Bush's Brain
Tartan | Release Date: August 27, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
The film is a damning look at a key Bush operative. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A skeptical view of George W. Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, using argumentative strategies common to agenda-driven documentaries. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
One of the better political documentaries flooding into theaters after "Fahrenheit 9/11" and before the election. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Potent if hardly evenhanded documentary. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMerle Bertrand
Full of enough legitimate red meat to incense salivating Democrats who can't wait to tear into a pound of Bush's flesh in November. Yet, this film should truly frighten partisans on both sides of the aisle. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
In a refreshing change of pace, this week's anti-Bush documentary, Bush's Brain, is not really about George W. Bush at all. It's about his senior political adviser, Karl Rove. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
A tad dry but never boring. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The film leaves any opponent of the current administration with a discouraging ambivalence: On one hand, one wants to vehemently decry such tactics in American politics. On the other, one wants to know where the hell is the Democrats' Karl Rove? Read full review
50
VarietyJoe Leydon
By turns darkly comical, seriously scary and purposefully incendiary, Bush's Brain may seem, depending on your politics, either a shamelessly one-sided assault on a popular U.S. president or a justifiably harsh critique of a politician who personifies the Peter Principle. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The campaign's latest scare doc takes its title, Bush's Brain, and much of its argument from the portrait of political operative and bogeyman Karl Rove published last year by a pair of Dallas newsmen. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Whether or not Bush's Brain makes its case against Mr. Rove, the movie leaves you with the sickening feeling that it's no longer possible in American politics to stay out of the gutter unless, of course, you want to lose. Dirty politics work. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The movie feels like a rush job and at times its tactics are as suspect as those attributed to its subject. But when it comes to political strategy trumping policy in the Bush White House, it makes its case. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The film basically follows Moore and Slater's book, but without the details that reveal the strange complexity of the Bush-Rove symbiosis. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
I’m not sure that depicting Rove as a demonic Wizard of Oz does much more than stir righteous indignation among the already indignant. A more pertinent and challenging mission would have been to show just how the public can be gulled by Rove's dirty tricks in the same ways again and again. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Only partially convincing. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Constructed out of poorly supported accusations, vague innuendo, and naked emotional appeals, Bush's Brain has a Rove-esque quality of its own. Read full review
40
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Introduces us to many who have known, worked and tangled with the man some call Bush's "co-president" during his multi-decade involvement in Republican politics. Read full review
40
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
They succeed in presenting a compelling series of dots, to use the current parlance, but they don't succeed in connecting them. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Even if the movie's only goal is to preach to the choir, its fondness for hyperbole and lack of discernment is more insult than rallying cry. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The movie, which feels as amateurish as a student film made for cable access, doesn't deliver the goods; the gotcha moment never comes. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Clearly the film is archly trying to connect the dots between Rove and the supreme mishandling of Iraq – and a compelling case might be made – but it isn't made here. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Distributors are clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel with this flimsy exposé of presidential adviser Karl Rove. Read full review
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