on the personalities rather than the historical context, directors Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville illustrate how both men’s lives were changed by the debates, and how neither could let it go even decades later. The result is perhaps better suited to TV than the big screen, but it’s a timely, thoughtful piece of work. Read full review
80
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 28, 2015
It's fascinating. It's horrible. It's fascinatingly horrible. It's also, as Gladstone points out, a sterling example of the power that television, when it was still a "public square," could have. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonJul 21, 2015
Outstanding account of a pivotal moment in small-screen history. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 19, 2015
The details of what went down are fascinating, but the ultimate focus of Best of Enemies is television and this demonstration that it can be both eminently viewable and illuminating. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 13, 2015
Best of Enemies offers a bracing view of a pivotal time in our recent history, as Vietnam and race riots scarred a nation's soul, and as the Establishment and the Counter Culture exchanged epithets and blows. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJul 29, 2015
Best of Enemies illustrates how even literary swashbucklers can be reduced to schoolboy behavior. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 30, 2015
Is this chronicle of their combat an occasion for nostalgia or a cautionary tale? The film’s perfectly sensible, not entirely satisfying answer is “both.” Read full review
63
Slant MagazineClayton DillardJul 26, 2015
Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville reinforce the very circumstances they outwardly condemn. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 29, 2015
This terrific, full-meal chronicle of the men and their mouths lets us hear from them not only during debates, but also in subsequent interviews, memoirs and articles. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 3, 2015
For a better reckoning of 1968, you need a better writer — Norman Mailer, unloved by Buckley and Vidal alike, whose “Miami and the Siege of Chicago” covered the same events. Next to his fervid look at the sinews of power, as they sweat and flex, Best of Enemies is barely more than a skit. Read full review
50
TheWrapInkoo KangJul 30, 2015
The news is only important insofar as it helps us understand the world. Best of Enemies, though, is only interested in zooming in to gaze lingeringly at the media’s navel. Read full review
37
Washington PostMark JenkinsAug 6, 2015
Best of Enemies exists mainly as an occasion to replay the footage of Vidal’s smug taunt and Buckley’s seething response. It’s great television, but it has been available on YouTube for some time now. Read full review
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