Bobby Fischer Against the World
Home Box Office (HBO) | Release Date: September 9, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 17, 2011
For those who love chess, Fischer will probably always be its premier player, a fact his mental illness cannot expunge. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevySep 15, 2011
The result is a gripping film about a subject almost too good to be true. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinSep 22, 2011
This expertly constructed film follows the curious and tragic life of the troubled chess icon as he went from child prodigy to global legend to paranoid recluse. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 8, 2011
Bobby Fischer Against the World does not traffic in easy explanations or medical diagnoses, but it leaves the strong impression of a continuity between the oddness Fischer displayed in early interviews and the mania so jarringly evident toward the end. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanSep 6, 2011
The sorry spectacle of the ranting codger never effaces the image of the boy concentrating his entire being over a chessboard. You have to love that kid and pity him. Read full review
80
EmpireNev PierceSep 6, 2011
A compelling look at the tragic and bizarre life of an enigmatic champion. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJames GreenbergSep 6, 2011
Liz Garbus' documentary tells the compelling and powerful story of the late chess prodigy. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveySep 6, 2011
Assembly is brisk and high-grade, allowing for the variable quality of archival materials. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 6, 2011
If this profile is marred slightly by thematic tidiness and a willingness to overglorify the champion's rise (Fischer didn't even write his best-seller, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess), it still supplies a cracked, conflicted genius trapped in his ceaseless endgame. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenSep 6, 2011
Beyond the knights and rooks, Bobby Fischer Against the World tells the story of a Jewish kid raised in Brooklyn who spent his final years in exile as a fulminating anti-Semite and a raving anti-American. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineArthur Ryel-LindseySep 6, 2011
Note the noticeable uptick in the cleverness of the on-screen graphics or fitfully remember the movie poster's tagline, "His Greatest Match Was in His Mind," and you'll belatedly come around to the jarring downshift into Fischer's latter-day paranoia and anti-Semitism. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneSep 6, 2011
Garbus' over-reliance on interviews that state rather than dramatize Fischer's excellence makes this a portrait that too often seems more overheard than inhabited. Read full review
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